THE TEST KITCHEN | PANTRY PACKIN’ IT'S AN ALL TOO FAMILIAR STORY: YOU'RE cooking a meal, but in the midst of it, you realise you're missing an ingredient. It would be folly to throw up your hands and order takeaways instead. There are substitutes for almost any ingredient you care to mention, in almost any recipe you're trying. Simply be adaptable.
The trick is considering the ingredient's texture, flavour and cooking time, and making decisions according to taste. Let's start with alcohol.
If your recipe calls for white wine, sake, light beer and the like, swap it for apple juice, non-alcoholic cider, ginger beer, tea, ginger ale, sparkling water, fresh citrus juice or light vinegars, diluting as needed.
If it's dark alcohols you're working with, swap them with pomegranate juice, cranberry…
