Tips for Substitutions

Tips for easy substitutions and alternatives

Sugar

Most of the granulated sugar in our diets and foods come from Minnesotan sugar beets at the closest, and more likely is from Brazil or Central America.  Honey, however, is locally available and makes a great alternative sweetener.  For baking, use 1 cup honey for 1 cup sugar, but use 1/4 cup of liquid in the recipe due to the water contained in the honey.

Cooking oils

Cooking fats like olive oil and butter are common ingredients for sautéing.  However, commercial butter is not, to the best of our knowledge, available within our foodshed.  Hazelnut oil is available, but cooks should keep in mind that nut oils have a lower smoke point and are better used for low- to medium-heat cooking.  Hazelnut oil is quite useful for baking and substitutes very well for other oils and fats. 

Flours

Commercial wheat flour is difficult to find in our foodshed, but nut flours like hazelnut flour can be used, especially for baking, when a recipe calls for flour.  The substitution can be made one for one.  Note that this works best for pastry crusts and when recipes call only for a small amount of flour.

Cheese

Our foodshed is blessed to have numerous small-scale cheese producers, so finding local cheeses for your recipes should be no trouble at all.  When parmesan is called for, substitute Montasio, a hard cheese from northeastern Italy (available from Samish Bay Cheese and possibly others), or Mutschli, a Swiss-style cheese made by Pleasant Valley Dairy.  Beyond your local grocery store, one terrific source for local goat and cow cheeses is Slough Food in Edison, WA.  For other types of cheese, ask your grocer what they would recommend your using.