All Ingredients

These are less than an inch in diameter, perfect for adding to salads or crudité platters, or grilling on skewers. There are both red and yellow varieties.

This feathery green herb tastes like a subtle blend of parsley and anise. It's far more plentiful in Europe than in America. Avoid the dried version--it has very little flavor.

Said to be England's oldest cow's milk cheese, is a good cooking cheese. Blue Cheshire is a blue-veined version.

These sweet, starchy, low-fat nuts are quite common in southern Europe, where people eat them hot from the roaster, or add them to soups, stuffing, and desserts. They appear fresh in the fall and winter, but you can find them dried, vacuum-packed, or canned throughout the year. Before you can eat them, fresh chestnuts need to be boiled or roasted, and then shelled and peeled. To roast them, cut an X into each shell (to allow steam to escape) and bake them in a 400° oven for about twenty minutes. While they're still warm, peel off both the shell and the furry skin surrounding each nut. Alternatively, boil the chestnuts for about 15 minutes, then remove them from the water with a slotted spoon. Peel off the shells and put the nuts back in the boiling water for another minute, then remove them again and peel off the skins. Select fresh chestnuts that are shiny and heavy for their size. Store them in the refrigerator and use them within a week or so. Don't confuse chestnuts with water chestnuts, which are completely different.

This is made with puréed chestnuts, brown sugar, and vanilla. It's used as an ingredient in several desserts, including Mont Blanc. Refrigerate after opening.

Italian use chestnut flour to make rich desserts, and sometimes breads and pasta. It also makes terrific pancakes. Don't confuse it with water chestnut flour, which is used in Asian cuisine.

Europeans use this to make everything from soups to stuffings to desserts. You can buy it either sweetened or unsweetened. If you're not sure which one your recipe is calling for, get unsweetened purée and add sugar later if needed.

Don't confuse this aged goat cheese with the far more common chevre frais (fresh chevre). Use within a few days after purchasing. For best flavor, serve at room temperature.

These are small edible seed that originated in Mexico.

These resemble alfalfa sprouts, and can be harvested right off that ceramic chia pet you got as a gift.

A lot of cheap domestic red wines go by this name, but the real thing comes from Tuscany and has a seal of authenticity on the neck. Italian Chianti is a hearty wine that's great with Italian food

Chicken is a relatively lean and inexpensive meat, so it's a culinary workhorse. Broiler-fryers = fryers = broilers are between 2 1/2 and 5 pounds, and can be broiled, roasted, or fried. They're not good for stewing. Stewing chickens are tougher and best used, as their name suggests, in stews and soups. Capons are castrated male chickens that are large (between 5 and 10 pounds) and tender, and have relatively more white meat. They're great for roasting.

One chicken bouillon cube weighs 0.14 ounce and with water makes one cup of broth.

Like calf's liver, these are highly prized for their exquisite flavor.

This got its name because it has the texture of cooked chicken. You can sauté it or, if you want to make mock chicken, simmer it in chicken stock.

This nutty-flavored pea is a staple of Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cuisine, where it's used to make everything from hummus to minestrone soup. Many cooks buy them canned, since the dried peas are hard and take a long time to soak and cook. Substitutes: great northern beans (for hummus).

Look for this in Indian markets or health food stores.

When dried, a chilaca pepper is called a pasilla chile. They are mild.

This hard-to-find and moderately hot Mexican chili is used in soups, stews, tamales, and mole sauces. It imparts a yellowish color to dishes.

Unlike many chilies, these remain bright red even after drying, so they're a favorite for making chili wreaths. They're very hot and somewhat acidic. Don't confuse the dried version with the fresh or powdered versions, which go by the same name.

This herb isn't nearly as hot as the chile that comes from the same plant. It's sometimes used as a cooking green in Southeast Asia.

This is a blend of hot chile peppers, garlic, oil, and salt that's commonly used in Asian cuisine. Includes: Chinese chile (or chili) paste = Szechuan chile (or chili) paste = Sichuan chile (or chili) paste = chile paste with garlic, Korean chile paste, and Vietnamese chile paste = tuong ot toi Vietnam = prik kaeng, which is hotter than the Chinese chile paste. See also separate entries for these other chile pastes: nam prik pao, chile bean paste, sambal oelek, and sambal bajak.

This is a mild green sauce often used to stew pork

This excellent Mexican chili is loaded with flavor but hard to find. It's used to make mole negro and bean dishes. It is moderately hot.

These are very similar to pinto beans, only they're smaller and rounder. They're often used to make chili and refried beans.

This reddish-brown sauce is made from fermented soybeans and hot chilies. It's very hot.

Chili garlic sauce is a spicy garlicy paste used to flavor dishes.

Don't confuse chili powder, a spice blend, with chile powder, a close relative of cayenne.

These aren't really almonds at all, but apricot kernels. They taste a lot like bitter almonds, and have a rich, heavenly almond-extract fragrance. They're mildly toxic if eaten raw, so they should always be roasted or blanched before using. Look for plastic bags of them in Chinese markets.

These look a bit like caterpillars, and they taste like Jerusalem artichokes. They're popular in France but hard to find in the U.S. Your best bet would be an Asian market.