All Ingredients

A well-equipped kitchen will have several of these, in different sizes.

Whiskey is distilled from various grains that have been pounded and cooked into a mash and allowed to ferment. The whiskey is then aged in oak barrels until the flavor is mellow and smooth. The most highly esteemed whiskies are single-malt Scotch and straight Bourbon. Lower in the pecking order are rye whiskey, blended Scotch, sour-mash whiskey and the lighter and drier Irish whiskey and Canadian whisky. At the bottom is corn whiskey, also known as moonshine. Straight whiskeys tend to have a more robust flavor than blended whiskeys, which include several whiskeys and, sometimes, neutral spirits. Whiskey should be served at room temperature.

Growers make asparagus white by shielding it from the sun, thus stifling the production of chlorophyll. The result is daintier looking and a bit more tender than green asparagus

White chanterelles are very similar to golden chanterelles, except for their color and relative rarity. Fresh chanterelles are best; dried or canned chanterelles are less flavorful and tend to have a rubbery texture.

Like milk chocolate, this is made of cocoa butter, sugar, milk, and vanilla. The only difference is that white chocolate doesn't have any cocoa solids. Since the FDA won't let American producers label a product "chocolate" unless it has those cocoa solids, domestic white chocolate is known by a hodge-podge of different names. White chocolate scorches easily, so cook it gently. Bars and wafers usually taste better than chips. Avoid white chocolate that's made with vegetable oil instead of cocoa butter--it's cheaper but not nearly as good.

These are used to make white chocolate chip cookies. They contain less cocoa butter than ordinary white chocolate, so it's harder to melt them.

Peruvians make popcorn and corn nuts out of this.

This eggplant comes in different shapes and sizes and, except for the exterior color, is interchangeable with their purple cousins, the American eggplant and the Italian eggplant.

This blush wine goes well with poultry and seafood.

This pale yellow miso is the sweetest and mildest of them all. It's used to make light soups, salad dressings, desserts, and marinades for fish. It's aged only briefly and isn't as salty as other forms of miso.

These are the mushrooms you're most likely to find in supermarkets. They're good raw, but more flavorful if cooked.

These popular cooking onions are often called for in Hispanic dishes, since they have a cleaner, more tangy flavor than yellow onions. They're slightly more prone to mold than yellow onions, so store them in a dry, well-ventilated place.

Indian cooks use these as a thickener in their curries and as a filling in baked goods.

Most varieties of rice are processed into white rice at the mill, where the grains are scoured to remove the husk, bran, and part of the germ. This processing strips some of the nutrients, but make the rice tender and fast-cooking. Many producers sell enriched white rice, which restores some of the nutrients. If well-sealed, white rice can be stored almost indefinitely in a cool, dry place.

This Asian vinegar is milder and sweeter than Western vinegars. It's used in Japan to make sushi rice and salads, and in China to flavor stir-fries and soups. Western cooks often use it to flavor delicate chicken or fish dishes, or to dress salads or vegetables. Japanese brands tend to be milder than Chinese, but they can be used interchangeably.

These low-starch potatoes are great for boiling.

This is used to make daiquiris, piña coladas, mai tais, and many other cocktails. The best white rum comes from Puerto Rico, but Trinidad, Barbados, and the Virgin Islands also produce it. Bacardi, Ronrico, and DonQ are popular brands.

This tropical fruit has sweet, creamy pulp that's wonderful in fruit salads or shakes. They arrive in the summer. Since they bruise easily when ripe, they're usually sold while they're still hard. Take them home and let them ripen on the counter for a few days until they yield to a gentle squeeze. Remove the peel and seeds before serving.

This cheap vinegar gets all the mundane jobs, like making pickles, cleaning out coffee pots, and washing windows. Distilled from ethyl alcohol, it's a bit too harsh for most recipes, but it does a great job with pickles. Be careful if you're substituting another vinegar in a pickle recipe--to adequately preserve, vinegar should have an acidity level of at least 5%.

White wines are more delicate than red wines and are always served chilled. Dry (i.e., not sweet) white wines include Chardonnay, Chablis, and Sauvignon Blanc. These are normally served with fish, poultry, veal, blue cheeses, and anything with a cream sauce. Sweeter white wines are often described as "fruity" and include Gewürztraminer, Johannisberg Riesling, and Chenin Blanc. These are good with spicy foods, fruit, and desserts.

