All Ingredients

These are soft cookies that are made with either almonds or coconut.

This is a long, tubular pasta. It's good with heavy sauces or in casseroles.

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.

Unopened canned mackerel can be stored for up to a year in a dry, cool place. Once opened, it will keep for up to two days if you wrap it well and refrigerate it.

This juicy apple is good for eating out of hand.

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.

These are rich, cake-like cookies that are shaped like shells. They're often flavored with lemon, orange, chocolate, or almonds.

These are flat, rectangular noodles with ruffles along both edges. The singular form is mafalda. Includes mafaldine (pictured at left).

This is a short, tubular variety of pasta.

Magnolia cheezee is made from cheddar cheese and is similar to Velvetta. It is popular in the Philappines.

These leaves have been used to wrap meat for flavor and to tenderize while cooking.

Though leaner than, say salmon or tuna, mahi-mahi packs a lot of heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids.

Ground kernels of cherry stones. Middle Eastern grocery stores.

This well-regarded Spanish cow's milk cheese is a terrific snacking cheese, but it's also incorporated into casseroles. Try it with sherry.

This is a German cow's milk aromatic cheese. Use within a few days after purchasing. For best flavor, serve at room temperature.

This Japanese mushroom is reputed to have numerous health benefits. It also has a nice, earthy flavor.

This is cooked much like spinach, but it's a bit slimy like okra. It occasionally shows up in Asian markets

Like taro and cassava, malanga is used in tropical countries in much the same way that potatoes are used in more temperate climates.

Malaysians are fond of yellow Hokkien noodles and white laksa noodles, which they use in soups. Malaysians also use rice vermicelli (which they call beenhoon), medium rice sticks (kway teow), beans threads (tanghoon), and Chinese wheat noodles.

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.

Malfatti means "poorly made" in Italian, and cooks use the term for broken or irregular scraps of pasta, or for a ravioli filling without the pasta covering.

This Sardinian pasta is very similar to gnocchetti, except that it's often flavored with saffron.

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.

This is similar to lager beer, only it's higher in alcohol.

You can make malt powder by allowing whole grains to sprout briefly, drying them, and then grinding them into a powder. Commercial malt powders are usually made with barley, and they're used extensively by commercial bakers. There are two main types of malt powder: diastatic and non-diastatic. Diastatic malt contains active enzymes which help break starch down into sugar. The extra sugar feeds the yeast in the dough, helping the bread to rise, and also gives the bread a browner crust. It's often used to make crusty breads. Non-diastatic malt doesn't have active enzymes, but it gives baked goods better flavor and a shinier, browner crust. It's used in everything from bagels to croissants to breakfast cereals. Don't confuse malt powder with malted milk powder, which also contains powdered milk and wheat flour and is used to make beverages. Look for malt powder in health food stores or baking supply stores.

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.

Maltagliati means "poorly cut" in Italian, and the name is used for various kinds of pasta scraps.

These are about the size of a large sweet potato. The flesh is salmon-colored, with a sweet, berry-like flavor. They're great for eating out of hand, or for making fruit salads or smoothies. Markets often sell them while they're still hard and underripe, so you need to set them on the counter for a few days until they yield when gently squeezed. Peel them and remove the seeds before serving.

Aged Manchego sheep's milk cheese is yellow and a terrific grating cheese. Don't confuse it with unaged Manchego cheese, which is almost white, semi-firm, and typically used as a melting cheese

Don't confuse this with aged Manchego cheese, which is firm and yellow, and typically used for grating. Younger Manchego sheep's milk cheese is sweet and nutty. It melts nicely and is often used in quesadillas.

These have a pleasant enough flavor, but their big asset is that they come out of their peels and segment easily, so you can eat them in your good clothes. Varieties include the popular tangerine, the seedy but juicy honey tangerine = Murcott, the satsuma orange, the sweet and tiny clementine orange, and the seedy and orange-flavored temple orange.

These very thin crèpes are used to make mu shu dishes. You can buy them in the frozen foods sections of Asian markets, but they're easy to make at home.

This cognac-based liquor is flavored with the peels of mandarin oranges. Mandarine Napoléon is a well-regarded brand.

This is similar to an almond-flavored biscotti, only smaller and softer. Look for it in Jewish markets.