All Ingredients

Pods of this spice are sold in Indian markets. Some recipes call for the entire pod to be used, others call for the ground seeds. Don't confuse this with the more common (green) cardamom, which comes in round green or tan pods.

These are the standard khaki-colored lentils you see on grocery shelves everywhere. They tend to get mushy if overcooked. If you want them to be firm, add oil to the cooking water and cook the lentils just a short while, say 15 minutes.

These are smaller and hotter than the yellow mustard seeds that most western cooks are familiar with. Look for this in Indian markets.

Many rice varieties come as either brown rice or white rice. Brown rice isn't milled as much as white, so it retains the bran and germ. That makes brown rice more fiber-rich, nutritious, and chewy. Unfortunately, it doesn't perform as well as white rice in many recipes. Long grains of brown rice aren't as fluffy and tender, and short grains aren't as sticky. Brown rice also takes about twice as long to cook and has a much shorter shelf life (because of the oil in the germ). Keep it in a cool, dark place for not more than three months. Refrigeration can extend shelf life.

Health buffs like this because it contains complex sugars, which are absorbed more slowly into the bloodstream. It's about half as sweet as ordinary table sugar. Some rice syrups include barley malt, and may pose a problem for people with gluten allergies.

These heirloom beans are great in soups.

These look like small cabbages, and they're most often boiled or steamed and served as a side dish. They have a rather strong flavor, so it's best not to pair them with anything that's delicately flavored. They don't store well, so use them within a day or two after purchasing.

Buckwheat is gluten-free, and loaded with nutrients, especially protein, and it has a nutty, earthy flavor. It's most commonly ground into a dark, gritty flour and used to make everything from pancakes to soba noodles. Eastern Europeans also like their buckwheat crushed into small groats, which they toast in oil and use to make side dishes and breakfast cereals.

This is a low-gluten gray flour that's great in pancakes and pastas. To see how to substitute other flours for wheat flours when making yeast breads, see the listing under all-purpose flour

These are finely ground buckwheat groats that cook very quickly. They're commonly used as a breakfast cereal.

These are buckwheat kernels that are stripped of their inedible outer coating and then crushed into smaller pieces. Unprocessed white groats are slightly bitter, so before you cook them it's a good idea to toast them in oil for several minutes until they're rust-colored. This removes the bitterness and brings out a pleasant, nutty flavor. If you don't want to do this yourself, you can buy already roasted groats, called kasha.

This fragrant fruit has hardly any flesh, but the peel can be candied

Buffalo meat tastes like beef, but it's a lot leaner. To keep tender cuts from drying out, cook them to no more than medium rare. Tougher cuts should be cooked very slowly over low heat.

The buffalo fish is a North American bottom feeding game fish. It is similar to a carp. They are long lived and can grow up to 80 lb. and 4'.

Bulgur is made from whole wheat that's been soaked and baked to speed up the cooking time. It's especially popular in the Middle East, where it's used to make tabouli and pilafs. Bulgur comes either whole, or cracked into fine, medium, or coarse grains.

This Italian heirloom pepper is shaped like a bull's horn, and many cooks think it's a lot more flavorful than an ordinary bell pepper.

This air-dried beef is a Swiss delicacy. It's much more delicate that ordinary beef jerky.

Burdock is becoming increasingly popular in the United States, but it's already an important vegetable in Asia. It lends an interesting, earthy flavor to soups, stews, or stir-fried dishes. Select small, firm roots.

Burgundy is a region in eastern France that produces excellent red wines, but the Burgundy wines produced in the United States are usually inexpensive jug wines made from different grape varieties.

Burgundy is a region in eastern France that produces excellent red and white wines. Some of the better wine-producing areas in Burgundy are Chablis and Pouilly-Fuissé, both of which produce exquisite white wines from Chardonnay grapes. Burgundy wines produced in the United States are usually inexpensive blends of different grape varieties.

Burrata is a soft, white Italian cow's milk cheese that similar to fresh mozzarella, except that the balls are filled with stracciatella and cream, making it especially rich and creamy. It would work well in a Caprese salads or as an appetizer.

This is a delicious solid fat churned from milk. It's used in baking, frying, and as a spread on toast and muffins. Recipes that call for butter in most better cookbooks are referring to unsalted butter = sweet cream butter = sweet butter. Salted butter doesn't spoil as readily (the salt serves as a preservative). See also the entries for whipped butter and European-style butter.

This is the standard cake that we cover with frosting and serve at birthdays, weddings, and graduations. It comes in many flavors, and is easily made at home either from scratch or powdered mixes.

These crisp cookies are made with butter. They're sometimes crushed and use to make pie crusts.

This resembles a tightly woven cheesecloth and is used for straining fine particles from a liquid.

This salt has extremely fine grains. It's used to salt butter.

With sweet and creamy orange flesh, the buttercup is one of the more highly regarded winter squashes. The biggest shortcoming is that it tends to be a bit dry. Choose specimens that are heavy for their size.

The name "butterfish" is sometimes also given to sablefish and to the delicious escolar, which you should read about before buying, since it's also called ex-lax fish.

This category includes Bibb lettuce and Boston lettuce.

Despite its name and creamy consistency, buttermilk is relatively low in fat. It's sometimes tolerated by people with lactose intolerance since some of the lactose is fermented by bacteria. Most of the buttermilk found in supermarkets is cultured buttermilk, made by adding a bacterial culture to low-fat or nonfat milk. More authentic and tasty, though, is churn buttermilk, which is the liquid that remains after milk is churned into butter. Since recipes often call for just small amounts of buttermilk, many cooks use reconstituted powdered buttermilk. Churn buttermilk may require longer baking times than ordinary commercial buttermilk.

You won't find this tangy, creamy cheese in supermarkets, but it's easy to make at home. To make your own: Line a colander with several folds of cheesecloth or a kitchen towel. Pour buttermilk into the cloth, then put the colander into a larger container and let it drain overnight in the refrigerator until it's reduced to a cheeselike consistency.

This walnut relative is hard to find outside of New England.

This variety is very popular because it's so easy to use. It's small enough to serve a normal family without leftovers, and the rind is thin enough to peel off with a vegetable peeler. As an added bonus, the flavor is sweet, moist, and pleasantly nutty.

This is a tangy and bittersweet French vermouth that's made with quinine and red wine. It's usually mixed with club soda.

Cabbage is a nutritional powerhouse that can be eaten raw, usually in slaws, or steamed, boiled, or sautéed. Choose heads that are unblemished, smallish, and heavy for their size. They're cheapest and best in the late fall, winter, and early spring. Store them uncut and unwashed, in a plastic bag in the crisper section of your refrigerator. Many varieties will remain fresh for several weeks. Varieties include green cabbage, which is what recipes often mean when they simply say "cabbage," red cabbage, napa cabbage, savoy cabbage, su choy, Brussels sprouts, and kohlrabi.

Cabernet Franc grapes are related to Cabernet Sauvignon, but they make for a lighter, fruitier wine. The wine is often blended with others, but sometimes sold as a varietal wine.

Cabernet Sauvignon grapes make a hearty, complex red wine that's especially good with roasted meats and heavy stews. Domestic Cabernets are often excellent.

This is a crumbly and very pungent blue cheese from Spain. It is usuually made from cow's milk but can be made with other kinds of milk.

This sugarcane brandy is made in Brazil, where the name means "burning water." Velho Barreto is a well-regarded brand.

These small sweet peppers come in different colors and looks like squished bell peppers. They're popular in the Caribbean, where they're often stuffed and roasted.