When a recipe calls for ingredients you don't have

The next time a recipe calls for an ingredient you don't have stocked in your kitchen, save yourself a trip to the store.

In the new edition of Substituting Ingredients, the most comprehensive since its original printing in 1986, food writer Becky Sue Epstein lists more than 1,000 ingredient substitutions for those times when you run out of milk or can't find any cardamom in your spice rack. Don't have enough lemon juice? Use lemon peel instead, or try vinegar or lime juice, Epstein advises. No shortening? Butter or margarine can be used interchangeably with shortening in baking.

Some solutions are particularly creative. If you're missing an egg, for example, you can mimic its role in the recipe by combining two tablespoons of liquid, two tablespoons of flour, half a tablespoon of shortening and half a teaspoon of baking powder.

Multiple substitutions are listed in order, starting with the best match, to give you options in availability, price, and personal preference. So if you don't have dried basil, oregano is the best substitute, or you could try parsley, summer savory, or thyme.

The book also has a helpful measurement and conversion guide to help you figure out, for example, how many apples make up a pound (two large apples) and what to do if a recipe calls for a fresh herb but you only have the dried variety (a tablespoon of a fresh herb is about equivalent to a teaspoon dried).