All Ingredients

Bay leaves are a staple of Mediterranean cuisines, lending a woodsy flavor to sauces, stews, and grilled meats. It's best to add whole leaves, then remove them before serving the dish. The Turkish bay leaf is smaller and less potent than the California bay leaf, but more highly prized due to the complexity of its flavor. Dried leaves are a good substitute for fresh.

Shopping hints: These are easier to find in the East than in the West. Frozen scallops are a good substitute for fresh.

This boneless French ham is similar to prosciutto.

These Chinese noodles are made from yuba, the skin that forms on soy milk when it's heated. They're chewy and very nutritious.

This name is used for both bean sauce and miso.

This salty brown sauce is made from fermented soybeans, and is available in cans or jars. If you buy it in a can, transfer it into a jar. It can then be stored indefinitely in the refrigerator. Chinese bean sauce isn't as salty as Thai bean sauce.

This is made from the skin that forms on the top of heated soy milk. It's rich in protein, and used by Chinese and Japanese cooks in soups. Look for it in Asian food stores.

These slender, gelatinous noodles are widely used throughout China and Southeast Asia. They're made from mung beans and almost flavorless, though they readily absorb other flavors. They're commonly used in soups, stir-fries, salads, desserts, and even drinks. Before using, soak them in hot water until they're soft and transparent (about 15 minutes), then add them to boiling water and cook them for no more than a minute. Rinse them in cold water and drain. The dried noodles can also be deep fried to make a crunchy garnish or bed for sauces.

Compared with beef, bear is high in protein and low in fat and calories. Make sure you cook it thoroughly--it's possible to contract trichinosis from undercooked bear meat.

These grow yellow and sour-tasting with age, so buy only white ones. They're best sautéed or gently boiled.

This is a seasoning mix manufactured by Spices Islands that combines salt, onion, and celery flavors.

This semi-firm raw cow's milk cheese is slightly sweet and has a nice texture. It's a great melting cheese, so it's often used in fondues.

This is a region in Eastern France that produces light, fruity, fresh-tasting red wines that are relatively low in alcohol. Beaujolais wines should be drunk while young.

This French cow's milk cheese has a mild, nutty flavor

Beechnuts are small, triangular nuts. They're usually roasted.

Fresh beef has cream-colored fat and bright red meat. The best beef is marbled with fine strands of fat, which bastes the meat as it cooks and makes it tender and juicy. Lower grades of beef have thicker marbling or no marbling, so the meat's tougher after you cook it. Choice breeds include Angus, Kobe, Chianina, and lean but tender Piedmontese.

This is a tough cut of meat, so it's usually braised or cooked in liquid to tenderize it. A steak from this roast is called a 7-bone steak.

This is an economical steak cut from a 7-bone pot roast. It's rather tough, so your best bet is to braise it. If you insist on grilling or broiling it, be sure to marinate it overnight to make it as tender as possible.

This is just a butcher's blade away from the shoulder roast, and the main difference between the two is that the arm roast has a round bone in it and is slightly more tender. You can use this for a pot roast, or cut it up for stew meat, but it's too tough to cook with dry heat. A steak cut from this roast is called an arm steak.

This is a steak cut from an arm roast. It's too tough to grill or broil, but it's very tasty if you braise it.

These aren't very meaty, but the ribs are long and fun to eat. They come in slabs containing several ribs. Grill the whole slab, then cut them into individual ribs when you serve them. Allow 1/2 to 1 pound per person.

This makes a good pot roast, but it's too tough to cook using dry heat

These are usually boiled with other ingredients to make a flavorful soup base. The meatier the better.

The bottom round is usually divided into two smaller cuts: the bottom round roast and the rump roast.

These roasts are cut from the bottom round. Some people roast them in the oven, but they're a bit tough and work better as pot roasts.

A bullion cube weighs 0.14 ounce and with water makes one cup.

Northerners like to use the brisket to make corned beef, but Southerners often prefer to barbecue it because they like the way the meat pulls apart into tender, juicy strands. Briskets are usually sold boneless, and often cut into two parts: the flat cut = flat half = first cut = thin cut and the fattier and cheaper point cut = point half = front cut = thick cut.

The chuck section comes from the shoulder and neck of the beef, and it yields some of the most flavorful and economical cuts of meat. The downside is that these cuts tend to be tough and fatty, and they have more than their fair share of bone and gristle. It's usually best to cook them slowly in a liquid.

This is one of the more tender cuts from the chuck section, so you can cook it in liquid or roast it in the oven. A steak cut from this roast is called a chuck eye steak.

This steak isn't bad, considering it's a chuck steak. In fact, it's tender enough to grill or broil, provided that you marinate it overnight first.

Chuck steaks comes from the neck and shoulder of the beef, and they tend to be chewy but flavorful and inexpensive. Most of them are too tough to grill, broil, or pan-fry--it's better to braise them or cut them up as stew meat. If you must grill one, make sure you marinate it overnight first.

Think of this as a T-bone steak without any of the choice tenderloin muscle in it. These steaks are sometimes also called Delmonico steaks, though that name is more often used for rib-eye steaks. To add to the confusion, rib steaks are sometimes called club steaks.

This is a small, boneless steak cut from the sirloin. It's got good flavor, but it's a bit tougher than other steaks so you might want to marinate before cooking it.

If boneless, this is sometimes called an English roll. This makes a fine pot roast, but it's too tough to roast with dry heat.

This is a relatively tough cut of meat that the butcher tenderizes by turning it almost into hamburger. In some parts of the country, a minute steak is a small, thin sirloin steak.

This boneless roast looks like a choice tenderloin, but it's much tougher. It's best to cook it very slowly using moist heat. A steak cut from this roast is an eye round steak.