Ingredient Substitutions for Cooking and Baking

What to Do when You Don't Have the Necessary Ingredients

Nothing's worse than starting a cooking project only to find you don't have all the ingredients and must rush to the store. There are some ingredients that you can substitute for other ingredients to make a recipe turn out just fine, though. Below is a list of required ingredients and the items you can use as substitutions.


Arrowroot (1-1/2 tsp.) 1 T flour plus 1-1/2 tsp cornstarch

Baking powder (1 tsp) 1/3 tsp baking soda plus ½ tsp cream of tartar

Butter (1 cup) 7/8 C lard plus ½ tsp salt

Buttermilk (1 cup) 1 C plain yogurt
or 1 C milk plus 1 T white vinegar or lemon juice

Corn Syrup (1 C) 1-1/4 C light brown sugar plus a third cup of water

Heavy Cream (1 C) 3/4 C milk plus a third cup of margarine or butter

Light cream (1 C) 3/4 cup milk plus 3 T butter or margarine

All purpose Flour (1 C) ( for thickening) 1-1/2 tsp cornstarch

Garlic Salt (1 tsp) 1/8 tsp garlic powder plus 7/8 tsp salt

Honey (1 C) 1-1/4 C sugar plus 1/4 C water

Ketchup (1 C) 1 C tomato sauce, 1/4 C brown sugar, 2 T vinegar

Lemon juice (1 tsp) ½ tsp white vinegar

Skim milk ½ C evaporated milk plus a half cup water

Pumpkin pie spice ½ tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp ginger, 1/8 tsp all spice,
1/8 tsp nutmeg

Print this handy chart and put it in your kitchen so that you can easily find substitutions for various recipes. You'll save yourself a trip to the store and your recipe will turn out just as well.