Ingredient Alternatives for Your Favorite Popular Recipes

Budget Eating

When cooking or baking in the kitchen there can be complications with some of the ingredients in the recipe. Some of the ingredients required can be expensive or might not be available for you to use. Luckily, there are many substitutions for common ingredients. Ingredient alternatives can be used in almost any popular recipe. Butter, oil, and milk can all be substituted in a recipe for other, less expensive, ingredients.

Alternative Ingredients

Butter vs. Margarine

Butter’s an ingredient in many cooking and baking recipes. Unfortunately, butter can be an expensive ingredient. However, margarine can take the place of butter in just about every recipe, except Mexican Wedding Cakes. Margarine’s not only a cheap alternative, but can be used in the exact same manner as butter. There’s no extra need for trying to convert measurements because if a recipe requires 3 tbs. of butter than all you need is 3 tbs. of margarine. A benefit of using margarine instead of butter is the ability for margarine to spread on food easier. There are some downsides of using margarine as well. The taste of margarine is not identical to butter. Butter has a much sweeter and creamier taste. When butter is melted it’s not as watery as margarine either.

To see a side-by-side comparison of margarine and butter, please check out Butter Vs. Margarine - Which is Healthier?

Milk vs. Powdered Milk

Milk’s another ingredient used in many popular recipes. Milk can be quite costly at times or can expire without notice. Powdered milk’s a great alternative to use instead of regular cows milk. Although a can of powdered milk can seem expensive, it can actually be cheaper in the long run, especially if you only use it for cooking. Powdered milk is used by combining equal amounts of the powder and water. Powdered milk can be substituted into any recipe that has milk as a requirement, without any noticeably difference taste. Although it tastes well in cooking, powdered milk doesn’t taste the same for drinking. Powered milk, plain or mixed with flavoring, maintains a powdery taste.

Oil vs. Applesauce

Oil’s a common ingredient in many baking recipes, but can come at a cost if you use a lot of it. There’s a little known alternative for oil use, which is applesauce. Applesauce can be used as an ingredient alternative to oil in all popular baking recipes. When baking with applesauce, it’s used as the same measurement as the oil. There isn’t a noticeable taste difference with the applesauce but the baked goods may not rise as high as with the oil. If applesauce is used to bake cookies it is a good idea to grease the baking sheet before baking the cookies so they do not stick.

Fresh Products vs. Dried Products

Many recipes recommend using fresh ingredient such as herbs, onions, and garlic when cooking. But buying all those fresh ingredients can really add up in cost. A cheap alternative to fresh ingredients is to buy dried ingredients. Dried onions, herbs, and garlic not only produce the same great taste as fresh ingredients but they are extremely convenient as well. The measurements for using dried products in place of fresh products vary depending on the ingredient.

There are many other ingredient alternatives that can be used in cooking and baking that can save money and create convenience. E-cookbooks.net has more alternative ingredients that can be used in baking and cooking.

Photo:

“Hunter Pastry” By Ilco Stock.xchng