All Ingredients

To learn about different kinds of fat, click here. General notes on reducing fat in baking: Reducing fat will give baked goods a denser texture; to correct for this, try increasing the sugar in the recipe and/or beating the egg whites and folding them into the batter. Also try using a softer flour, like pastry or cake flour.

This is a slab of fat that runs along the back of a pig. You can render it into lard, cut it into barding strips to wrap around lean roasts, or use it to line terrine or pâté pans. It you're cutting it into sheets, it helps to put it in the freezer first until it's firm. It's also sometimes cured like bacon. It's hard to find, ask your butcher.

These Italian pasta rods are just a bit thicker than vermicelli. They're usually served with a very light sauce, or broken up and served in a broth.

To eat feijoas, just cut them in half and scoop out the pulp with a spoon. They also make terrific preserves and syrups. Look for them in large supermarkets. If they're hard when you buy them, allow them to ripen at room temperature until they give a bit when you squeeze them, then store them in the refrigerator.

Fennel tastes like licorice or anise, and it's commonly used in Italian dishes. It's very versatile; you can sauté it and add it to sauces, braise it as a side dish, or serve it raw as a crudité.

For more information, see the Wegman's Food Market's page on Fennel.

Fennel pollen is similar in flavor to fennel seeds or fennel powder. It can be expensive because it is time consuming to collect.

This is similar to anise seed, but sweeter and milder. It pairs well with fish, but Italians also like to add it to sauces, meat balls, and sausages. Both the seeds and the stalks from the plant are sometimes called fennel. If a recipe calls for a large amount, it probably intends for you to use the stalks.

This adds an earthy flavor to curries, chutneys, and sauces. It's available as seeds or powder, and you can usually find it in Indian and Middle Eastern markets. If it's not available, just leave it out of the recipe.

This mildly bitter herb is believed to have medicinal properties. Dried leaves, either whole or ground, are called kasuri methi, and they're a good substitute for fresh. Look for fresh or dried leaves in Indian markets.

This looks innocent enough, like cubes of tofu immersed in a broth, but it has a very pungent aroma and strong, cheesy flavor. It comes in two colors. The white version is often served with rice or used to flavor soups and vegetable dishes, while the red often accompanies meats. Look for it in jars or crocks in Asian markets. Store it in the refrigerator after you've opened it, keeping the cubes immersed in liquid or oil to prevent them from drying out and discoloring.

These come in plastic bags, boxes, or in cans. Those in the plastic bags are considered the best. Cooks disagree about whether they should be soaked or rinsed before using.

This is a famous Italian brand of bitters that's supposed to ease hangovers. It's flavored with over 40 herbs and spices. Branca Menta is a mint-flavored version.

This salty, crumbly cheese is common in Greek cuisine. It is made from sheep's milk sometimes combined with goat's milk. It's often stored in brine; if so, you might want to rinse it before using to remove some of the saltiness. Use within a few days after purchasing. For best flavor, serve at room temperature.

Fettuccine noodles are long, relatively thick ribbons of pasta. A narrower version is called fettuccelli, while a wider one is called fettucci. Egg fettucine goes well with cream sauces.

When a fern first emerges from the ground, its uncoiled frond is called a fiddlehead. Edible varieties of fiddleheads include those from the ostrich fern and the less common wood fern. They're available in the late spring and early summer. Select the smallest, freshest-looking fiddleheads you can find. Warning: Fiddleheads from bracken ferns resemble those from ostrich ferns, but are believed to be carcinogenic. Be very careful if you're gathering fiddleheads from the wild. Undercooked ostrich fern fiddleheads also have been linked to some cases of food poisoning.

Mexican and Spanish cooks use these short, curved strands of pasta in soups.

Varieties include Calimyrna = Smyrna and Kadota, both with green skin and pinkish-white flesh, and the most popular variety, and the Mission fig = black Mission fig, with dark purple skin and pink flesh. Dried figs are not good substitutes for fresh.

These are great for wrapping delicately flavored foods before grilling them.

This powder is made from the same sassfras tree leaves that used to give root beer its distinctive flavor, back in the days before artificial flavorings. Southerners add filé to their gumbos to thicken and flavor them. The powder gets stringy when it's heated, so add it only after you've removed the gumbo from the heat source. Filé also doesn't reheat well, so add it only to the gumbo that you're planning to eat right away.