This is a moderately tangy vinegar that French cooks use to make Hollandaise and Béarnaise sauces, vinaigrettes, soups, and stews. It's also an excellent base for homemade fruit or herb vinegars.

This is the most popular blush wine, and it goes well with pork, poultry, and spicy dishes. It's not at all like ordinary Zinfandel, a dry red wine.

These are grains that are either unprocessed or stripped only of their tough outer hulls. By themselves, whole grains are bland, so it's best to combine them with more assertive ingredients. It also helps to toast the grains before cooking them--this boosts their flavor and speeds up the cooking a bit.

Several varieties of pasta are made with whole wheat instead of a more refined flour. This makes the pasta darker but more nutritious.

These thick rice noodles are popular both in Southeast Asia and China. Soak the noodles in hot water until soft, then either boil them or add them along with some broth to your stir-fry.

This chewy, nutty-tasting hybrid contains neither wild rice nor pecans. It's only partially milled, so it retains some of the bran and has a nutty flavor.

This isn't a rice, but rather a grass seed. Compared to rice, it's richer in protein and other nutrients and has a more distinctive, nutty flavor. The downside is that it's more expensive than rice and takes longer to cook. It's especially good with poultry and game. Cultivated wild rice isn't as expensive--nor as flavorful--as "wild" wild rice. Wild rice or manoomin is an important traditional food source for North American Indians. It grows naturally in marshes and the wet margins of lakes but is also grown commercially. There are three main species of the genus Zizania in North America; palustris (northern wild rice), aquatica (annual or southern wild rice) and texana (Texas wild rice).

Wine is an alcoholic beverage made from the fermented juice of fruit, usually grapes. There are four broad categories: table wines, sparkling wines, fortified wines, and fruit wines. Table wines are the most common, and they're grouped by color--red, white, and blush, which is sometimes called rosé. A red wine should be served at room temperature, and it goes well with hearty, meat-based dishes like steak and spaghetti. White and blush wines should be served chilled, and they go best with lighter fare, like fish and chicken. Many wines, called varietals, are named after the variety of grape used to make them. Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel, and Pinot Noir are popular red varietals, while Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc, and Johannisberg Riesling are popular white ones. In Europe, some wines, often blends of different varietals, are named after the place where the wine is produced, like Bordeaux, Burgundy, Chablis, Rhine, and Rhône. These European wines are often superb, but American wines that have borrowed these regional names, like California Chablis, are almost always mediocre. If you're buying a domestic wine, it's often better to go with a varietal, like a California Cabernet Sauvigno

These are balls of brewer's yeast that are sold in Asian markets. They're used to make wine.

This is wine that's been reduced to a syrup, which de-alcoholizes it and allows it to be stored for a longer period of time. Professional chefs sometimes make this to use up half-empty bottles of wine that would otherwise go bad in a few days. The syrup can be used in sauces or other dishes that call for wine.

Wine vinegars are milder and less acidic than cider or white distilled vinegar, so they're a good choice for salad dressings, sauces, and marinades. There are several varieties, ranging from mild champagne vinegar to the tangy white and red wine vinegars to the dark and assertive balsamic and sherry vinegars. The milder vinegars go best with more delicate dishes, like salads, which stronger ones are best for deglazing pans, marinating meats, and adding tang to sauces. Rice vinegar, though it's sometimes called rice wine vinegar, is made from fermented rice, not rice wine.

This is used to convert the sugar in fruit juices into alcohol and carbon dioxide. There are different varieties, each best suited to producing a certain wine. Champagne yeast, for example, produces more bubbles than other forms of wine yeast.

This tart apple is great for eating out of hand or for making cider. It keeps for a relatively long time.

This pods have deep ridges, and attached leaves that open up like wings. Young ones are best. Don't confuse this with the yard-long bean, which is also sometimes called an asparagus bean.

This Asian squash-like fruit has a mild flavor similar to a cucumber. It should be peeled, seeded, and cooked before eating. Don't confuse it with sweet melons like Honeydews or cantaloupes, which sometimes also go by the name "winter melons."

These are especially good for baking.

This resembles ordinary purslane, only the leaves and stems are smaller and more delicate.