Cooking For Engineers

[ChocolateNinja]

Foodsubs.com has a good list of substitutions for almost every ingredient you can imagine, in case you can't find it on the list.

[saab]

apple sauce/fruit purees are a good substitute for oil/butter, but sometimes it leaves the product a bit tougher. if so, try substituting it as 1:1, then adding 1-2 tbs. of oil for pre-packaged mixes. yogurt/ sourcream is also a good susbtitute for oil/butter. also using milk/buttermilk/fruit juices instead of water to make the end product richer and compensate for the high sugar content in most prepared mixes.
A few misses/hits are part of the ingredient substitution learning process.

[mdb713]

I was looking for info about using self-rising flour in pastry rather than the other way around. Somehow I accidentally purchased a large bag of self-rising flour and need to make pie. Hopefully it won't be a problem.
Does anyone know if baking powder will have a negative effect??

[Dilbert]

>>negative effect

most likely not. "classic" pie doughs use AP with no baking powder but there are recipes cited as "tender and flaky" that do include baking powder.

of course, you don't find many non-baking powder recipes labeled "hard and tough" but I'd give the self rising a go.

[Techs Arcana]

One can also substitute moistened soyflour for egg where the egg is being used as a binding agent (such as pancakes or meatloaf)

1 medium egg can be replaced with 2 tablespoons soyflour mixed with just enough water to make a thin batter. Use 3 tablespoons for a large egg. Mix this egg-substitute first, and then add it to your recipe.

PS just love your CAPTCHA - not only tells if you are human, also screens for engineers.

[Streetcat]

Your table shows that flour can be used instead of cornstarch, when the latter is needed for thickening. But i wanna use this recipe, which calls for both flour and cornstarch to be mixed. So i figure just using more flour wouldn't solve it in this case, right? {I mean, if it did, they wouldn't just add an extra ingredient, i think}

So, what's the starch's purpose in this case, if the flour already does the thickening? More importantly, can i use potato starch, or anything else, in its instead? If so - what would the proportion be?

[Dilbert]

Streetcat -

that recipe uses the cornstarch in coating the apples - not mixed with the flour.

the flour is used to make the "crumble" part

cornstarch is frequently used in fruit pies/cobblers/etc to thicken juices that exit the fruit during baking.

[Michael Chu]

In addition, different starches (flour, corn, potato, arrowroot, etc.) thicken differently. A recipe may call for a particular starch to attain a particular texture and/or visual appearance, etc. Remember, because something can be substituted doesn't mean it is the same as - it's only for when you can't get the other ingredient and need some way to salvage or approximate.

[Rational Debate]

I have a good bit of leftover al(oh)3 from use for a cat that had chronic renal disease.

Ran out of baking powder, don't have cream of tartar (what, chemically, IS cream of tartar anyhow?) - and couldn't help but wonder if the Al(OH)3 could substitute (plus some baking soda I'd assume)? And, of course, if so, how much?

Hoping some of you chem/engineering guru's happen to see this and either know or can figure it out!

p.s., on your "captcha" anti-spam effort - most if not all of these require the user's computer to accept cookies to work. If you're like me, and you've set the computer to refuse all cookies, this can be disconcerting until one figures it out the hard way. You'd be doing your users a favor if you add a note that one must accept cookies for the anti-spam verification to work.