The high price of eggs has many home chefs reeling, up a whopping 53% compared to the same time last year. This has many at-home bakers rethinking how they use eggs.

If you don’t want to give up your favorite baked goods while you wait for the price of eggs to come down, you don’t have to. There are some simple ways to recreate recipes that call for eggs with tried-and-true substitutes. However, to get the best results, it’s important to select the right substitute.

“There are all sorts of charts online that talk about different egg substitutes, and most get things wrong or lack so much context that the chart is essentially useless,” said Kathlena Rails, founder of the food blog ”The Allergy Chef” and author of several egg-free cookbooks. For example, Rails has seen charts recommending peanut butter or tomato paste instead of eggs. While these may work well for binding or adding moisture, they aren’t good choices for most recipes because they change the taste and texture of baked goods too much, she explained.

How to choose the right egg substitute

It’s important to recognize the role of eggs in baking. While many good egg substitutes can replicate the function and texture of eggs, if you are trying to mimic the flavor of eggs in a recipe, you are out of luck.

There is no good substitute for the taste of eggs in baked goods, said Rob Rubba, a chef and partner at the egg-free restaurant Oyster Oyster in Washington, D.C.

Rails also cautions that no simple substitute will work well in recipes like sponge cake or “eggy baked cookies,” where eggs are the “shining star.”

However, if your goal is to replicate the function of eggs in a recipe, the role of eggs “needs to be clear from the start,” Rubba said. For most recipes, eggs play three main functions. They can lift, moisten and bind, Rails explained. If you choose the right substitute, the taste and texture of your baked goods should be very close to the original.

This isn’t always easy because eggs play many different roles in baking. Further complicating matters is that eggs often play multiple roles in a recipe. However, there are some general guidelines home bakers can use to help them make the best choice.

Rails explains that if a recipe calls for whole eggs, they probably serve a combination of functions. Whole eggs are likely “moistening, binding and lifting,” she said.

To help choose the right egg substitute, Rails suggests visualizing the recipe and thinking through the primary role of eggs in it. Baking powder and vinegar will make things go “puff,” she said, but this combination won’t help ingredients bind together. Similarly, applesauce will add a lot of moisture because it is very wet, but it won’t lift or bind.

Rails explained that choosing the right substitute for recipes that use egg whites or yolks is simpler. If a recipe calls for egg whites, they are used primarily for lift, while if it calls for egg yolks, they are mainly used for moisture.

For recipes that use eggs to bind

Eggs are often used to bind ingredients in baked goods. If eggs are combined with dry ingredients, like in doughs or batters for cookies, they are likely being used as a binding agent, explained Melanie Marcus, an expert in vegan cooking who is a chef, registered dietitian, and nutrition, wellness, and communications manager for Dole Food Company.

In these recipes, a flaxseed “egg” is a good substitute, Rubba said. To make a flaxseed “egg,” mix one tablespoon of ground flaxseed with three tablespoons of water and let it sit for 5 minutes. One flaxseed egg is equivalent to one whole egg, she explained. “It thickens just like an egg and is perfect for muffins, pancakes and cookies.”

For recipes that use eggs to moisten

When eggs are mixed with other wet ingredients, they may add moisture or have a creamy texture. When eggs primarily add moisture to a recipe, bananas and applesauce work well, said Connie Edwards McGaughy, a vegan baker and author of ”The Carrot Underground” cookbooks.

In baking, one banana usually equals one egg, she explained.

If you prefer to use applesauce, use one-quarter cup of applesauce per egg, McGaughy said. Rails thinks applesauce works particularly well as an egg substitute in chocolate chip cookies. However, Marcus cautions that when using bananas or applesauce as an egg substitute, you may need to reduce added sugar because they are natural sweeteners.

For recipes that use eggs to lift

To make fluffy baked goods, such as cakes and muffins, Rubba uses a small amount of vinegar and baking soda. “We have all made an elementary school volcano experiment to understand why this works in keeping the cake light,” he said. Rubba likes to use flavored vinegar that complements the taste of the cake, such as ginger vinegar for pumpkin cakes. If you don’t want to use a specialty vinegar, Rails recommends apple cider vinegar.

Rubba finds this method works best if the batter contains some baking powder.

Marcus advises using one teaspoon of baking soda and one tablespoon of vinegar per egg.

For meringue, mousse and cocktails

In some recipes, eggs are used to form structure and stiff peaks. For these recipes, including meringues and mousses, Marcus said a great substitute is the liquid from a can of chickpeas, also called aquafaba. Marcus also recommends using aquafaba in recipes that call for eggs to be beaten separately from other ingredients.

Aquafaba “whips up just like egg whites,” Marcus explained. However, you have to be patient to get this to work.

“Compared to egg whites, it takes longer to whip aquafaba to stiff peaks, maybe 10 minutes in a good standing mixer, but it delivers. It creates the right lift,” explained Ellen Kanner, a food writer, recipe developer, and author of the cookbook “Miami Vegan: Plant-Based Recipes from the Tropics to Your Table.” She also suggests adding a pinch of cream of tartar as a stabilizer.

Aquafaba also works well in cocktails like gin fizz and pisco sour, which traditionally use egg whites, Rubba said.

Use three tablespoons of aquafaba for each egg the recipe calls for to get the best results, Kanner said. Reduce the amount of aquafaba to two tablespoons if you are creating a substitute for egg whites, Marcus advised.

Use aquafaba as a fallback

If this sounds too complicated or if you aren’t sure what role eggs play in your recipe, Kanner says to stick to aquafaba. “It’s high performance, low waste, and when used in baking, has no beany flavor,” she said. Plus, “aquafaba from canned chickpeas is standardized, so you can count on solid performance,” she added.

Aquafaba also makes a great replacement for egg washes since it can add a glossy finish to baked goods, Marcus said. While other egg substitutes may work better for some recipes, aquafaba is a consistently reliable choice when you want to keep things simple, according to Kanner.

To ensure you always have aquafaba on hand, Kanner recommends freezing three tablespoons of aquafaba in each square of a silicon ice cube tray. When it’s time to bake, use one cube per egg.

Look for egg-free recipes

Instead of trying to replicate your favorite recipes, Rubba recommends trying recipes that were developed without eggs. Although Rubba is not vegan, he does not use eggs at his restaurant because he believes “eggs are a luxury, not a commodity.”

The high price of eggs may be an opportunity to find “new ways to approach ingredients and imagine a world without them,” he said. Experiment by searching online for egg-free recipes or checking a vegan cookbook out from the library.

Nevertheless, Rubba doesn’t suggest giving up eggs completely. “Eat them well,” he said. “Buy good quality, and eat them less often.”