Silk Road Pantry Swaps — Printable Ingredient Guide

Silk Road pantry swaps: what the guide covers

When Nicolas was young, recipes travelled in people's memories, not in books, and every family changed them to fit what grew nearby. That is how the Silk Road cooked, and that is how you can cook too.

This guide covers 18 ingredients from Central Asian, Ukrainian and Eastern European kitchens: meat and dairy, fruit, vegetables and herbs, and pantry staples. For each one you get the name you'll see on the shelf in the USA, the UK and Australia, and a simple swap that keeps the dish delicious. The second page is a kitchen converter you'll use for every recipe, not just ours.

Ingredients and kitchen converter inside the PDF

• Page 1 — Meat & dairy (lamb, beef for plov, tail fat, tvorog, smetana, kefir) and fruit, veg & herbs (yellow carrots, quince, sour cherries, dill, sweet onion, beetroot): what to buy in the USA, UK and Australia + an easy swap
• Page 2 — Pantry (devzira rice, buckwheat, sunflower oil, chickpeas, barberries, sumac) + kitchen converter: cups, grams and spoons, oven temperatures in °C, °F and gas mark, and a UK/Australia ↔ US kitchen dictionary (aubergine = eggplant, coriander = cilantro and more)
• Nicolas's tip: one mug for everything
• A personal letter from Nicolas with his "plov salt" recipe

Pantry swaps PDF layouts and paper sizes

• 2 designs in one purchase: warm light (parchment) and elegant dark (deep green with gold)
• A4 and US Letter, high-resolution PDF

Who the ingredient substitution guide is for

For cooks shopping for unfamiliar ingredients in the USA, UK or Australia.

How to use a pantry substitution safely

1. Check the contents, licence and selected format.
2. When purchasing becomes available, choose the product.
3. After purchase, use the supplied download files and printing instructions.

Digital files are for personal use. Please do not share or resell them. Screen and printed colours may differ.