All Ingredients

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.

It's usually sold in the form of small crystals, which you'll need to grind into a powder. Look for it in Middle Eastern markets.

This brandy-based Greek liqueur is flavored with gum mastic.

This is powdered green tea is especially grown and processed. It can be used an an additive to many foods and drinks. It is believed to have many healthy properties.

These are popular in Japan, but they're hard to find fresh in the United States and dried matsutakes aren't nearly as flavorful. Avoid canned matsutakes, they're even worse than dried.

This matzo cracker is served during Passover to symbolize the unleavened bread the Jews ate during their hasty exodus from Egypt. To conform with Jewish dietary laws, matzo producers can't use leavening agents like baking soda or yeast. But they're still able to give the matzo crackers a bit of airiness by baking them in extremely hot ovens, which causes trapped air bubbles in the dough to expand.

Matzo balls are dumplings made from matzo meal, chicken fat, and eggs. They're often cooked in water, and then served in chicken soup. You can easily make them from scratch, or buy them in cans. The plural of knaidel is spelled either knaidlech, knaidlach, or kneidlach.

Jews use this during Passover to make pancakes, matzo balls, and other dishes. Many stores also carry matzo cake meal, which is a finer grind of matzo meal.

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

This American cow's milk blue cheese is pungent and crumbly. Use it within a few days after purchasing. For best flavor, serve at room temperature.

These soft apples are great for snacking or for making applesauce, but don't bake them or put them in pies.

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

These are whole grains that are ground until they have the consistency of sand. They're then used to make hot cereals and breads. Stone-ground meal is ground between stones, giving it a grittier consistency.

Rinsed-out glass food containers can serve as measuring cups. Here are some conversions: 8 ounces = 1 cup 16 tablespoons = 1 cup

Meat smokers cook meat for longer at a lower temperature and surrounded with smoke. Some models are wood pellet fired like the one in the picture. Others are heated with wood or charcoal in an attached firebox.

Various ingredients can be used to tenderize meat. These include vinegar, baking soda, beer or commercial products. Meat can also be tenderized using a mallet.

This is a Danish pork sausage. Cook it before serving.

These rice noodles are especially popular in Southeast Asia. They come in different widths; the thinner ones are best for soups, the wider ones for stir-fries. Before using, rice sticks should be soaked in hot water until they're soft and transparent. They can then be used in soups, or add along with some broth to stir-fries.

Medium-grain rice is shorter and stickier than long-grain rice. It's great for making paella and risotto.

These large sweet medjool dates are very popular. If picked early they are called rutab dates. They originated in Tafilalt, Morocco but are enjoyed around the world.

These thin, crisp slices of bread are often used as a base for appetizers or served with soups or salads. When crushed, they make an excellent breading for meat or fish.

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

Melons are cool and refreshing, and can be eaten out of hand, or used in salads, soups, drinks, and salsas. To learn more about melons in general, and their different varieties, click here.

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 North African lamb sausage is seasoned with garlic and hot spices. It's often used in couscous dishes.

Look for this in stores that sell cake decorating supplies. Substitutes: powdered egg whites. For information on how to make meringues safely using raw egg whites, visit the Other Safety Factors section of the American Egg Board web site.

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.

At least two kinds of sausages answer to the name mettwurst. People in Cincinnati use the name to describe a kielbasa-like sausage that's made with beef and pork, seasoned with pepper and coriander, and smoked. They like to grill it and serve it on a bun. Elsewhere, mettwurst is soft like liverwurst and ready to eat. It's usually spread on crackers and bread.

With their small size and shiny black skins, these look like elongated plums. You can eat them, skin and all

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.

This is a small, black-skinned avocado that's the size and shape of a fig. Since the peel is edible, they can be eaten like a peach. There's a smaller variety, the Mexicola cocktail avocado, that's oblong and virtually seedless. They'd make a great addition to a vegetable platter.

This is sweeter than an ordinary lemon, and highly prized by gourmet chefs.

This somewhat harsh Mexican liquor is similar to tequila, except that the agave plant is fire-roasted before the sap is extracted, fermented, and distilled. This gives mezcal a distinctive smoky flavor. Some brands have an agave worm (actually a caterpillar) in the bottle, which you're supposed to eat.

This is a type of tubular Italian pasta that's short and curved.

Mezzelune ("half moon" in Italian) is an Italian stuffed pasta formed into a semicircle. It's usually stuffed with cheese, vegetable, and/or meat.

These are Vietnamese wheat noodles.

This green Japanese liqueur has a very sweet, melon flavor.

Nonfat milk (0.5% fat). You can buy it fresh, or as powdered milk, canned evaporated milk, or UHT milk packed in aseptic containers. Fresh is best for drinking and delicate desserts, the other kinds pick up an unpleasant caramelized flavor when they're heated for packaging. Acidophilus milk tastes much the same as ordinary milk, but it includes the beneficial acidophilus bacteria that are destroyed during pasteurization.

Low-fat milk (2% fat). You can buy it fresh, or as powdered milk, canned evaporated milk, or UHT milk packed in aseptic containers. Fresh is best for drinking and delicate desserts, the other kinds pick up an unpleasant caramelized flavor when they're heated for packaging. Acidophilus milk tastes much the same as ordinary milk, but it includes the beneficial acidophilus bacteria that are destroyed during pasteurization.

Varieties: skim milk = nonfat milk (0.5% fat), low-fat milk (2% fat), and whole milk (3.5% fat). You can buy it fresh, or as powdered milk, canned evaporated milk, or UHT milk packed in aseptic containers. Fresh is best for drinking and delicate desserts, the other kinds pick up an unpleasant caramelized flavor when they're heated for packaging. Acidophilus milk tastes much the same as ordinary milk, but it includes the beneficial acidophilus bacteria that are destroyed during pasteurization.

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.

Visit the Illinois Cooperative Extension Service's Sweetened Condensed Milk--Homemade page.