Reader Tips for Cooking and Cleaning

Nothing’s more frustrating when cooking or baking than getting partway through a recipe and discovering that you’re lacking one ingredient. We’ve all been there. Thankfully, many ingredients have substitutions that don’t typically affect the flavor or texture of a recipe.
Here are a few substitutions for common ingredients that you may want to tuck away somewhere, just in case you find yourself in a pinch. And remember, when a substitution calls for liquid, you’ll need to decrease other liquids in the recipe by that same amount.

• 1 teaspoon baking powder: 1⁄4 teaspoon baking soda plus 1⁄2 teaspoon cream of tartar, or 1⁄4 teaspoon baking soda plus 1⁄2 cup buttermilk
• 1 cup cake flour: 1 cup all-purpose flour minus 2 tablespoons
• 1 cup vegetable oil, for baking: 1 cup applesauce, or 1 cup fruit puree
• 1 cup wine: 1 cup chicken or beef broth, or 1 cup fruit juice plus 2 teaspoons vinegar
• 1 cup buttermilk: 1 cup yogurt, or 1 tablespoon either lemon juice or vinegar in 1 cup milk
• 1 cup bread crumbs: 1 cup cracker crumbs, or 1 cup ground oats
• 1 cup heavy cream: 1 cup evaporated milk, or ¾ cup milk plus 3 tablespoons butter
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice: 1⁄2 teaspoon vinegar, or 1 teaspoon white wine, or 1 teaspoon lime juice

Lois Hoffman
Grit blogger

We live in a small, old house, and our electrical panel doesn’t allow us to have a water softener. Because of this, we end up with a lot of limescale on our faucets and bathtub. Commercial cleaners don’t work well, and they don’t smell nice at all. As an alternative, we use vinegar as a cleaning solution. Vinegar is readily available, and it’s inexpensive. Plus, the scent isn’t overpowering and doesn’t linger for hours after using it.

I cleaned out my coffee maker with white vinegar. I filled the reservoir with 4 cups of vinegar and then turned the coffee maker on. Once the vinegar ran through the machine, I ran two more pots of water through to rinse out the vinegar. Afterward, there was no more hissing and gurgling, and I didn’t have to wake up to no coffee.