All Ingredients

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."

These liqueurs are flavored with flowers. Examples include crème de violette and crème de rose.

These come from the same plant as Chinese chives. They're usually marketed and cooked before the buds open.

This is a beautiful cabbage used more often as a garnish than as a vegetable.

These fluorescent orange eggs are wonderfully crunchy and flavorful. The Japanese are particularly fond of them.

This is a category of cakes that are made with lots of stiffly beaten egg whites, which makes them light and airy. They tend to be lower in fat than shortened cakes. Examples include angel food cake, sponge cake, and génoise.

A focaccio is an Italian flatbread that resembles a pizza crust without the topping. Many cooks top it with cheese, onions, herbs, eggplant slices, and other ingredients before baking it, but you can also serve it plain.

This pricey French delicacy is simply goose or duck liver that's been lightly cooked. When aged, it becomes very rich and flavorful. Goose livers are tastier and more expensive than duck livers. Some people refuse to eat foie gras because the animals are force-fed to enlarge their livers.

Fonio is a grass similar to millet. It is an important grain in the dry areas of sub-Saharan Africa.

This well-regarded cow's milk cheese is mild but interesting, and it's a good melter.

These are wines that have been fortified with brandy and sometimes flavored with herbs, roots, peels, and spices. The most popular examples are sherry, Madeira, Marsala, port, and vermouth. Fortified wines are often used in cooking, or they're served as apéritifs or dessert wines.

This is the French version of Italy's focaccia.

The French claim to have been making this moist cow's milk blue cheese since the time of the Ancient Romans. It's cheaper and milder than many blue cheeses.

These small, wild strawberries are either white or red, and have a very intense flavor.

This is a clear French fruit brandy that's made with raspberries. Don't confuse this with framboise liqueur, which is sweeter, or with framboise syrup, which is a non-alcoholic raspberry flavoring.

This is a popular brand of hazelnut liqueur.

Tastier and more humanely raised, but tougher and more expensive. Cuts include halves = splits, which are broiler-fryers cut in half; breast halves = breast splits; breast quarters, which include the breast, wing, and back; drumsticks, which are the part of leg below the knee; drummettes, which are the meatiest wing section; and leg quarters, which include the drumstick and thigh. Cut-up chickens are broiler-fryers that are cut up and packaged with two breast halves, two thighs, two drumsticks, and two wings.

This Sardinian specialty is thought to be an ancestor of modern pasta. It consists of small, chewy balls made from coarsely ground semolina. It can be used as a bed for sauces, but it's also terrific in soups.

This is a French sausage made of tripe that has waned in popularity over the years as people have come to afford better cuts of meat. When formed into smaller links, it's called andouillette.

This is the traditional French bread that has a hard, dark brown crust and many large air pockets. The baguette = baguet (bah-GET) is the standard tube-shaped French bread, about two feet long. The bâtarde = batarde (buh-TARD) is a bit larger than a baguette, while the baton (bah-TOH), is a bit smaller, and the ficelle (fee-SELL) is much narrower.

This is a variety of grape that's often made into white jug wine.

These choice lentils were originally grown in the volcanic soils of Puy in France, but now they're also grown in North America and Italy. They're especially good in salads since they remain firm after cooking and have a rich flavor. They cook a bit slower than other lentils.

This expensive French salt comes from sea water that's pooled into basins and then evaporated. Unlike most American sea salts, it's unrefined, so it retains more of the minerals that naturally occur in seawater. There are several varieties. Gray salt = grey salt = sel gris gets its color from the clay lining the basins. La fleur de sel (the flower of the salt) is whiter, but has a similar flavor. That trendy gourmets are willing to shell out $5 for a small packet of French sea salt drives chemists crazy, since almost all of it is just plain salt, sodium chloride, NaCl. Salt aficionados counter that French sea salt has a much softer and fresher flavor than ordinary table salt, and that the difference is worth it. These salts comes either coarsely or finely ground. Since salt is an inorganic mineral, there's no point in grinding large crystals with a salt mill so they'll be "fresh." Salt, unlike pepper and spices, never goes stale. It's best to use these salts after the food is cooked, or their subtleties will be lost.

Fresh beans appear in the summer and fall, and they're sweeter and more tender than dry beans. You don't need to soak them or cook them as long as dried beans, but they often need to be shelled before using. You can usually substitute them with dried beans pound for pound.

In their fresh form, black-eyed peas are pale green and have a wonderful, nutty flavor. Unlike dried black-eyed peas, they don't need to be soaked, and they cook much faster. They arrive in markets during the late summer and early fall.

Most fresh cheese is made by curdling milk with an enzyme, and then draining off the whey. The curds that remain are molded into cheese. Fresh cheeses tend to be bland, so they're often used as vehicles for other flavorings. Some, like cream cheese, are used to make dips or cheesecakes. Others, like ricotta cheese, are used as fillings for dumplings, pasta, crepes, or pastries. Still others, like cottage cheese, can be a meal all by themselves once they're perked up with herbs, fruit, or other flavorings. Fresh cheeses have a higher moisture content and are usually lower in fat and sodium than other cheeses. Most are highly perishable, so check the expiration date when you buy them and keep them tightly wrapped or covered in the refrigerator. Moist fresh cheeses like cottage cheese and ricotta should be eaten within a week of purchase; firmer cheeses like cream cheese and farmer's cheese can usually be stored for about two weeks. Don't eat fresh cheese if mold appears on it. Tips: Fresh cheese work best in cold dishes. Fresh cheeses tend to break when added to hot sauces, so add them at the last minute. Lactose-intolerant people may prefer aged cheese over fresh, since aged cheese contains less lactose.

