Recipes are never done a hundred percent to the T, especially when it comes to being creative in a home kitchen. Whether it be you want to push the boundaries or you simply find yourself in an ingredient pinch, substitutions are bound to happen in cooking or baking. On the Reddit forum /rCooking, user bicduydw asked fellow members what about their automatic recipe substitutions.
1. Swapping Out Stock
“If it says use stock, I use Better Than Bouillon or cubes.” Another user confirmed the tip by saying “So much more convenient! I initially bought it because I didn’t have a car, so I tried to limit heavy liquids when grocery shopping, but even nowadays I still use it. Helps me control how much flavor I want, and it’s easier to keep and store in the fridge.”
Via: fusionsofwonder and iris-my-case/r/Cooking
2. Minus The Mayo
“Greek yogurt in place of sour cream or mayo.”
3. Cookies With Deep Caramel Flavor
“For any savory recipe that requires sugar, I use panela/ piloncillo. It’s unrefined and gives a rich caramel flavor that works really well with umami.” Since this sugar is hard to work with (it comes in thick brick-like chunks), another user suggested “I learned this bit from Rick Bayless… you can microwave it (big block for 30 secs) to soften it up enough to chop it with a knife/cleaver. Alternatively, you can use brown sugar plus a little molasses.”
Via: Realistic_Ad_9751 and blindfoldpeak/r/Cooking
4. Curtailing The Cilantro
To combat the unpleasant taste some get from cilantro, one user mentioned “Parsley, or some complementary green herb that is not cilantro in any recipe calling for cilantro, because I have the sweaty sock gene.”
Via: Amazing-Metal-8479/r/Cooking
5. Aromatics In The Fast Lane
“Garlic and ginger pastes instead of fresh, usually. The garlic is because of how time-consuming it is to fiddle with a head of garlic every night, but the ginger is because I just don’t like biting into hunks of it.”
Via: AprilStorms/r/Cooking
6. Pass On Pricey Pine Nuts
“Pepitas instead of pine nuts, particularly for pesto.”
7. Without The Wine
“Whenever I see “white wine” it’s automatically “apple juice”. Mainly for budget reasons, I’m not going to buy a bottle of wine just to put 1/4 cup in a recipe (unless it’s a special occasion where we can serve the rest of the bottle with the meal).”
Via: themapleteaspoon/r/Cooking
8. Garlic Without Limitations
“2 cloves of garlic = half a bulb of garlic. Love me some garlic.”
Via: nathan_eng42 /r/Cooking
9. Savory Salt Substitutes
“Miso instead of regular use salt for a lot of savory dishes. For long braises and stews I will often sub all the salt for smashed up fermented Chinese black beans. The umami kick they give can’t be beaten, especially for red meat dishes.”
Via: UnconquerableOak/r/Cook
10.For Deeper Caramel Flavor in Desserts
“Light brown sugar > dark brown sugar. Dark brown sugar > dark brown sugar and some extra molasses.”