This was the best title I could come up with: “There’s no substitute for this site!” Sorry, everyone.
Being the half-assed baker I am, I often find myself looking for last-minute substitutions for things. And while this used to send me scurrying through my cookbooks, now I head to one site: The Cook’s Thesaurus.
Created by Lori Alden in 1996, this encyclopedia covers virtually every ingredient and cook’s tool, well, ever, it seems — and it’s as interesting as it is useful. For example, within the last ten minutes I have discovered limequats are a lime/kumquat hybrid, you can make your own Devonshire cream (and, oh, I will), and carnations taste peppery.
More importantly (or more important than my love of food trivia), are the comprehensive lists of substitutions. Like I said, I’m prone to getting halfway through a cookie dough and finding I’m out of, say, light brown sugar, but I now know a 2:1 ratio of dark brown to granulated sugar is just the same.
See how easy that was?
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February 6th, 2007 at 7:27 pm
While carnations are technically dianthus-es (whatever), I really wouldn’t eat the commercially grown ones. They are sprayed with a chemical to keep them “fresh” and many contain dyes. You can grow dianthus, however. They are a lovely little plant that will spread and come back every year (I’m in Zone 4). Sorry… I just wanted to warn you not to snack on your Valentine’s bouquet.
February 6th, 2007 at 7:27 pm
Oh… and that’s a kick-ass site.
February 6th, 2007 at 7:32 pm
Yeah, I can’t imagine eating any of the flowers mentioned on that page unless I knew what the hell had (or, more specifically, hadn’t) been sprayed on them.
February 9th, 2007 at 3:49 am
Hey, thanks for the heads up about that site! I just checked it out and you’re right, you can find just about anything there! One thing that I really like is that for each entry, they give a list of different names and also sometimes pronunciation!
February 15th, 2007 at 10:20 am
What a great site, thanks!!