Flavorings Category

This is the catch-all Hindi term for a spice mixture. Popular masalas include garam masala, chat masala, and sambar masala.

Mastic is derived from the hardened resin of trees; usually the the mastic tree. When the resin dries it looks like a small drop or "tear". When chewed it has tastes like pine. Mastic is used to for medicinal purposes, as chewing gum and to flavor food and wine.

See RecipeSource.com postings for Mayonnaise, Homemade Mayonnaise and Eggless Mock Mayonnaise.

Made from fermented honey, mead is one of mankind's oldest alcoholic beverages.

This West African spice is very hard to find in the West. It's similar to cardamom.

Middle Eastern cooks use this as an herb in their soups. In other regions, fresh meloukhia is used as a cooking green, much like spinach.

Menudo is a Mexican soup made with tripe and hominy. This is the seasoning mix that helps it go down.

This is a hearty red wine that's similar to a Cabernet Sauvignon, but softer and less tannic. It goes especially well with pork, turkey, and pasta dishes.

This is a sweet Greek brandy with a strong resin flavor.

This grainy chocolate is flavored with sugar, almonds, and cinnamon, and used to make hot chocolate and mole sauce. You can buy boxes containing large tablets of this in the Mexican foods aisle of larger supermarkets. Ibarra is a well-respected brand.

If you're looking for a plain chocolate candy bar, this is your best bet. It's like sweet chocolate, only it contains dried milk solids, which gives it a mellow flavor. It's not a good choice for baking, though, since it's sweeter and not as chocolatey as other chocolates. Despite this, many cooks prefer to use milk chocolate chips instead of semi-sweet chocolate chips in their cookies. Be very careful if melting milk chocolate, it scorches very easily.

Mincemeat is made with dried fruit, nuts, citrus peel, spices, and sometimes brandy, rum, or some other liquor. It used to be made with meat as well, and ready-made jars of it sometimes contain beef suet. It's often used for holiday pies.

Mint is used throughout the world to flavor everything from lamb to candy. It's also a great garnish and breath freshener. Spearmint is the variety you're most likely to encounter in markets, and it's the best choice for savory dishes. Peppermint = brandy mint has a stronger flavor and is best suited to dessert recipes. Used dried mint only in a pinch--it's not nearly as flavorful as fresh.

The British like to serve this with roast lamb.

This is sometimes served with lamb, veal, or game.

This is a very sweet Japanese rice wine that's used to flavor rice and sauces. It's not usually consumed as a beverage. Aji mirin is salted, so adjust the recipe accordingly.

Look for bags of these sugar crystals in Indian markets.

The Japanese use this to flavor soups and salads.

These are flower buds that emerge from a variety of ginger. They're quite mild. Look for them in Japanese markets.

Sugar is made by extracting juice from sugar cane or sugar beets, boiling them, and then extracting the sugar crystals. Molasses is the thick, syrupy residue that's left behind in the vats. It has a sweet, distinctive flavor, and it's a traditional ingredient in such things as gingerbread, baked beans, rye bread, and shoofly pie. There are several different varieties: Unsulfured molasses is what you'll most often find in supermarkets. It's milder and sweeter than sulfured molasses. Sulfured molasses has sulfur dioxide added as a preservative. Light molasses = mild molasses = sweet molasses = Barbados molasses is taken from the first boiling. It's the sweetest and mildest, and is often used as a pancake syrup or a sweetener for beverages. Dark molasses = full molasses = full-flavored molasses is left behind after the juices are boiled a second time. It's less sweet but more flavorful than light molasses, and it's a good choice if a recipe simply calls for molasses. Sugar-beet molasses is very bitter and is mostly used as cattle feed or as a medium for growing yeast. When measuring molasses, grease the cup and utensils to keep molasses from sticking. If your molasses crystallizes while being stored, heat it gently to dissolve the crystals. After opening, you can store molasses in your cupboard.

This is a district in Brittany, France, that produces a crisp, light white wine that's especially good with seafood. Always serve it chilled. Don't confuse this with Muscatel or Muscat, which are both dessert wines.

Made from muscadine grapes, this is a redder, tarter version of grape jelly.

This is a sweet and fruity dessert wine made from Muscat grapes. Don't confuse it with Muscadet, which is a dry white wine.

Mustard seeds have a hot, pungent flavor. Yellow mustard seeds are the ones you'll most likely find in American and European kitchens. They're often ground and made into prepared mustard or added to stews and sauces to give them some zip. Indian cooks usually prefer the smaller and more pungent brown mustard seeds or black mustard seeds. When recipes call simply for mustard, they may be referring to prepared mustard, the condiment we like to put on hot dogs. When crushed, mustard seeds are very pungent, but Indian cooks fry them in oil, which makes them sweet and mild.

Includes: Chinese mustard, Creole mustard, and Dijon mustard.

This is a general Thai term for dipping sauces.

This paste is made from chilies, onions, sugar, shrimp paste, fish sauce, and sometimes tamarind. It's sold in jars, and comes in different strengths, ranging from hot to mild.

An artifical sweetner. A popular brand is Newtame.

This has a subtle flavor that's often used to enhance vegetable dishes. To bring out the flavor, it helps to toast the seeds briefly before using them.

This is a variety of table salt. Some recipes call for non-iodized salt, since iodine can impart a bitter taste and adversely react with certain foods. For example, iodine darkens pickles and inhibits the bacterial fermentation needed to make sauerkraut.

These small colored balls are used to decorate cakes and cookies.

Nuoc cham is a Vietnamese dipping sauce. It has a fish sauce base.

If you mix roasted nuts, vegetable oil, salt, and maybe some sugar in a blender or food processor for awhile, you'll get a smooth, spreadable paste called nut butter. Nut butters can be spread on bread or crackers, blended into savory sauces, or teamed up with chocolate to make desserts.