Substitutions: A Handy Kitchen App for iPhones and iPads

How many times have we been in the middle of a cooking project and realised with dread that we were out of a crucial ingredient? Too many times, that’s what. Now there’s an app to help us in our hour of need.

Substitutions is a very straightforward app. This is good because when we’re halfway through a recipe and panicked about finding a sub for yogurt, the last thing we want to do is click through dozens of pages to find the information we’re looking for.

The app is basically a long list of ingredients with their possible substitutions. You can search the entire database, or narrow it down by categories like “Baking & Cooking” or “Spices.” Most substitutions are a straight one-to-one ratio, but measurements for swapping one ingredient for another are given as needed.

For the most part, the the substitutions in the list seem reasonable to us. Things like “1/2 cup plain yogurt and 1/2 cup of milk” in place of buttermilk and a formula for replacing baking powder with baking soda really come in handy. We also like the lists for things like gluten-free, vegan, and low-fat cooking, which are useful when we have guests with special dietary needs.

The app still requires a certain level of consumer-awareness. Personally we’re not sure we’d recommend substituting thyme for basil or goat cheese for mozzarella, at least not without thinking through the recipe first.

It would also be very nice to have a search option in the app, especially considering that the app includes over 400 substitutions! We’d love to be able to modify substitutions, add new ingredients, or makes our own notes based on our tastes and cooking experiences.

On the whole, a very handy app to have around. It’s available on the iPad (screen shot at the top of the post) and the iPhone (screen shot below the jump) for $1.99 each. This app developer, Gormaya, also makes the Conversions app, which we reviewed recently.

• Find It! Substitutions for the iPad, $1.99 on iTunes
• Find It! Substitutions for the iPhone, $1.99 on iTunes

Would this be a useful app for you?

Related: Hot or Not? Apple iPad in the Kitchen

Apartment Therapy Media makes every effort to test and review products fairly and transparently. The views expressed in this review are the personal views of the reviewer and this particular product review was not sponsored or paid for in any way by the manufacturer or an agent working on their behalf. However, the manufacturer did give us the product for testing and review purposes.

(Images: Substitutions app/Gormaya)