Substitutes For Food Ingredients In A Pinch - Recipes

This article is about stuff that you may have on hand to substitute for something you are missing.

Sour Cream Substitute for sauces:

1 cup condensed milk, add one tablespoon vinegar or lemon juice, let stand 5 minutes. I like mine a little more sour so I add 2 tablespoons per 12 oz can.

FYI: 1 cup milk to one tablespoon vinegar or lemon juice will give a buttermilk substitute.

1 Egg Substitute

I want cookies and am out of eggs!

I've heard a bunch of straight substitutes like mayo, apple sauce, banana's all of which I think would change the flavor too much.

However, I use this straight out of my preps all the time.

1 1/2 tablespoon veg oil 

1 1/2 tablespoon water 

2 teaspoons baking powder

It works in a pinch. Would rather have the egg, but sometimes you get the urge for cookies at 10 o'clock at night and the chickens all flew the coop.

An important one to learn for people who store Long Term is that baking powder has a short shelf life, 18 month tops! Now you need to learn to make your own baking powder. Never fear, it is easy and from ingredients that have a shelf life of forever.

2 teaspoons of cream of tartar 

1 teaspoon of baking soda 

1 teaspoon of cornstarch (optional)

You do not need the cornstarch if you are using it immediately, only if you are going to be making enough to last for a month or more. It is used to keep your baking powder from reacting to any moisture in the air thus making it useless.

If you are making it to store, make sure you keep it in an airtight container even with the cornstarch!

During rationing in WW2 there was a lot of food substitution going on to try and make the rations last the week. They included:

- mashed potato for flour 

- sour milk for cheese 

- grated vegetables in place of fruit (anyone for Apricot Tart, er no hang on I mean Grated Carrot & Plum Jam Tart!!!) 

- whipped margarine with vanilla instead of cream 

- breadcrumbs instead of flour for steamed/boiled puddings etc

I've done this before and it works perfectly. Now instead of purchasing boxes or bags from the grocery that always end up sitting in my pantry for ages I just whip up what I need when I need it.

Homemade Powdered Sugar

1 cup sugar 

1 tablespoon cornstarch

Whiz in food processor or blender until powdered.

Flour Substitution

Not really a substitution but more of a how to make a small batch quick and easy.

I had a recipe calling for oat flour and I knew there had to be an easy way to make oat flour rather than break out my wheat grinder which I hear won't really work all that well on oats.

So I had to break down and call my homesteading mom (not my real mom but as my best friends mom she really is like one, she also has taken homesteading to the professional level by having 2 greenhouses a huge garden and actually turned her garage into a farmers market /store)

As simple as it sounds (why didn't I think of it) using one cup at a time pour old fashioned oats (not quick) or steel cut oats into a blender using pulse until it is flour consistency.