Flavorings Category

This African herb is a powder made from the leaves of a baobab trees.

These are used as meat wrappers in Vietnam.

Vietnamese sprinkle this herb on their laksa soups. It has a strong, minty, peppery flavor. It's sold in bunches with lots of pointy leaves on each stem.

These pricey wines are produced from grapes that are picked late in the season, after they've shriveled a bit on the vine. This concentrates the sugar and allows producers to turn the grapes into sweet, rich dessert wines. Some of the best late harvest wines are made from grapes that have become moldy with the Botrytis cinerea fungus (also known as "noble rot"). The fungus pokes holes in the grape skins, allowing more water to evaporate. Ice wine = icewine = eiswein is an especially sweet and expensive kind of late harvest wine in which the dehydrated grapes are allowed to freeze on the vine, resulting in a very sweet wine. These and other late harvest wines are often sold in half-bottles, and are best drunk by themselves or with fruit or light desserts. Don't serve them with chocolate or very sweet desserts.

Cooks use this herb in teas, salads, jams, and soups. The fresh leaves also make an attractive garnish.

This has a lemony flavor, and small, pointed, fuzzy leaves. Thai cooks toss it into soups, salads, and noodle dishes.

This is often used in cakes, muffins, frostings, and pies. To make your own: Chop the zest from one or two lemons and put it into a small, clean jar until the jar is 1/3 full. Fill the jar with vodka, making sure that the zest is completely immersed. Seal it with a tight-fitting lid, allow the mixture to steep for two weeks, then strain out the zest using cheesecloth or a coffee filter. The result won't be as strong as commercial extracts.

Freshly squeezed lemon juice tastes much better than bottled juice.

This is made by boiling the fruit and peel of lemons with sugar, pectin, and water. It manages to be bitter, sour, and sweet all at once, which many people find delightful.

This variety of thyme has a lemony flavor.

This has a strong lemon flavor that works especially well in teas and vegetable dishes. If you can't find it in the spice section, cut open lemon verbena teabags.

Thai cooks use these grayish green stalks to impart a lemony flavor to their dishes. Remove the outer leaves, then use about six inches of the base, discarding the top and the very bottom. It's best to cut lemongrass into large pieces that can be easily removed after the dish is cooked. Frozen lemongrass is a good substitute for fresh, but dried lemongrass (soaked in hot water) is only a fair substitute. Use powdered version (called sereh powder) only in a pinch.

This Indonesian rhizome looks a bit like ginger, only it's smaller and darker. It's hard to find in the U.S., but your best bet is to look in Asian markets. It's sold fresh, frozen, pickled, dried, or powdered. Used the dried or powdered versions only in a pinch.

Light corn syrup is used to make everything from candy to fake blood at Halloween.

This is a mixture of pureed prunes and apples that serves as a fat substitute in baking.

Liqueurs are mixtures of spirits, sweeteners, and flavorings like herbs, fruits, nuts, and flowers. They're sometimes served as after-dinner drinks, but they're more often poured on desserts or mixed into cocktails, milk, or coffee. Some cooks buy miniature bottles of liqueurs to conserve on money and cabinet space.

Liquid honey is the most popular form of honey. It's extracted from the comb and is often pasteurized.

This is a very potent seasoning that imparts a smoky flavor to meat, fish, and vegetarian mock meat products. A little goes a long way.

Look for this in Indian or Southeast Asian markets. The seeds come in clumps that look like tiny pine cones.

Look for fresh and dried lotus seeds in Asian markets.

Lovage tastes like celery, but it's even more pungent and flavorful. The only drawback but it can't withstand long cooking like celery can. Use it in any recipe that calls for celery, but use less and add it to cooked dishes at the last minute.

This is the lacy wrapping that covers nutmeg when it's plucked from the tree. Its flavor is similar to nutmeg, but slightly more bitter. It's usually sold already ground, but you can sometimes find blades of mace that you can grind yourself.

This fortified wine is named for its birthplace, an island off the coast of Africa. Madeira wines first became popular back in the days of cross-Atlantic sailing ships, because they were able to survive long, hot trips in rolling ships. And they didn't just survive, they actually improved, so much so that sending them off on long round-trip sea voyages eventually became an integral part of their production, though the practice has since been abandoned. Madeiras are used both for cooking, and as after-dinner drinks. Varieties of Madeira (in order from driest to sweetest) include the Sercial Madeira, Rainwater Madeira, Verdelho Madeira, Bual Madeira = Boal Madeira, and Malvasia Madeira = Malmsey Madeira. "Reserve" Madeiras are aged at least five years, "special reserve" for at least ten, and "extra reserve" for at least fifteen. Madeiras from Portugal are considered to be far superior to domestic brands. Once opened, Madeira should be consumed within a week or so and stored in the refrigerator.

Ground kernels of cherry stones. Middle Eastern grocery stores.

This red wine is similar to Merlot. It's a good choice if you want a decent but inexpensive red wine to serve with red meat and pasta.

This mild sweetener is sold as a syrup or powder. Diastatis malt is used by bread makers to feed the yeast and improve the texture. Nondiastatic malt is used in bread as a flavoring and preservative.

Look for this in Asian markets.

Most of us know malt vinegar as the condiment that's always put on the table wherever British fish and chips are served. It's made from malted barley, and has a pungent, lemony flavor. It's a good choice for pickling (assuming it contains at least 5% acetic acid), though it will darken light-colored fruits and vegetables. It's also the vinegar of choice for making chutneys. Since it's so assertive, it's not a good choice for vinaigrettes or delicate sauces. Varieties include brown malt vinegar and distilled malt vinegar, which is clear.

This is made from maple syrup which has been dried and granulated. It's often sprinkled on cereal and toast.

Made from the sap of sugar maples, maple syrup is a traditional topping for pancakes, waffles, and French toast. It's also used to make candies, frostings, candied yams, meat glazes, and baked beans. Lighter syrups usually have a more delicate flavor. Refrigerate after opening. Don't confuse authentic maple syrup with the cheaper and more commonly used pancake syrup, which are based on corn syrup.

These sugar-soaked and dyed cherries come in two colors: red (almond flavored) or green (mint flavored). Cooks usually use them to garnish desserts and drinks.

This is a very sweet cherry-flavored syrup. Look for it in liquor stores.

Marc is a French brandy made from the leftovers of wine making.

This is used to salt the rims of Margarita glasses. To apply, fill a saucer with the salt, then moisten the rim of an empty glass with lime juice and dip it into the saucer.

petals only.

Marjoram is sweeter and milder than its close relative, oregano. It's often used to season meats and fish, and works best when its added near the end of the cooking period. Fresh is best, but frozen or dried marjoram are acceptable substitutes. Don't confuse this with wild marjoram, which is better known as oregano.

This popular Sicilian fortified wine is Italy's answer to sherry and Madeira. It's mostly used as a cooking wine and is a key ingredient in many Italian dishes, including zabaglione, tiramisu, and veal scaloppini. Marsalas are graded according to their sweetness and age. The sweetest Marsalas are called "dolce," followed by "demisecco," and then "secco," which are the driest. Ranked from youngest to oldest, the age grades are "fine," "superiore," "superiore riserva," "vergine," and "stravecchio."

See the Marshmallows recipe posted on Recipesource.com.

Kraft is a well-known brand.

Marzipan is made from ground almonds and sugar, and it's used to make colorful and edible decorations and confections. Look for tubes or cans of it among the baking supplies in your supermarket.

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