/ Better Living

Kitchen substitutions

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02:16 PM EDT on Tuesday, October 19, 2004

By Sherri Brennen, 13News

When you’re out of bread crumbs, add three-quarters of a cup of cracker crumbs for every cup of bread crumbs. For very fine crumbs, use a food processor.

Wendy Juren, WVEC-TV

Use crackers instead of bread crumbs.

When substituting dry herbs for fresh, use 1/3 to 1/2 of the dried herb for every tablespoon of fresh needed.

When baking, one egg can make all the difference. Use one teaspoon cornstarch plus a quarter cup of water for each egg called for.

Don’t discard egg yolks when you are just using the whites. Freeze yolks together in a small container. You can substitute two egg yolks each egg called for in recipes.

Fresh milk always seems to be running out. For every cup you need, mix either a ½ cup of evaporated milk with a half-cup of water or keep dry milk on hand and prepare according to package directions.

Wendy Juren, WVEC-TV

If you run out of an ingredient for a recipe, there are many alternatives already in your cupboard.

It’s hard to keep buttermilk on hand. For one cup buttermilk, substitute a cup plain yogurt or one cup sour milk. To make sour milk, mix four teaspoons of white vinegar or lemon juice with enough milk to make one cup. Then let the mixture sit for five minutes before using.

You can’t do without baking powder. In a pinch, for every teaspoon needed, mix 1/3-teaspoon baking soda and a half-teaspoon cream of tartar.

Replacing brown sugar is a snap. For every cup called for, mix one cup of regular granulated sugar and two tablespoons of molasses.

One cup of butter or margarine (two sticks) can be replaced with one cup of hard shortening or 7/8 of a cup of vegetable oil.

If you’re out of confectioners' sugar, use one cup of tightly-packed granulated sugar for every one and 3/4 sugar of confectioners' sugar.

Chocoholics can also rest easy. You can substitute three tablespoons of cocoa and one tablespoon of oil for every ounce of unsweetened chocolate needed in the recipe.

If you need semi-sweet chocolate, add four teaspoons of sugar to the mix for every ounce needed.

So there you have it, a few simple substitutions to help you spend more time in the kitchen and less time at the store.