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About this tool
Find instant ingredient replacements with precise ratios and dietary filters.
The Ingredient Substitute Finder gives you the replacement for a missing ingredient together with the exact amount, by scaling a published substitution ratio to the quantity your recipe asks for and rounding it to a fraction a measuring cup can show. Ratios are matched on the property that actually matters — fat content, acidity, thickening power or salt crystal density — which is why 1 cup of butter becomes 3/4 cup of oil and 1 tbsp of fresh herbs becomes 1 tsp of dried. It is for anyone mid-recipe who has just found an empty jar, and for cooks working around a vegan, dairy-free, egg-free, gluten-free or nut-free constraint.
Open Ingredient Substitute Finder on AltFTool — it loads instantly in your browser.
Use "Search ingredients" to narrow the list, then set "I need to replace" and the "Amount the recipe calls for" in that ingredient's own unit.
Pick a Dietary filter — Vegan, Dairy free, Egg free, Gluten free or Nut free — so only compatible swaps stay on the list.
Read Closest replacement with its Ratio used and Best for rows, then press "Copy list" to take every option with you.
Every swap is scaled to your quantity and shown as 3/4 cup or 1 1/2 tsp rather than a decimal.
Each entry says why the ratio is what it is, so you can judge whether it holds in your recipe.
Filter to vegan, dairy free, egg free, gluten free or nut free and only compatible swaps remain.
Use 3/4 cup of neutral oil for every 1 cup of butter. Butter is roughly 80% fat and 16-18% water while oil is 100% fat, so three quarters of the volume matches the fat. It will not work where the recipe creams butter with sugar, because liquid oil cannot hold air.
One to three: use 1 tsp of dried for every 1 tbsp of fresh. Drying removes the water and concentrates the volatile oils about threefold. Add dried herbs early in cooking so they have time to rehydrate, and fresh ones at the end.
Put 1 tbsp of lemon juice or white vinegar in a measuring jug, top it up to 1 cup with milk and leave it 5 minutes until it curdles. The acid is the working part: it reacts with baking soda for lift and tenderises gluten, which is what buttermilk does in the original recipe.
Because the crystals are different sizes, so a teaspoon holds a different weight. A teaspoon of fine table salt is about 6 g, Morton kosher about 4.8 g and Diamond Crystal about 2.8 g. That means 1 tsp of table salt is roughly 1 1/4 tsp of Morton or 2 tsp of Diamond Crystal.