All Ingredients

These are small pears with red and green skins. They're very sweet and juicy and they'd be absolutely perfect if only the skins weren't a bit too thick.

The category "seeds" includes not just the familiar sunflower and pumpkin seeds, but also legumes, nuts, and grains, as well as many spices.

This is a vegetarian meat substitute that's rich in protein, low in fat, and chewy enough to pass for steak or chicken. It's made by mixing gluten flour or wheat flour with water, kneading it, washing away the starch with water, and then cooking the rubbery gluten that remains in a flavored broth. The seitan can then be sliced or shaped however you like and then fried, steamed, baked, or added to stews. Look for packages or tubs of it in the refrigerated sections of Asian markets and health food stores. You can also buy it in the form of meat-flavored sausage, salami, and deli cuts. Store seitan in the refrigerator for up to ten days, or for up to six months in the freezer.

This is more commonly used in the South than in the North.

These "melon seeds" are a type of Italian pasta commonly served in broths.

These tiny pasta shapes are usually served in a broth or very light soup.

Most semi-firm cheeses are pressed during production to remove moisture. As they age, they become even firmer and more pungent and crumbly. Most of these cheeses are great for snacks and sandwiches, and many can be cooked without becoming rubbery or oily. Semi-firm cheese tend to have a longer shelf life than softer cheeses. Many can last about 1-2 months in the refrigerator if the package isn't opened, 3-4 weeks if opened, and 2 weeks if sliced.

semi-soft cheese Notes: These cheeses are great for snacking or desserts, and a few are heat-tolerant enough to be good cooking cheeses. Cheeses lose character when frozen, but many semi-soft cheeses can be frozen and thawed without losing too much flavor, though some become crumbly. For best results, first cut the cheese into small (1/2 pound) chunks, and wrap each chunk in an airtight package. Thaw in the refrigerator, and use the cheese soon after it's thawed.

Americans like this best for their cookies and brownies. It's available in bars, chunks, and chips. Mint-flavored semi-sweet chips are also available.

This is a grape variety that's sometimes developed into a dry white wine, sometimes into a excellent dessert wine.

Semolina is made mostly with durum wheat.

This is raw cow's milk Brazilian cheese.

This Spanish dry-cured ham doesn't need to be cooked before eating. It's not smoked, and it's usually cut into very thin slices.

These have thin walls, so they don't need to be charred, steamed, and peeled before using. They are moderately hot. When dried, this is called a chile seco.

This is a paste made from toasted black (i.e., unhulled) sesame seeds. It's similar to sesame paste, but thicker and darker. Once you've opened it, store it in the refrigerator unless you plan to use it up within a week or so.

This comes from the same plant that gives us sesame seeds. Koreans use them to wrap packets of meat or as a fresh herb.

includes light sesame oil and stronger dark sesame oil. Sesame oil has a low smoke point and is relatively expensive, so it's not good for frying.

This is a paste made from ordinary white sesame seeds. It's used in the Middle East to make hummus, baba ghanouj, and sauces. The oil tends to rise to the top, so stir before using. Once you've opened it, store it in the refrigerator unless you plan to use it up within a week or so.

These nutritious seeds have a mild, nutty flavor. They're commonly used in baked goods, Asian stir-fries, and Middle-Eastern candies. European recipes for sesame seeds are usually referring to white sesame seeds, but Indian and Asian recipes sometimes intend for you to use the more pungent black sesame seeds. Substitutes: pumpkin seeds

This is a large, green, brine-cured olive.

These are too bitter to eat out of hand, but they make a wonderful orange marmalade and the sour juice is perfect for certain mixed drinks.

In recent years, over-fishing in the Caspian Sea has greatly depleted sturgeon populations. Please consider using caviar and roe from more abundant species until the Caspian Sea sturgeon populations can recover. Greenish-gray sevruga has the smallest eggs and strongest flavor of all the caviars. Because of this, it's cheaper than beluga or ossetra, but still quite good. If substituting an inferior caviar, consider perking it up with a splash of fresh lemon juice. For substitutions for caviar in general, click here.

You can buy lobes of this roe fresh in the springtime, or in cans during the rest of the year. Canned shad roe is good, but not quite as good as fresh.

Australians use the term shallots to describe green onions, but to Americans, shallots are shaped like small brown onions with papery brown skins. They have a more delicate, garlicky flavor than other cooking onions, and are a common ingredient in French sauces. Many people find them too hot to eat raw. They're available year-round.

These thick noodles are often used in stir-fries or soups.

Chinese rice wine varies in quality, so cookbooks often specify Shaoxing rice wine, which is quite good. The Chinese drink it from small porcelain cups, in the same way that the Japanese drink their sake. Shaoxing cooking wine may be salted.

When ripe, this has an orange background with green netting. It's very perishable, so don't wait more than two days after getting it home to eat it.

These can be either steel or ceramic rods.

These are heavy duty scissors used to cut through chicken bones and other difficult items.

Sheep's milk is higher in fat than cow's milk, so these cheeses are rich and creamy. Like goat cheeses, they're also a bit tangy. Examples include Pecorino Romano (pecora is the Italian word for sheep), Roquefort, Manchego, Idiazábal, and Manouri.

This fortified Spanish wine is typically served in small glasses before dinner, but many cooks also keep a bottle handy in the kitchen to perk up sauces, soups, and desserts. There are two categories of sherry: fino and oloroso. Fino sherry = Palma sherry is dry, fruity, and expensive. Examples of fino include the exquisite Manzanilla and the potent and nutty Amontillado. Oloroso sherry is more heavily fortified than fino. Examples include Amoroso and cream sherry, both of which are sweetened and especially popular in Britain. Once bottled, sherry doesn't age well, so you should plan to use it no more than a year or two after you buy it. Once opened, fino sherries should be consumed within a few days and stored in the refrigerator. Oloroso sherries can be stored a bit longer, say a week. Cooking sherry usually has added salt, and is shunned by more experienced cooks.

Sherry vinegar is Spain's answer to balsamic vinegar. It's assertive yet smooth, and great for deglazing pans and perking up sauces, especially those that will accompany hearty meats like duck, beef, or game. The most expensive sherry vinegars are aged for a long time in wood casks.