David Joachim thinks most home chefs are just too tied down to their cookbooks.

“I look at recipes like a road map,” Joachim says. “It’s one way to get to a destination.”

The other roads to the destination might include ingredients that are slightly different, healthier or fresher. Or those roads might include using different techniques or equipment in the kitchen.

That’s why Joachim compiled “The Food Substitutions Bible,” a 621-page collection of food alternatives for the cook who wants to be adventurous, who wants to be healthier or who simply ran out of an ingredient.

“You can actually cook rather than just follow a recipe,” says Joachim, who lives in Center Valley, Pa. “You can be creative, adjust the flavor or make it healthier.”

Food swapping

Generally, Joachim says, there’s a substitution for nearly any type of food. Granted, it may not be an exact substitute.

But some pretty much serve the same purpose. For instance, self-rising flour can be created with all-purpose flour, baking powder and salt. Or whipped cream can be made with evaporated milk to make it healthier.

Joachim’s book also includes international foods, some of which are difficult to find in American grocery stores. One of the foreign foods is hoisin sauce, a staple with Asian meats. Joachim says you can create it with barbecue sauce, molasses, soy sauce, yeast extract and Chinese five-spice powder.

Sweeteners are another item that are easily that are easily swapped. Joachim says honey, brown sugar, molasses and maple syrup are among the items that can replace sugar.

But not always…

That’s not to say substitute ingredients are appropriate in all instances.

Mary Molt, assistant professor and assistant director of the department of housing and dining at Kansas State University, says you shouldn’t get too creative when it comes to baking.

Molt, whose book “Food for Fifty,” deals with food substitutions, says combinations of baking powder, fat and baking soda are honed to make a food turn out just right.

Adding fruit-based ingredients – such as replacing half of a cake’s butter with applesauce or apple butter, for instance – can make sweets healthier.

But, she says, “You wouldn’t want to put applesauce in Wheatfield’s sourdough artisan bread.”

Getting fresh

Lori Alden has had an ongoing cyber-conversation with cooks about food substitutions for more than a decade.

In 1995, she launched www.foodsubs.com, a Web site dedicated to alternate ingredients.

Alden, who lives in Petaluma, Calif., says she often gets e-mails from home chefs with suggestions to add to her site.

She says some substitutions are no-brainers – most pastas and fish, for instance, are basically interchangeable.

Alden especially suggests substituting produce that are in season for others that might not be so fresh at the store or market.

“If it’s in season, it’s fresher and tastes better,” she says. “And it’s cheaper, too.”

With her knowledge of food substitutions, Alden says she likes to play a culinary game at the end of the week: “Can I Make Something Using What’s Left in My Fridge?”

“I like to make it a challenge toward the end of the week, and I haven’t been grocery shopping in a while,” she says. “Can I pull something together with what I have on hand? You’re more creative if you have to improvise.”