How To Make Substitutions When You Find You Are Out of Baking Supplies

I was recently watching Alton Brown on the Food Network one evening before bed last week and he was doing a substitutions show. You know what to substitute if you are in the middle of baking or cooking something and realize you are missing a key ingredient. Well I was pretty tired and almost drifting off to la la land but I did manage to hear him say if you are out of baking powder you can substitute it with baking soda and cream of tartar. So I jotted that down on a piece of paper and fell asleep.

The next day when I woke up and saw what I had written down I decided to do a little more research and to get the proper measurements here is what I found.

The exact measurement of this combination would be ½ tsp baking soda + ½ tsp. cream of tartar would equal tsp. of baking powder.

But what if it was baking soda you were out of?

Well to make that you would use 1 teaspoon baking powder and 1 teaspoon buttermilk to equal just ½ teaspoon of baking soda. This is because baking soda is stronger than baking powder. Now the chances of someone having buttermilk on hand and no baking soda seems kind of odd to me, luckily for me I always have baking soda on hand not just for baking but for cleaning, so this is probably not a problem I am ever going to run in to, but if you find yourself without baking soda and buttermilk, simply add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice to 1 cup of milk and allow it to do its thing for 5 minutes. Then you will have a substitute for butter milk.

By the way as a substitution for lemon use equal parts of cider vinegar and water mixed together, of course you won’t have the same flavor but it will provide the acidity you will need. Of course lime juice is a better and more closely tasting substitute, and 3 tablespoons of bottled lemon juice are equal to the amount of juice in one lemon.

Comments (6)

donata said:

	... Very interesting article! I learned something new today. Thanks for sharing what you learned. BTW, I watch Alton Brown also. I keep my channel tuned to HGTV and the cooking net work. 5*****
	report abuse vote down vote up

January 17, 2010
Votes: +0

kasaween19 said:

	... It never would have occured to me that you could substitute those ingredients! I would have run to the store!
	report abuse vote down vote up

April 25, 2010
Votes: +0

hummingbirdee said:

	... It is so frustrating when you start cooking and realize you are out of something. I keep a copy of substitutions around. I've also used the buttermilk substitution on numerous occasions.
	report abuse vote down vote up

April 30, 2010
Votes: +0

jswana said:

	... You're a mighty smart cook, let me tell you. Great ways to make substitutions. I'm always out of something unless I go to get specific things! Thanks.
	report abuse vote down vote up

February 20, 2011
Votes: +0

Darin Waugh said:

	... Good info, you made some great suggestions!
	report abuse vote down vote up

May 25, 2012
Votes: +0

velvet53 said:

	... Great and interesting article.
	report abuse vote down vote up

May 25, 2012
Votes: +0