Kitchen hacks
Most missing ingredients have a stand-in already in your kitchen. In a fan oven, bake about 20 °C lower than conventional.
What can I use instead of powdered sugar?
Blend granulated sugar. Add 1 dessert spoon of starch per glass. Sifted starch dusts a cake but adds no sweetness.
What can I use instead of granulated sugar?
Honey or molasses: use three quarters of the amount and cut a spoon of liquid. The taste changes.
What can I use instead of butter?
The same amount of oil works, the taste changes. Helva and pilaf want butter. Margarine is not the same.
What can I use instead of milk?
For 1 glass of milk: 3/4 glass yogurt plus 1/4 water. Water works in a dessert and thins it.
What can I use instead of egg?
In cake, 1 egg is 1 tablespoon yogurt plus 1 tablespoon starch. Nothing stands in for a foam.
What can I use instead of baking powder?
1 teaspoon baking powder: 1/4 teaspoon soda plus 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice or vinegar.
What can I use instead of vanilla sugar?
Half a vanilla bean, or grated lemon zest. One packet is 5 grams.
What can I use instead of dry yeast?
One 7 gram packet stands in for 20 grams fresh yeast. Dissolve fresh yeast in warm milk.
What can I use instead of tomato paste?
1 tablespoon paste: 1 ripe grated tomato, cooked until the juice goes. Tomato paste is not pepper paste.
What can I use instead of lemon juice?
Half as much wine vinegar. Citric acid is not the same: a pinch is enough, more turns bitter.
What can I use instead of yogurt?
Strained yogurt holds a liaison. Do not thin it with milk. Kefir is close and sourer.
What can I use instead of cream?
1 glass milk plus 2 tablespoons butter, warmed until it thickens. It will not whip.
What can I use instead of starch?
Cornmeal, one spoon extra. Flour thickens too and clouds a soup.
What can I use instead of semolina?
Fine bulgur partly works in helva and changes it. Flour does not.
What can I use instead of yufka?
Puff pastry works, the layers and butter differ. Lavash will not make börek.
What can I use instead of breadcrumbs?
Grate stale bread, or dry it and grind it. If it is salty, cut the salt in the köfte.
What can I use instead of parsley?
Spring-onion greens or dill. Mint does not stand in, it takes over.
What can I use instead of sumac?
A squeeze of lemon and a pinch of chili. Lemon alone is enough on onion.
What can I use instead of pomegranate molasses?
A spoon of grape molasses plus a few drops of lemon. Lemon alone is only sour.
What can I use instead of tahini?
Plain unsalted peanut butter. Tahini belongs in helva and hummus; the butter is close.
What can I use instead of pistachio?
Blanched almond or toasted hazelnut. Colour and oil change.
What can I use instead of walnut?
Hazelnut. Both work in figs and cake. Çiğ köfte wants walnut oil, not hazelnut.
What can I use instead of onion?
The white of a leek, or shallot. Onion water breaks köfte: grate it and squeeze.
What can I use instead of garlic?
1 clove is 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder. The powder is sharper.
What can I use instead of chili flakes?
Ground chili, half as much. Urfa chili is darker and milder, not the same measure.
What can I use instead of tomato?
1 tomato: 1 tablespoon paste plus 3 tablespoons water. Menemen wants fresh tomato.
What can I use instead of potato?
In soup, celeriac or carrot. Nothing fries in its place.
What can I use instead of rice?
Fine bulgur in soup. Pilaf wants baldo. Jasmine and semolina are other dishes.
What can I use instead of white cheese?
Salt some fresh curd. Kashar melts in börek, white cheese crumbles. They are not the same pie.
What can I use instead of minced meat?
Lentils and mushroom on a meatless plate. Lean mince falls apart: add a spoon of fat.
What can I use instead of chicken stock?
One cube plus hot water, or vegetable stock. The cube is salty: taste the salt at the end.
What can I use instead of vinegar?
The same amount of lemon juice. Pickles want grape vinegar. Apple vinegar is softer.
What can I use instead of olive oil?
Sunflower oil cooks and does not smell the same. Olive-oil dishes and salad want olive oil.
What can I use instead of clotted cream?
Strained yogurt, sourer. Dairy cream is a different thing.
What can I use instead of bay leaf?
A pinch of thyme, and it is stronger. Leaving it out is better than too much thyme.
Oven temperatures
| Conventional | Fan | °F | For |
|---|---|---|---|
| 140 °C | 120 °C | 285 °F | Drying, meringue |
| 160 °C | 140 °C | 320 °F | Syrup pastry |
| 170 °C | 150 °C | 340 °F | Cake |
| 180 °C | 160 °C | 350 °F | Börek, cookies |
| 190 °C | 170 °C | 375 °F | Bread |
| 200 °C | 180 °C | 390 °F | Pide, lahmacun |
| 220 °C | 200 °C | 430 °F | Char, pizza |