Cake Recipes: Cooking

For many cooks, there are times when we do not have the proper ingredients on hand to make our desired dish. If you find yourself in this situation, don't despair, many common ingredients can be used to replace recipes standards, saving the cook a drive to the store. Here are some hints.

Milk

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A lot of recipes require milk. If you realize yourself out of milk or short on the amount necessary to finish a specific recipe, make sure you keep a supply of evaporated milk on hand. Evaporated milk or reconstituted milk can be kept for a long time and once mixed with water and many times a bit of butter, can easily taste just as good as regular milk.

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Baking Powder

If you do not have baking powder readily available, use baking soda and a dash of buttermilk. For a tablespoon of double acting baking powder, substitute 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda and a 1/2 cup of buttermilk.

Self Rising Flour

Self rising flour is easy to make from scratch, just combine one cup of all purpose flour with 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda, 1/4 teaspoon of salt and 1 teaspoon of baking powder.

Butter Milk

Out of butter milk? You can simply create your own. You can substitute 1 cup of butter milk with 1 cup whole milk and a tablespoon of vinegar. You can also substitute 1 cup of butter milk with 2/3 cup of plain yogurt and 1/3 cup whole milk.

Garlic

Ran out of garlic? Substitute garlic powder instead. About 1 clove of garlic equals 1/8 of a teaspoon of garlic powder.

Honey

You can easily replace honey with sugar and water. 1 cup of honey equals about 1 and 1/4 cup of sugar and a 1/4 cup of water.

Substituting Sugar

If you are short on sugar on hand or would like to replace it due to health issues, here are some hints to substitute sugar:

Sugar can be exchanged with with maple syrup, corn syrup, brown sugar, honey, stevia, and molasses. Although, some recipes will call for sugar or a granular sweetener and not syrup due to baking and texture requirements.

If you striving to decrease the amount of sugar you eat due to health issues, consider the many sweeteners, sometimes called sugar replacements at the supermarket. They include, Sweet and Low, Splenda, Equal, and plant based Stevia.

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All liver is a great source of iron and B vitamins and should be a regular part of a healthy diet and if cooked correctly liver can be delicious. Although liver does have bad press and many people will not even consider trying it. Sometimes it calls for the cook to be somewhat inventive to get people to try liver. There are many recipes to choose from and it is worth the experimentation.

The best liver is the liver from young animals as it is mildest and tenderest. Calf's liver is delicate and delicious but fairly expensive. Real calf's liver is paler in color than the redder more mature baby beef liver. For a mild flavored liver choose the palest that you can find. The darker the color the stronger the flavor.

Bakery

Take care when choosing liver as sometimes baby beef liver is labeled calf's liver in the supermarket or grocery store. To ensure purchasing true calf's liver buy from a butchers or a reputable gourmet supermarket.

Baby beef liver is stronger in flavor than calf's liver but is very good and preferable to actual beef liver. Liver from beef is dark red and the color corresponds to the strength of flavor. Beef liver is readily available but many believe it is too strong for simple preparations.

Some cooks after buying beef liver soak it in milk or a flavorful spicy marinade such as a white wine marinade before cooking to soften the intense flavor. After marinating throw the liquid away and pat the liver dry before cooking.

A lovely tender well-flavored liver is lamb liver but this is generally quite difficult to find.

Also hard to find is pigs liver, which is strong in, taste but extremely tender. Again for pig's liver it can be soaked or marinated like the beef liver.

When choosing liver it should be impeccably fresh with no slimy or dry patches and should have a clear scent.

Should you find yourself preparing a whole liver first wipe it with a damp cloth, then with a sharp knife remove any exposed veins, ducts or connective tissue. With your fingers peel away the thin outer membrane without tearing into the liver itself. You then just slice on the diagonal to the desired thickness your recipe calls for.

Of course presliced liver can be purchased and is actually more commonly available than whole livers. If the butcher has not done so remove the outer membrane on the slices.

Before cooking make 1/8th inch cuts at 1-inch intervals around the outside of the liver slice. The reason for this is because liver has a tendency to shrink and curl when it is cooked and these cuts will help to prevent that from happening.

The liver is now ready for cooking. Liver should be cooked until it is pink but firm in the center. If liver is overcooked or cooked on excessively high heat it will toughen.

Liver is a lot richer in flavor than many other types of meat so a 4-ounce serving should be ample as a main course for most appetites.

Cooking - Liver

Michael Russell Your Independent guide to Cooking