All Ingredients

Fruit vinegars are assertive without being pungent, so they make terrific salad dressings. More healthful ones, too--since they're not as pungent as other vinegars, you can cut calories by using less oil. They're also good in marinades and in sauces for roasted meats, especially poultry, ham, pork, and veal. Popular commercial vinegars include raspberry vinegar, blueberry vinegar, and mango vinegar. They're easy enough to make at home, but seek out a trustworthy recipe. If too much fruit is added to the vinegar, it may not be sufficiently acidic to ward off harmful microbes.

This is wine made from fruit other than grapes.

This is brandy that has fruit flavoring and coloring added. Don't confuse these sweet liqueurs with the more elegant and expensive fruit brandy, which is distilled from whole fruit

This is in season from late fall through spring. It's not quite as buttery as the Hass avocado, but its flavor is excellent.

This variety is good for eating out of hand, or for making applesauce or pies.

These tiny pasta shapes look like mushrooms and are usually served in a broth or very light soup. A larger version called funghetti works well in thicker soups.

This Japanese salt substitute combines black and white sesame seeds, nori, red shiso leaves, and additional flavorings.

This is a type of Italian pasta that's shaped like either like screws or springs. This is a good choice for pasta salads and casseroles, or for serving with hearty, thick sauces. A long version of the spring-shaped fusilli is called fusilli col buco.

This is a long version of the spring-shaped fusilli.

This sweet and mild squash has a fuzzy feel to it.

These are small, purple Italian olives are either dry-cured (making them black and wrinkled) or brine-cured (making them dark purple and smooth-skinned).

Asian cooks like to pickle this, or else use it in soups or stir-fries. If you find gai choy too pungent to stir-fry, blanch it first in salted water.

This apple is outstanding for eating out of hand or for baking or making applesauce.

Look for this in Asian markets. It's sold fresh, frozen, dried, or powdered, but use the dried or powdered versions only in a pinch.

This is cold cut resembles a chunky mortadella.

This sweet, juicy melon is a honeydew-cantaloupe cross. Its biggest drawback is its relatively high price.

This excellent Italian liqueur is flavored with anise and comes in a bottle that's one inch taller than your liquor cabinet. It's used to make Harvey Wallbangers and other cocktails.

This name is given to American red wines made mostly from Pinot Noir and Valdiguie grapes. It's an unexceptional fruity wine that goes best with hearty dishes that have rich sauces. Don't confuse this wine with Gamay or Napa Gamay, both of which are superior. The name Gamay Beaujolais is scheduled to be phased out by 2007.

This name is given to American red wines made mostly from Pinot Noir and Valdiguie grapes. It's an unexceptional fruity wine that goes best with hearty dishes that have rich sauces. Don't confuse this wine with Gamay or Napa Gamay, both of which are superior. The name Gamay Beaujolais is scheduled to be phased out by 2007.

This Danish liqueur is flavored with 29 herbs and spices. It's usually served at room temperature.

This expensive Spanish cheese is made from the milks of cows, sheep, and goats. It's smoked, giving it a very complex flavor. It is made from mixture of cow, sheep and goat’s milk.

You can buy this either whole or ground. Durban is a well-regarded brand.

You can find these throughout the year at all but the most poorly stocked markets. The ones you find in supermarkets are usually waxed to hold in moisture and improve shelf-life--these should be peeled or at least scrubbed well before serving. Unwaxed cucumbers don't need to be peeled, but better cooks often do so since the peels tend to be thick and bitter. It's also a good idea to remove the seeds from these kinds of cucumbers; just cut them in half lengthwise and scrape them out. Select cukes that are firm, dark green, and rounded at the tips.

These are tiny eggplants, the size of an egg or smaller. Their color ranges from white to greenish-yellow.

These appear in the summer months, and they're so sweet that it's well worth the trouble to shell them. Freshness is crucial, so look for brightly colored pods that are crisp enough to snap. Petits pois are a small and tender variety.

With its quill shapes, this type of Italian egg pasta resembles penne. It's often served with a simple meat sauce.

This Nigerian flour is made from cassavas that have been fermented, roasted, and ground. Look for it in African markets.

Almost every cuisine on our planet has found an important role for garlic. Europeans mince it raw and add it to salad dressings, or sauté it and use it to flavor their sauces. Asian cooks add it to to their stir-fries; Indian cooks to their curries; Hispanic cooks to meats and vegetables. And Americans have lately taken a fancy to roasting whole bulbs, and then spreading the garlic like a soft cheese on bread or crackers. Garlic's good for you, too. Researchers believe that garlic can bolster the immune system, lower blood pressure and prevent heart disease, and at least some people believe that it can ward off vampires and insects. The only downside is that raw or undercooked garlic tends to linger on the breath, though many people are more than willing to pay that price. Types of garlic include the mild green garlic, the purple-skinned Italian garlic and Mexican garlic, and the common white-skinned garlic = California garlic, which is the most pungent of all.

When rehydrated in water, garlic flakes provide much of the flavor and texture of fresh garlic.

These are sold in spray bottles or in small jars. Look for them in the spice section of larger supermarkets. To make your own: Strain the juice from a jar of minced or pressed garlic.

Garlic powder provides some of the flavor, but not the texture, of fresh garlic. It disperses well in liquids, so it's a good choice for marinades.

These propane fueled grills are very popular.

Gelatin is flavorless and colorless, and if you dissolve it in a hot liquid, the liquid will gel as it cools. When reheated, say in your mouth, the gel melts. Most of us know gelatin as the key ingredient in the quivering dessert we call Jell-O®, but cooks also use it to make cheesecakes, mousses, marshmallows, meringues, chiffon pies, ice cream, nougats, aspics, and many other things. Gelatin will break down if exposed to the enzymes of certain raw fruits, like kiwi fruit, papayas, pineapple, peaches, mangos, guavas, and figs. Cooking these fruits, though, destroys the enzymes. If you plan to add these fruits to a gelatin salad, it's often easiest to buy them in cans, for all canned fruit is pre-cooked. Gelatin is made from the bones, skins, hooves, and connective tissue of animals, including pigs, so it's objectionable to vegetarians and members of certain religions. Kosher gelatins are available, and some of these are also vegetarian.

This is a powdered mixture of gelatin, sweetener, and artificial fruit flavoring that's used to make a molded, translucent, quivering dessert that Americans call jello. People in Britain, Australia, and New Zealand call this dessert "jelly," and use the word "jam" for the preserved fruit spread that Americans call jelly.

This pork and veal sausage is very mild and fine-grained. The name means "yellow sausage" in German, but that refers to the color of the casing rather than cream-colored sausage itself. You can put it into sandwiches or pan-fry it. It's called "diet bologna" in Germany since it's relatively low in fat.

The name means "twins" in Italian. These are short rods twisted together in a spiral pattern. They're great with any sauce, or in pasta salads or casseroles.

Genmaicha is a green tea with roasted (popped) brown rice.

This rich cake is light, pliable, and absorbent, so it forms the basis of many desserts, including tiramisu, baked Alaska, petits fours, and upside down cakes. You probably won't find them unembellished in markets, but they're easily made at home with cake flour, butter, eggs, vanilla, sugar, and salt.