Kitchen Chemistry

Over the years I have spent many hours, not always enough thought, and a fair amount of money into experimenting with recipes trying to make them healthier. Some with success and others? Well, not so much. I have yet to find the all-encompassing food chemistry manual of my dreams. You know, the one that includes things like what will result by using coconut oil in the recipe instead of shortening. (Don't do it by-the-way, without some study. I once tried to make popcorn balls using coconut oil instead of butter and they never held together because one of coconut oil's virtues is that it resists hardening when heated to high temperatures. And I knew that?)

Well, we all start from somewhere. For me, my journey began with switching from refined grains and sweeteners to natural. That was a huge beginning. In addition to learning the reasons why it would be worth it I also had to learn how to do it. Things like:
~ When baking with whole wheat flour, you can use just a little less than refined white because of its bulk, otherwise your results may be too dry.
~ Again, when using honey you can use a bit less because it's sweeter than sugar.
~ And, when substituting any liquid for a dry ingredient, you must compensate for the change somewhere else in the recipe. For example, 1C. of honey also adds 1/4th C. of liquid so you use 1/4th C. less other liquid. If the recipe is for cookies and doesn't have a wet ingredient like water or milk, search for someone else's recipe for best results!
Back then there were no computers in our homes for relative ease in research. Now, thanks to Google and other search engines, so much info is at our fingertips. Still, we have to know enough about our subject to know what to ask!
From time to time, I'll be adding to this little page of mine, facts and figures to hopefully make the use of "new" food more practical and still tasty.