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Baking Powder: A leavening
ingredient that makes a mixture expand or rise by releasing
harmless carbon dioxide bubbles (To avoid a metallic aftertaste
to your baked goods, use an aluminum-free baking powder, suck as
Rumford Baking Powder.)
Baking Soda: A leavening that works
in the presence of acidic ingredients
Cheeses:
Natural cheese: An unblended product
that results from solidifying an aging milk curd
Process cheese: Natural cheese that
has been reconstituted to stop the aging process, allowing it a
longer shelf life; a softer cheese than most natural cheese
Fresh cheese: Natural cheese made
from milk curd, but not aged, such as cottage cheese, ricotta,
and cream cheese
Chocolates
Baking cocoa: A powder made from the
pure "liquor" of the cocoa bean that contains no cocoa butter,
sweetener, or other products
Unsweetened baking chocolate:
contains butter but no sweetener
Bittersweet, semisweet, sweet, and
milk chocolate: Has butter, sweetener, and sometimes milk
added to the cocoa butter
Cornstarch: A thickener made from
corn, which results in a clear sauce; it only takes half as much
cornstarch as flour to achieve the same amount of thickening.
Always first blend cornstarch with a cold liquid before you
add it to a hot sauce; otherwise, you'll get lumps.
Cream of Tartar: A byproduct of
winemaking primariliy used to add stability to candies,
frostings, and egg whites
Fats and Oils:
Butter: A saturated fat made from
cream. Unless otherwise specified, recipes call for unsalted
butter in sticks. (Whipped butter cannot be substituted in
recipes because its volume has been increased with air.)
Margarine: None of the recipes on
this Web site use margarine. The fat content can vary in
margarine, which will result in different cooking results
(because more water has been emulsified into the product).
Consult with your dietician to see if you should substitute
margarine for butter.
Shortening: A vegetable oil that
remains solid at room temperature. Use sparingly because
shortening contains trans fats because of the partially
hydrogenated vegetable oils.
Lard: Shortening made from pork fat.
Oils: Fats from nuts, seeds, or
vegetables that remain liquid at room temperature
Flours:
All-Purpose Flour: A blend of hard
and soft wheats that can be used for all general cooking and
baking. It is usually enriched with vitamins but has no wheat
bran or germ. Bleached and unbleached flour are interchangeable.
Bread Flour: a high-gluten flour
that absorbs more liquid; the gluten-producing proteins give
dough its structure and elasticity.
Cake Flour: low-gluten flour used
for lighter cakes and pastries
Graham Flour: includes the bran and
germ, so a flour that is higher in fiber
Pasta Flour: usually semolina flour,
or can be soft wheat flour
Potato Flour: flour made from
potatoes, often used as a thickener in this cookbook because it
isn't necessary to bring the liquid being thickened to a boil
for the thickening to take place
Whole-Wheat Flour: flour made from
the entire wheat kernel so it includes the bran and germ, and is
high in fiber; it results in a baked product that is denser and
flatter with a nuttier taste. Commercial whole-wheat flour can
be substituted for up to half of the all-purpose flour called
for in a recipe. (If
you grind your own flour, the flavor is mild enough that you
can use all whole wheat flour and still end up with a "white
bread"-similar flavor. Just be sure to store leftover flour in
the freezer or refrigerator; this keeps that fresh mild flavor
intact because it prevents the oils in the bran from going
rancid. Now that I grind my own flour, I use whole wheat flour
to thicken gravy, to make breading for fried foods, and in
baking.)
Oat bran is an excellent way to add fiber to a recipe calling
for all-purpose flour. You can substitute up to half of the
flour with oat bran -- although it's usually best to limit the
amount to one fourth. This will result in a denser product, but
it will also be one that's much healthier; it will have a bit
sweeter, nuttier flavor than one made with all flour.
Mayonnaise and Salad Dressing: These
dressings are made primarily from eggs and vinegar. Salad
dressing has fewer egg yolks and is lower in fat than
mayonnaise; however it should not be used in cooked recipes
because it will separate at high temperatures. Mayonnaise and
salad dressing (like Kraft Miracle Whip) can be used
interchangeably in cold dishes.
Reduced calorie and fat varieties of mayonnaise and salad
dressings are available; however, carefully check the labels
because many are higher in sodium and may have added sugar.
