All Ingredients

This is where the spareribs come from. Other meat from this section is usually cured as bacon and salt pork.

These lean chops are cut from the pork sirloin roast.

These lean steaks are similar to sirloin chops, only meatier and boneless.

This is a fairly lean and economical roast. A bone-in sirloin roast contains parts of the hipbone and backbone, so it's tough to carve. It's usually worth the extra money to get a rolled and tied boneless sirloin roast.

These aren't as meaty as country-style ribs or back ribs, but they're popular at barbecues since they're easy to eat with your fingers. Allow 4/5 pound per person. St. Louis style ribs are spareribs that have been trimmed of the brisket bone.

This are pieces of meat that are too tough to grill, broil, or panfry. They're best if cooked very slowly in a liquid.

This cut is lean, tender, and boneless, so it commands a high price. It's delicious roasted, grilled, or broiled as long as you don't overcook it. Tenderloins are usually sold in pairs, and sometimes cut up into tenderloin pieces. If there's a silver membrane on the tenderloin, remove it before cooking.

If boneless, these chops are sometimes called pork loin filets.

To make a boneless roast, the butcher puts two top loins together and ties them up, fat sides out.

This is a sweet Portuguese fortified wine that's sipped as an after-dinner drink, or used as a cooking ingredient. Vintage ports are the best, but they are very expensive. The sediment at the bottom of the bottle is a sign of quality. Crusted or late-bottled vintage ports are both less expensive and less elegant. Cheaper yet are the lighter and fruitier wood ports, which include the tawny ports and the lowly ruby ports. Wood ports don't age well in the bottle, so try to drink them within a year or two of purchase. Once opened, port should be consumed within a week or so and stored in the refrigerator.

Port Salut is a mild French semi-soft cow's milk cheese. Don't confuse with Danish Port Salut, which is also called Esrom cheese.

This is a dark beer with a heavy foam and a bitter flavor

These are just large cremini mushrooms, and their size (about the same as a hamburger patty) makes them perfect for grilling or roasting. They're also more flavorful than younger, smaller creminis.

This sweet and tender bread is great for making French toast or for nibbling.

This isn't as heavily processed as pearl barley, in that the endosperm is left intact, along with the inner pearl of the kernel. It takes about an hour to cook. Look for it in health food stores.

This cow's milk cheese is similar to cottage cheese or farmer's cheese.

petals only

This is sometimes used to make gingerbread and honey cake. Look for it in German markets.

This is used as a substitute for baking soda by people on sodium-restricted diets. Look for it in pharmacies.

America's most popular vegetable, potatoes can be boiled, baked, fried, microwaved, steamed, or roasted, with or without their peels. They're often paired with butter, sour cream, or oil, but left to themselves they're quite low in calories and loaded with nutrients. Store them in a cool, dark, dry, well-ventilated place. Don't refrigerate them--doing so converts some of the potato's starch to sugar. And don't expose them to direct sunlight, which turns them green and makes them bitter. Scrape away any sprouts or green spots, since they might contain a mildly toxic compound called solanine. To learn about different varieties of potatoes, click here.

These are very thin potato slices that have been deep-fried and salted. They're crisp and just sturdy enough to dunk into a creamy dip without breaking. They come in many flavors, including barbecue and sour cream. The British call them "crisps," and use the word chips for French fries.

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

This gluten-free starch is used to thicken soups and gravies. Its main advantage over other starch thickeners is that it's a permitted ingredient for Passover, unlike cornstarch and other grain-based foods. Liquids thickened with potato starch should never be boiled. Supermarkets often stock it among the Kosher products.

Irish moonshine or vodka. Made from potatoes like vodka.

These small, thick wrappers are stuffed with meat fillings, and then pan-fried and steamed. While assembling the potstickers, keep the stack of wrappers moist by covering them with a damp towel. You can seal the potstickers with a "glue" made with cornstarch and water. Look for stacks of them wrapped in plastic in the refrigerator cases of Asian markets. They freeze well.

This is an area in the Burgundy region of France that's renown for its exquisite white wines. Made with Chardonnay grapes, these wines are great with seafood and hors d'oeuvres.

This is a highly regarded dry white wine.

This is a rich buttery cake that's traditionally made with a pound each of butter, sugar, eggs, and flour. If you don't want to make one from scratch, you can find ready-made pound cakes among the frozen foods in your supermarket.

A poussin is a very young chicken, and it has a very delicate flavor and very little fat. They're available in some gourmet markets.

Look for this in stores that sell cake decorating supplies. Just Whites is a popular brand. 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.

To reconstitute, combine one part milk powder with three parts water.

See also Powdered Sugar Replacement page for diabetics, and the Powdered Sugar Replacement page on www.vegweb.com.

This paste is made with almond or hazelnut butter and sugar, and it's used to make candy and other desserts. It's hard to make yourself, since homemade nut butters tend to be gritty. Unfortunately, it's also hard to find commercially prepared praline paste, though you can order it online at www.kingarthurflour.com. The oil sometimes separates and rises to the top, so stir before using.

This is used to flavor ice cream and pastry fillings. It's made from pralines, a crunchy French candy that resembles peanut brittle, except that it's made with almonds or hazelnuts. You can buy praline powder ready made, but it's easy to make your own by pulverizing praline pieces in a food processor. Be sure to use crunchy pralines, not the soft pecan candies that people in New Orleans call pralines.

These are lemons that have been preserved in a salty brine for one or two months. They're a staple of Moroccan cuisine and somewhat hard to find in the U.S.

pressed cheese Notes: These are cheeses which are pressed to remove moisture during their production, and then soaked in a salt bath and aged. This broad category includes most semi-firm and firm cheeses. During the production of some pressed cheeses, the curds are cooked to expel even more moisture. These firmer cheeses usually have hard rinds, which are sometimes coated with wax. Cooked pressed cheeses include Gruyère, Emmental, Gouda, and Parmesan. Uncooked pressed cheeses aren't as firm. They're often sweet and fruity when young, and they develop a more earthy and grassy flavor as they age. Examples include Cantal, Tommes de Savoie, and Morbier.