Alternatives to Ingredients To Use In Your Recipes

 Have you ever had the problem where you didn't have the correct ingredients for the dish you are making? Rest assured that there is something you can use instead of the ingredient you don't have available. Here are few ingredients that can be substituted.

Allspice - Allspice is a mixture of different spices that can be used on chicken and other meat. A substitute for one teaspoon of Allspice is half a teaspoon of cinnamon, a quarter teaspoon of ginger and a quarter teaspoon of cloves.

Baking Powder - Baking powder is used in many confectionaries. To achieve one teaspoon of baking powder, mix a quarter teaspoon of baking soda with half a teaspoon of cream of tartar. Baking soda requires an acid to activate it to achieve the dish you are preparing. Baking powder already has the cream of tartar in.

Lemon Grass - this herb is used in many eastern dishes for a lemon flavour. Although, lemon grass is easy to find, however you may not have the time to go to the store to get this ingredient. An easy substitute is grating the zest of half a lemon.

Saffron - there are some recipes that require a pinch of saffron. Unfortunately, this spice is very expensive and not many people are willing to spend money on a spice for just one dish. A cheaper and easy substitute for a quarter teaspoon of saffron is using a quarter teaspoon of turmeric.

Cream of Tartar - cream of tartar is used to activate the baking soda. It is a type of acid that can be replaced with either lemon juice or vinegar. Use the same amount of the latter instead of the cream of tartar.

Sour Cream - it's difficult to find another dairy product with the similarity of sour cream. Plain yogurt is the best substitute to use when you are running low on sour cream. Both have gone through a similar process and can be used instead of the other.

Ghee - not many people are able to find ghee. The best substitute for ghee is to use the same amount of cooking oil or butter. The taste might differ slightly but the dish will still taste good.

Take into consideration that your dish might not taste the way it normally would if any of these ingredients is used instead of the required ingredients. But it can still give the recipe a good flavour twist.

The Difference Between Ghee and Cooking Oil

 You might come across a recipe that requires you to add ghee instead of oil. There isn't a big difference and you can substitute ghee with cooking oil if you prefer.

Ghee is a type of clarified butter that is prepared from cow's milk. Normally, the ghee is made by heating up the butter in a deep pan to avoid spilling. The butter is stirred slowly to avoid remixing the fat. The oil from the butter will eventually separate from the butter.

You will notice that when you cook with butter it will release froth once heated and melted. This froth will be strained so that none of the oil will be wasted and discarded. The leftover oil from the butter will turn into a pale yellow which will be strained to remove any remaining bits and then stored as what is known as ghee.

On the other hand, cooking oil is a neutral and non-polar chemical substance which means that it does not have an electric charge and will not conduct electricity if it is in such a situation. It is also a sticky or greasy liquid when it is exposed to regular temperatures.

The extraction process of oil is dependent on the type of fruit or seed it comes from. For instance, the sunflower seeds are compressed until the liquid gets released. It will also be refined to change the appearance so that it looks like the cooking oil on the shelves. Other cooking oil may also go through processes to change the taste and smell of it thus making it more appealing.

In some cuisines, the type of cooking oil used in the dish is very important. Flavour is important and chefs prefer to achieve unique textures and flavours that are native to their culture.

Ghee is lighter on the stomach because of the way it has been extracted from the butter. There are some people who struggle to digest food because of the viscous properties it may have. With ghee, a person does not have to worry about uncomfortable indigestion.

Cooking oil, however, has properties that can only come from fruits, vegetables and nuts. This means that there are other fats, such as trans fats, that your body needs to maintain a healthy immune system.

Those are the properties and differences between ghee and cooking oil. It is up to you as the chef to decide on which one is best suited to your recipe.