From Abalone to Zwieback, find 5,000 creative food and equipment substitutions among 1,500 individual entries in "The Food Substitutions Bible" by David Joachim.
No Alligator Meat?
We’ve all been in the position of needing a seemingly essential ingredient for a recipe, and floundering when we realize we don’t have it. Or we’ve wondered if we can get away with using an 8-inch baking pan instead of a 9-inch one, or whether we can use the same quantity of a substitute ingredient as the original. Fewer of us, I’m sure, have wondered what to use in place of alligator meat. Yet you’ll find the answer to this in "The Food Substitutions Bible" by David Joachim. You can solve your potential alligator-meat conundrum by using crocodile tail, turtle, swordfish, or, more prosaically, chicken.Many of the suggested food substitutions will not reproduce the precise flavor you wanted in the first place, but the idea is to offer a suitable alternative, more often more than one, and even to encourage some experimentation. Review continues below ...
Something for Everything
The scope of "The Food Substitutions Bible" is wide-ranging. There are plenty of ingredients I’m not familiar with, but if I ever need to know what I can use instead of Salsify or Jaggery, I know where to look. The point is, there’s something for everyone, from home cooks to professionals. With more than 5,000 substitutions for ingredients, equipment and cooking techniques, there’s very little, if anything, you won’t find in here. No double boiler? No problem: find five alternatives. Run out of confectioner’s sugar? Finely grind 1/2 cup plus 1 1/2 tbsps of granulated sugar, plus 3/4 tsp of cornstarch in a blender or food processor.Healthier Food Substitutions
Low fat cooks will be glad to know that lower fat options, or substitutions "for better health," are also offered for many ingredients, including butter, cream and various meats. Other useful tips for low fat cooking include oven frying instead of deep-frying, and using phyllo dough instead of regular pastry. There’s a handy table at the back that lists cooking oils and their characteristics, which is useful for finding out which oils have the most or least saturated fats, and the best ratios of monounsaturated fats to polyunsaturated fats.Substitutions within Foods
The back of the book contains many useful charts and tables, plus substitutions within the same food type, including olives, beans, mushrooms, potatoes, rice, noodles and chiles. In all likelihood, you probably don’t want to substitute a Habanero for a jalapeno. The chile chart will help you find a better match, unless you really want to ramp up the heat.Arranged in alphabetical order, "The Food Substitutions Bible" is easy to use, and would make a valuable addition to any kitchen bookshelf.
Published by Robert Rose (ISBN 0-7788-0119-5)
