Connections:
Altering Recipes
By Nancy Yergin, MS,
RD, LDN, Forest County Penn State Extension
For years health professionals have advised Americans to
eat less fat, sugar and salt and to get in more fiber, but how to go about
it has been the challenge. Your plan depends on your current eating
patterns, health status, and potential risk for health problems linked to
diet.
If you're dealing with high blood pressure
(hypertension), your doctor will advise you to eat less salt. People
dealing with diabetes often reduce their sugar intake in order to gain
more control over their blood sugar. Lower levels of dietary fat,
especially butter and shortening, can help reduce cholesterol production
in people dealing with coronary heart disease. Adding dietary fiber, with
increased amounts of plant foods and grains, can also lower hypertension,
reduce blood cholesterol, and increase phytonutrients so vital for our
health.
As a consumer you have choices. You can eat less sugary,
fatty, high-sodium foods or you can buy reduced- sugar, -fat, and
lower-sodium products. But you can also modify recipes to decrease
the amounts of fat, sugar, and salt, and to increase amounts of fiber. If
you cook regularly, this may be the most effective.
Some recipes, such as casseroles and soups, are more
flexible than others. You can add in more vegetables, take it easy on the
salt and fat. A cookie recipe is more adaptable than a cake recipe.
Recipes for most baked products can be altered, but recipes for pickles,
jellies, and most candies should not be changed.
Modifying a recipe may produce a product that doesn't
meet traditional expectations. For example, a cake made with less fat will
not have the same flavor or texture as the high-fat version. Substituting
skim milk for whole milk in puddings, soups and sauces will give an end
result that is less rich and creamy.
The success of altering recipes is knowing which
ingredients can be changed Ð and by how much. Food scientists have found
that most people either don't notice much difference or accept the
difference that results when changes are made. For instance, I've been
drinking diet colas for the better part of 40 years. I got used to them
when I was married to a person with diabetes and now prefer diet cola to
"regular" which seem far too sweet to me. However, I prefer sugar in my
once-daily mug of coffee but substitute evaporated skim milk instead of
half- and-half or cream to lighten it. So, expectations - and acceptance -
factor into the mix. As a rule of thumb, you can make changes that
probably won't be noticed much. Here's how:
Reduce sugar by one-third. If a recipe says to use 1 cup, use
two-third cup. This works best in canned and frozen fruits and in making
puddings and custards. In cookies and cakes try using one-half cup sugar
per cup of flour. For quick breads and muffins use one tablespoon sugar
per cup of flour.
Reduce fat by one-third. If a recipe calls for
one-half cup of shortening use one-third cup. This works best in gravies,
sauces, puddings, and some cookies. For cakes and quick breads, use two
tablespoons fat per cup of flour.
When it comes to salt, the less we use the better.
Either omit it or reduce it by one-half. The one place where we should
leave it unchanged is when making yeast breads or rolls; it is essential
for flavor and dough texture. Another place to stick to the full amount of
salt is when preserving in brine solutions like sauerkraut and pickles.
Substitute whole grain and bran flours in "regular"
recipes to increase dietary fiber. Whole wheat flour can replace from
one-fourth to one-half of all the all-purpose flour. For example, if a
recipe has 3 cups of all-purpose flour, use one and one-half cups whole
wheat flour and one and one-half cups all purpose flour. Oat bran or
oatmeal (that has been ground to flour in a food processor or blender) can
replace up to one-fourth of the all-purpose flour.
Questions or comments on this or other columns? Nancy Yergin can be reached via email at
NLY1@PSU.EDU.
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