Recipes on this Web site use regular mayonnaise (specifically,
Hellmann's Real Mayonnaise) unless specified otherwise. Adjust
the Exchange Approximations of those recipes if your dietician
recommends that you use a different product.
Buttermilk, despite its name, most
commercial buttermilk is a low-fat milk that is cultured with
lactic acid to give it a tangy flavor and thicken it.
Sugars and Sweeteners
Artificial Sweeteners and Synthetic
Sugars: These products differ greatly in how they can be
used in recipes. (Some react to heat and lose their sweetening
properties, for example.) Consult with your dietician to see
whether or not you should substitute one of these products for
sugar called for in the recipes on this Web site.
Brown sugar: Most commercial
versions of this product are now made by adding molasses to
granulated sugar.
Confectioner's or Powdered Sugar:
Pulverized granulated sugar, usually used in icing
Granulated Sugar: Also known as
standard white sugar, this is sugar made from sugar cane or
sugar beets. When a recipe only specifies sugar, the use of
granulated sugar is assumed. (Unless stated otherwise, on this
site only cane sugar was used in recipes that call for
sugar.)
Honey: Twice as sweet as sugar, if
this sweetener is substituted for sugar, other adjustments
usually need to be made to the recipe. Using honey results in a
denser product.
Honey and most other liquid sweeteners, if well covered, will
keep indefinitely. If honey becomes crystallized, set it in a
pan of hot water to "melt" it into liquid form again. It can
also be liquefied by heating in the microwave on high at
10-second intervals. Unless the recipe specifies that you do so,
do not allow honey to reach the boiling temperature because
boiling alters the flavor.
Molasses: a sweetener made from cane
sugar. (Blackstrap molasses contains almost no sugar and
therefore is not used as a sweetener.)
Raw Sugar: Produced when molasses is
removed from sugar cane
Stevia: A small green plant bearing
leaves from which various forms of this sweetener are extracted;
the leaves are said to be 30 times sweeter than sugar. Available
in granulated, drops, and other types.
Syrup: thick liquid sweetener, such
as that made from corn (light and dark corn syrup), maple sap
(maple syrup), etc.
Whey Low™, Type D: A a proprietary
blend of two all-natural sugars from VivaLac™ Inc. (www.wheylow.com)
that has 75% fewer calories than sugar and about 20% of the
glycemic index of glucose. (In other words, cane sugar has 16
calories per teaspoon and a glycemic index of 100, while Whey
Low™, Type D has 4 calories and a glycemic index of 20. The
glycemic index is an indication of how quickly a food converts
to sugar in the blood stream.)
Tapioca: Used as a thickener,
tapioca is especially good for foods that will be frozen because
it reheats well. For thickening, use plain, quick cooking pearl
tapioca or tapioca flour, not the pudding mix.
Tomatoes: Roma, plum, or Italian
tomatoes are the best varieties for cooking because they have
more pulp and fewer seeds than slicing tomatoes.
If you have mold allergies, use caution so that you don't
inhale the initial blast of fumes when you add vinegar to a
recipe.
Vinegar is an acidic condiment and
preservative; if a recipe doesn't specify the type of vinegar to
use, cider vinegar (which is made from apple cider) is the
assumed choice; unless a recipe advises otherwise, cider vinegar
can be substituted for other types of vinegar.
Other vinegars include:
Balsamic Vinegar: made from grapes,
this vinegar is darker and more strongly flavored than cider
vinegar
Red Wine Vinegar: made from red wine
Rice Wine Vinegar: made from rice
wine
White Vinegar: made from grain
alcohol, and one that I do not use in recipes; substituting
cider vinegar will change the flavor and add color to the food,
so consider substituting white wine vinegar in recipes that call
for white vinegar (Note that the acidity level will differ, so
be sure to check if that will affect food storage.) White wine
vinegar is great, however, for washing windows -- and for
removing grease residue left in plastic dishes.
White Wine Vinegar: made from white
wine
Fruit and herb vinegars are usually flavored cider or wine
vinegars. Experiment with using different varieties in your
recipes, especially less-tart white wine vinegar. Sherry vinegar
and champagne vinegar are two other good choices because some
people find that it takes less oil to offset their milder
flavor.
Yeast: Leavening that makes a
mixture rise or expand in the presence of warmth, sugar, and
liquid.
If a recipe calls for proofing the yeast before you add the
other ingredients, do not add salt until you add the other dry
ingredients. Salt can kill the action of the yeast. |
