review: The Food Substitutions Bible

One of my favourite and most used books in my vast cookbook collection is The Food Substitutions Bible , by David Joachim. This practicle book provides substitutions for just about any ingredient, which makes it an invaluable resource if you are in the middle of cooking a dish and realise that you are out of something. 

For example, say you are about to ice a cake and discover that you don’t have any icing sugar. The Food Substitutions Bible suggests for each cup of icing sugar you substitute with 1/2 cup white or caster sugar plus 3/4 teaspoon cornflour finely ground in a food processor or blender.

The book is also useful if you are following a special diet or entertaining guests with dietary restrictions that may prohibit the use of various foods. A few weeks ago my husband was following a special diet that did not allow sugar, but honey was ok (he also couldn’t have wheat!) I wanted to make a cake that we could both enjoy, so I pulled out my recipe for Orange Almond Cake, and used The Food Substitutions Bible to work out how to substitute honey for sugar when baking. The book advises that 250ml sugar should be substituted with 215 ml honey, and the oven temperature has to be reduced by 15 degrees. The cake was a big success and just as delicious had I used sugar.

Another great thing about this book is that it provides a description of each ingredient and lists other names the ingredient may be known by (which may vary depending on which country you’re from). For example, icing sugar (as we call it in Australia) is known as confectioner’s sugar in the US. I find this very useful when I am using a recipe that comes from a country other than Australia.

The Food Substitutions Bible also includes substitutions for equipment and cooking techniques, handy reference charts and converstion tables.