Grain Products Category

Gluten is what makes wheat-based bread dough so sticky and elastic. This helps the dough hold in the air bubbles created by the yeast so that it will rise and eventually bake into a fluffy, porous loaf. If you're gluten-intolerant, though, you'll need to use gluten-free flour, along with an arsenal of ingredients to make it behave like it has gluten.

Gnocchetti is an Italian pasta made to look like gnocchi, the popular potato dumplings. Gnocchetti, though, contains no potatoes. To confuse matters, a larger version of gnocchetti is also called gnocchi. Both sizes are good with thick sauces.

Gnocchi are Italian dumplings made from potatoes and other ingredients. They work best with light sauces, so as to showcase the pasta's subtle flavor and texture.

Gomiti is Italian for "elbow," and this pasta shape is like elbow macaroni, only it's bent more. Use it in pasta dishes with chunky sauces, pasta salads, or macaroni and cheese.

A staple of Korea, these flat wheat noodles resemble fettuccine. They're usually served in a soup.

Greeks stuff these with ground lamb and rice to make dolmades, but they're used elsewhere to make pickles and beds for food. They're hard to find fresh in markets, but you can often find them in cans or jars. Trim the stems and rinse off the brine before using. To make your own: Plunge grape leaves (that haven't been sprayed with harmful chemicals) for one minute in boiling, salted water (2 teaspoons pickling salt per quart), then drain.

This egg pasta consists of tiny diamond shapes. It's used in broths and light soups.

The Japanese use these round wrappers to make pork-stuffed dumplings similar to Chinese potstickers. Western cooks sometimes use them to make ravioli.

These thin, translucent Japanese noodles are typically made with potato, sweet potato, rice, or mung bean starch. They're similar to Chinese bean threads.

This is ground from the cake that remains after the oil is pressed from hazelnuts. This is hard to find, but you can order it from Baker's Find (1-800-966-BAKE) or online from from King Arthur Flour.

This is used to make cookies and other desserts.

These slender Japanese noodles are often served cold. They're made of wheat flour.

These egg and wheat-flour noodles are popular in Malaysia and Singapore. They look like thick yellow spaghetti.

These egg and wheat-flour noodles are used to make chow mein. Cook them first in boiling water, drain, and then fry.

Indonesians like to use bean threads (which they call su un), and rice vermicelli. They also use egg and wheat-flour noodles to make bami goreng, a fried noodle dish.

This is a modified cornstarch that professional bakers sometimes use to thicken pie fillings. It has several advantages over ordinary cornstarch. Instant ClearJel® thickens without cooking, works well with acidic ingredients, tolerates high temperatures, is freezer-stable, and doesn't cause pie fillings to weep" during storage. Don't use Instant ClearJel® for canning--it tends to break down.

You can mix this granular all-purpose flour into liquids without getting many lumps, so it's perfect for making gravies and batters. It's also good for breading fish. Wondra flour and Shake & Blend are popular brands.

These small, starchy granules are used to make tapioca pudding and to thicken pie fillings. The grains don't dissolve completely when cooked, so puddings and pies thickened with them end up studded with tiny gelatinous balls. If you don't mind the balls, you can also use instant tapioca to thicken soups, gravies, and stews. If the balls are a problem, just pulverize the instant tapioca in a coffee grinder or blender, or buy tapioca starch, which is already finely ground. Instant tapioca tolerates prolonged cooking and freezing, and gives the fillings an attractive glossy sheen. To use it in a pie filling, mix it with the other ingredients, then let it sit for at least five minutes so that the tapioca can absorb some of the liquid. Don't confuse instant tapioca with regular tapioca, which has larger beads, or with the even larger tapioca pearls sold in Asian markets. Minute® tapioca is a well-known brand.

This gelatin comes from the air bladders of sturgeon and other fish. It's sometimes used to clarify wine.

The Japanese like to serve noodles in soups and salads. It's customary to make loud slurping sounds when eating noodle soup, though younger Japanese are rebelling and eating more quietly. Kishimen, udon, hiyamugi, ramen, chuka soba, and somen are all wheat noodles, while soba is made from buckwheat, shirataki from yams, and harusame from mung bean or other starches.

Cooks in Greece and the Middle East use this shredded dough to make sweet desserts. You can find it among the frozen foods in Middle Eastern and Greek markets. While working with it, cover any unused dough with a damp cloth.

Kamut flour is tolerated by many people with wheat allergies and is a good substitute for wheat when making bread and pasta, especially if it's combined with other flours (e.g., spelt flour).

Kamut® contains gluten, but it's tolerated by many people with gluten allergies.

These are flat and slippery Japanese wheat noodles. They're served both hot and cold.

These Korean noodles are made with buckwheat flour and potato starch. They're usually served cold, but sometimes added to soups. Boil the noodles for about 3 to 4 minutes before using.

Korean sweet potato vermicelli (which they call tang myon) is very slender, and has a somewhat rubbery texture. Korean buckwheat noodles are also chewy, and usually served cold. Koreans are also fond of rice sticks and Chinese egg noodles.

A Korean specialty, these long, chewy noodles are made with sweet potato starch. Before using, soak them in hot water for about 10 minutes, then add them along with some broth to stir-fries.

Jewish cooks use these to make kreplach, a kind of Jewish ravioli.

This thickener is made from the tuber of the kudzu, the obnoxious vine that was imported from Japan a number of years ago and is now growing out of control all over the South. It's very expensive, and the main reason to buy it is for its reputed medicinal benefits. It comes in small chunks. To thicken a liquid, crush the chunks into a powder, mix them with an equal amount of cold water, then stir the mixture into the hot liquid and simmer for a few minutes until the sauce is thickened. Look for kudzu in health food stores.

This is a kind of Italian ribbon pasta, similar to lasagne only narrower.

These rice noodles look like white spaghetti. They're used to make laksa, a noodle dish popular in Indonesia and Malaysia. Don't confuse the noodles with laksa leaves, a kind of mint that's often used to season the noodles.

These thick, wide noodles with ruffled edges are used to make an Italian casserole dish that Americans call lasagne. Italians call the noodle itself lasagna (plural: lasagne), and the casserole lasagne al forno. Thinner noodles are best. Precooked lasagne = oven-ready lasagne = no-boil lasagne work fairly well and save time, but the noodles tend to absorb moisture from the sauce, resulting in a drier product.

This is a thin version of lasagne, the wide Italian noodles used to make baked lasagne. Lasagnette is often used like fettuccine, and simply tossed with a light sauce and served.

Linguine ("little tongues" in Italian) consists of long, slender ribbons of pasta. It's often served with clams or shrimp.

These popular Chinese egg noodles are often used to make lo mein, in which the noodles are stir-fried along with the other ingredients. They come in various sizes; use the flat ones for stir-fries and the round ones for soups. They're available fresh, dried, and frozen in Asian markets.

These leaves open up like butterfly wings, each about two feet high. They're often wrapped around rice and other fillings, to which they impart an earthy aroma when the bundles are steamed. The leaves are available either fresh or, more commonly, dried in Asian markets. Soak them for at least an hour in warm water before using, and keep fresh leaves in a cool, dry place or else freeze them.