In their soups and stir-fries, Filipinos like to use pancit canton, yellow noodles made of wheat flour and coconut oil. Slippery cornstarch noodles (called pancit luglug), are used in soups and salads.

This is salt that's been ground into small grains. Most recipes calling for salt intend for you to use finely ground salt, though coarse salt is better for certain things, like making beds for oysters and salt crusts on meat or fish, or for lining baking dishes or the rims of margarita glasses. Table salt usually comes finely ground.

There are many varieties of these small, finger-shaped potatoes, but they all tend to be low in starch, and great for roasting or making potato salads.

This ginger relative is popular in Thailand. It resembles long fingers jutting from a hand.

A fire extinguisher should be readily available in the kitchen. It should be rated for grease fires. It can be dangerous to try to put out a grease fire with water.

Click here to learn how to select, use, and store firm cheeses, and to see a list of different varieties.

Choose this style of tofu if you want to cut it into cubes for stir-frying or crumble it into salads. Rinse and drain the tofu before you use it. Tofu will absorb more flavors and hold its shape better if you press out some of the water before marinating or cooking it. To do so, place the tofu on several layers of paper towels or cheesecloth, cover it with plastic wrap, and put something heavy on it. Do this for at least an hour, or put the whole assembly in a pan and set it in the refrigerator overnight. Store tofu in the refrigerator, changing the water daily, and use it within a week. Freezing firm tofu will make it chewier and give it a meatier texture. Look for cakes of it in plastic tubs in the refrigerated sections of supermarkets and health food stores.

Fish sauce is typically made from anchovies or other small fish fermented in salt. It is used to flavor many dishes. It is very common in Asian cooking. The romans called it Garum and it was a widely used flavoring in Roman times. Filipino fish sauce that isn't as highly regarded as the Vietnamese or Thai versions, and shottsuru, a Japanese fish sauce. Red Boat, a Vietnamese fish sauce, is thought to be very similar to garum.

The French make good use of this small, creamy bean, often serving it with lamb.

These are grains that are steamed, rolled, and flaked. They can be cooked briefly to make a hot cereal, sprinkled on casseroles, or added to granola mixes, cookies, or soups.

These are common and popular red seedless grapes.

Several manufacturers make flavored pastas, many of which have vibrant colors. Popular flavors include egg (egg pasta, or pasta all'uovo), spinach (green pasta, or pasta verde), tomato, beet (purple pasta, or pasta viola), carrot (red pasta, or pasta rossa), winter squash (orange pasta, or pasta arancione), squid ink (black pasta, or pasta nera), truffle (truffle pasta, or pasta al tartufo), and chile.

These are often used to flavor Italian sodas or coffee. They come in dozens of flavors, but some of the most popular are vanilla, almond, raspberry, Irish cream, and hazelnut. Popular brands include d'Arbo, Monin, and Torani. To make your own: Make a simple syrup with equal parts sugar and water, then add flavored extract to taste. Store in the refrigerator.

These are vinegars that have been flavored, usually with herbs, fruit, garlic, or peppercorns. They're handy if you want to whip up a flavorful salad dressing or sauce in a hurry.

These are highly concentrated essences of a wide variety of flavors, like cinnamon, anise, bitter almonds, and peppermint. They're often used to make hard candies and lip glosses, but they also make excellent substitutes for extracts--just use much less than the recipe calls for. Look for flavoring oils near the spices in large supermarkets or in candy supply stores or pharmacies. You can store them indefinitely in a cool, dark place.

This is a good source of valuable omega-3 fatty acids.

Flours are made from grains or nuts that are finely ground to a powdery consistency. They're used to make breads and other baked goods, but they also serve to thicken stews and sauces and to coat foods about to be fried.

These thin flour wraps from northern Mexico are used to make burritos, chimichangas, fajitas and other Mexican dishes. They're more pliable than corn tortillas, so they're a good choice if you need to roll or fold the tortillas before cooking them. Flour tortillas come in different sizes, including small, thick "fajita tortillas" to large, thin "burrito tortillas."