These are available in the summer months.

Fresh fava beans are available in the summer and are much better tasting than canned, dried, or frozen ones. Young fava beans need only be shelled, but more mature beans should also be peeled to rid them of the tough, waxy skin that surrounds each bean. The best way to do this is to blanch the shelled beans for a minute in boiling water, plunge them into cold water, and pull off the skins. Select large fava beans that don't have black spots on them, Larger ones are the best. About 400 million people worldwide have favism, an enzyme deficiency. Eating fava beans can cause adverse symptoms in some of them.

Hispanic cooks like their cheese bland and salty, the better to complement their spicy sauces. They also want cheese to hold its shape when heated. Monterey jack, the standard substitute for Hispanic cheeses, tends to ooze out of chiles rellenos and enchiladas when baked. Authentic recipes call for panela or queso blanco, which soften but don't melt when heated. Hispanic fresh cheeses often keep better than other fresh cheeses--some can be stored for months in the refrigerator. Varieties: Best for topping casseroles or bean dishes: queso fresco. Best for fried cheese recipes: queso para freir, queso blanco, queso panela. Best for filling casserole dishes like enchiladas: queso panela, queso blanco. Best for salads: queso panela. Best for tacos and burritos: queso panela. Best for refried beans: queso panela.

These are exquisitely sweet and tender, as long as you get to them soon after they're picked. The freshest pods are brightly colored and snap crisply when you bend them. Fresh lima beans don't need to be soaked and you need only cook them about 15 minutes.

Fresh mozzarella = high-moisture mozzarella is used in Caprese salads or as an appetizer and is often packaged in tubs or bags filled with water. more delicate; it's often drizzled with olive oil and serve uncooked as an appetizer, or in Caprese salads. It works in pizza, too, but you should first put slices of it into a colander to drain for about an hour, and put them on the pizza only during the last minute of cooking. Bocconcini (Pronunciation: BOK-kuhn-CHEE-nee) are small balls of high-moisture mozzarella. High-moisture mozzarellas are much more perishable than their low-moisture counterparts, so use them within a few days of purchase. Buffalo milk has a much higher fat content than cow's milk, so buffalo milk mozzarella, or mozzarella di bufalo, is creamier and also more expensive than cow-milk mozzarella = fior di latte.

Fresh peas are sweeter and more tender than their dry counterparts. To shell one, just pull down the string and squeeze the pod at the seams, then scrape out the peas and discard the pods. As with corn, freshness is crucial since peas begin converting their sugar into starch as soon as they're picked. The freshest pods are brightly colored and snap crisply when you bend them. Fresh peas don't need to be soaked and they cook fairly quickly.

This makes a great roast for a large crowd. It's usually cured as ham, so you might have to special-order it to get it fresh. It's sold either boneless or bone-in, and either whole or halved. The bottom half is called the shank portion = shank roast = leg roast, while the upper is called a top leg roast = inside roast = butt portion = pork leg butt = fresh ham butt = pork leg roast sirloin portion. A steak cut from the leg is called a fresh pork leg steak.

This is a steak cut from the middle of a fresh pork leg. It's economical, but a bit tough, so you might want to marinate it before grilling or broiling it. You can also slice it into strips and stir-fry them.

This form of yeast usually comes in 0.6-ounce or 2-ounce foil-wrapped cakes. It works faster and longer than active dry yeast, but it's very perishable and loses potency a few weeks after it's packed. It's popular among commercial bakers, who can keep ahead of the expiration dates, but home bakers usually prefer dry yeast. To use, soften the cake in a liquid that's 70° - 80° F. Store fresh yeast in the refrigerator, well wrapped, or in the freezer, where it will keep for up to four months. If you freeze it, defrost it for a day in the refrigerator before using.

These are similar to jalapeno peppers, but with thinner walls. They're great in salsas. Green Fresnos are available in the summer. the hotter red ones come out in the fall.

These peppery Italian crackers are baked twice, which makes them hard and dry and gives them a long shelf life. They're usually rehydrated with water and then topped with olive oil and other flavorings like herbs, cheese, and tomatoes.

The French love frog's legs, but it's hard for some of us to get past the eerie resemblance between a frog's anatomy and our own. Fresh frog's legs are easy to find in Chinese markets, but they only show up sporadically in other markets. If you can't find them fresh, frozen frog's legs are an acceptable substitute.

This usually has the consistency of thick yogurt. It is made from cow's milk. It's expensive and hard to find, but very tasty and relatively low in fat. It makes a great topping for desserts.

This is the French term for "fresh cheese." It is made from cow's milk. This category includes fromage blanc, Petit-Suisse, and chevre frais.