raggedy annarchy's guide to the universe: milk butter eggs

Cooking by kittee: kittee@pakupaku.info

milk (light cream) is used in baked products to give moisture, sometimes flavor, and color (it'll make baked things a kind of more golden color). buttermilk is often called for in recipes and this is to provide a different kind of flavor and also sometimes to serve as the acid that activates the baking soda in the recipe so your thing will rise.

in the case of regular milk, there is no problem with substituting soymilk. you can do this one for one and it will provide the same results as if you used cow's milk. sometimes it's even just fine to substitute water for the milk. it's really your call. in recipes calling for light cream, make your own by combining one cup minus one tablespoon of soymilk with one tablespoon melted vegan margarine for one cup of light cream. now, with buttermilk, the solution is also a simple one, and again you've got to do a little ingredients combining. that is, for every one cup of buttermilk a recipe calls for measure one cup of soymilk minus one tablespoon, and add one tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar, letting the mixture sit for five minutes or so. wa-la. there's your buttermilk. simple. oh, and in recipes calling for scorched milk, make sure you also scorch your soymilk 'cuz somehow this process changes the protein structure which is necessary for some recipes to run out right.

as with this butter stuff, well, butter is often called for instead of margarine probably because of some dairy industry plot that bought off all cookbook manufacturers and made them print "butter". there's no problem with substituting margarine one for one (make sure there's no whey in it.) BUT, don't substitute products labeled "spreads" for butter or margarine cuz they've got a completely different fat make-up/content, and you won't end up with the same baked thing that you had really hoped you would. kay?

finally we've got these slimy egg things that can sometimes give me a really big headache when i'm looking for good substitutes. eggs are used in recipes for any number of reasons. one big one that i've finally figured out is that they're sometimes just used because tradition dictates so. you know, it's not a real cake unless you've got some eggs in it. bullshit! forget it. sometimes you can leave out the eggs and add no substitute and your baked thing works out just fine.

the three main reasons eggs are in baked things tho is to add liquid to the recipe and keep things moist, to leaven the baked goods (make 'em rise), and to bind the ingredients together so your brownie doesn't just turn out a pile of crumbs. now, replacing the liquid of an egg in a recipe is easy -- you can just substitute about 2 1/2 tablespoons of any kind of liquid for each egg the recipe calls for. keeping the products moist is another story tho, and i've found very few great vegan cakes that have that same moist texture as the old egg-y cakes had. one way you can do it (and in this case, ignore the 2 1/2 tablespoons bit) is by substituting 1/2 a mashed banana or 1/4 cup applesauce or other fruit puree per egg. of course, a slight banana or apple flavor in your chocolate cake may seem a bit weird though. the best one i've found is blending about two ounces of mashed tofu with the liquid in the recipe for each egg called for. tofu really doesn't have much flavor and i think does the best job of moisturizing.

the leavening aspect of eggs is a weird one because some recipes rely soley on beaten egg whites (like angel cakes) for their rising power and in these cases little can be done to substitute. just give it up. most other things work just fine tho if you only add an extra 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder per egg. easy.

finally, for the binding property of eggs, both the banana and tofu methods mentioned above do well. but you can also mix together 1 tablespoon cornstarch or arrowroot powder with two tablespoons of water for each egg, or a combination of 2 tablespoons flour, 1/2 tablespoon veg shortening, 2 tablespoons water and 1/2 teaspoon baking powder (one egg). a friend uses a mixture of mashed potato flakes and water as a substitute, but i'm not exactly sure how this works. experiment. mess around. this is the fun of cooking anyway.

so there you've got it. it doesn't answer everything but it'll at least get you started. you need not be a deprived vegan junk food junkie!!! now go to your kitchen!

Cooking by kittee: kittee@pakupaku.info