Ingredients Explained

Baking Powder: a mixture of sodium bicarbonate and cream of tartar, used instead of yeast in baking.

Baking Soda: sodium bicarbonate used in cooking, for cleaning, or in toothpaste

Beans

 - Adzuki

    Appearance: small, reddish brown

    Flavor:  nutty, sweet

    Culinary: often used in Asian cuisine; particularly popular in Japanese cooking for confections

    Cooking Time: 3/4 to 1 hour

 - Baby Lima

    Appearance:flat-shaped, creamy white

    Flavor:  rich, buttery

    Culinary: soups, stews and casseroles; or simply cooked with herbs and spices.

    Cooking Time: 1 hour

 - Black Bean

    Appearance: small ovals with deep black skins; dark-cream-to-gray flesh

    Flavor:  mild, sweet, earthy; soft texture

   Culinary: sometimes called turtle beans; used in classic Latin American,Caribbean and Southwestern US cooking in soups, stews, sauces

    Cooking Time: 1 to 1½ hours

 - Blackeye/Cowpeas/Black-Eyed Peas

    Appearance: kidney shape; white skin with small black eye, very fine wrinkles

    Flavor: scented aroma, creamy texture, distinctive flavor

    Culinary: originally from Africa, still very common there; cook rapidly with no pre-soaking needed

    Cooking Time: ½ to 1 hour

 - Cranberry

    Appearance: small rounded beans, ivory color with red markings that disappear on cooking

    Flavor: creamy texture; subtle, nut-like taste

    Culinary: a favorite in northern Italian, Spanish and Portuguese cuisines

    Cooking Time: 3/4 to 1 hour

 - Dark Red Kidney

    Appearance: large, kidney-shaped, deep reddish-brown

    Flavor: robust, full-bodied, soft texture

    Culinary: often used in chili; popular in salads; paired with rice

    Cooking Time: 1½ to 2 hours

 - Garbanzo/Chickpeas

    Appearance: beige to pale yellow

    Flavor: nutlike taste, buttery texture

    Culinary: especially popular in Middle Eastern,Indian dishes — hummus, falafels, curries

    Cooking Time: 1 to 1½ hours

 - Great Northern

    Appearance: flat, kidney-shaped, medium-sized, white

    Flavor:  mild, delicate, take on flavors of other foods with which they’re cooked

    Culinary: popular in France in cassoulet; in U.S., traditionally prepared as Boston baked beans

    Cooking Time: 3/4 to 1 hour

 - Large Lima/Butter Beans

    Appearance: flat shape, ivory color

    Flavor: smooth, creamy, sweet

   Culinary: used in American succotash; good substitute for potatoes or rice; excellent in soups, casseroles

   Cooking Time:   1 to 1½ hours     

 - Light Red Kidney

    Appearance: large, kidney-shaped

    Flavor: robust, full-bodied flavor, soft texture

    Culinary: popular in Caribbean region, Portugal, Spain; most often used in chili, salads; often paired with rice

    Cooking Time: 1 to 1½ hours

 - Navy/Pea Beans

    Appearance: small white ovals

    Flavor:  mild flavor, powdery texture

    Culinary: most often used in pork and beans, baked beans; also used in soups and stews; are great pureed

    Cooking Time: 1½ to 2 hours

 - Pink

    Appearance: small, pale-pink; turn reddish brown when cooked

    Flavor:rich, meaty with slightly powdery texture

    Culinary:related to kidney beans; often used in chili; a favorite in Old West (U.S.) recipes

    Cooking Time:1 hour

 - Pinto

    Appearance: medium ovals; mottled beige and brown

    Flavor: earthy flavor, powdery texture

    Culinary: closely related to red kidney beans; when cooked, lose natural mottling on skins and turn brown; most often used in refried beans, Tex-Mex, Mexican dishes

    Cooking Time:   1½ to 2 hours

 - Small Red/Mexican Red Beans

    Appearance: dark red color, similar to red kidney but smaller

    Flavor:  similar to red kidney

    Culinary: hold both shape and firmness when cooked; most often used in soups, salads, chili, Creole dishes
    Cooking Time: 1 to 1½ hours

Brown sauce: a savory sauce made with fat and flour cooked to a brown color.

Cream

 - Half and Half = 12% fat (range 10.5-18%): In the United States, half and half is a mix of 1/2 whole milk and ½ cream, typically used as a cream in coffee. Half-and-half does not whip, but it can be used in place of whipping (heavy) cream in many recipes for less fat cooking.

 - Single Cream = 20% fat: Cream with a low fat-content, which does not thicken when beaten. Used in both sweet and savory dishes. Also known as light cream.

 - Light Cream = 20% fat (range 18-30%): Pretty much the same as half and half. Also known as coffee cream or table cream. Will whip if it contains 30% butterfat but will not be very stable. Generally contains only 20% butterfat. Also known as single cream. Light cream is not available everywhere.

 - Whipping Cream = 30% fat: Cream with enough butterfat in it to allow it to thicken when whipped. Does not whip as well as heavy cream but works well for toppings and fillings.Almost all whipping cream is now ultra-pasteurized, a process of heating that considerably extends its shelf life by killing bacteria and enzymes.

 - Heavy Cream/Heavy Whipping Cream = 36 to 38% fat: This cream whips denser than whipping cream. Whips up well and holds its shape. Doubles in volume when whipped.

 - Double cream =  48% fat: Double cream is the British term for heavy or whipping cream in the United States, but it is a little thicker than our whipping cream. It contains about 48% butterfat. Double cream is so rich, in fact, that it is easy to over whip it and get it too thick.

 - Clotted Cream =  55 to 60%: Also known as Devonshire or Devon Cream. It is a thick, rich, yellowish cream with a scalded or cooked flavor that is made by heating unpasteurized milk until a thick layer of cream sit on top. The milk is cooled and the layer of cream is skimmed off. Traditionally served with tea and scones in England.

 - Creme fraiche: It is a matured, thickened cream that has a slightly tangy, nutty flavor and velvety rich texture. The thickness can range from that of commercial sour cream to almost as solid as room temperature margarine. In France, the cream is unpasteurized and therefore contains the bacteria necessary to thicken it naturally. In America, where all commercial cream is pasteurized, the fermenting agents necessary can be obtained by adding buttermilk or sour cream. It is used as a dessert topping and in cooked sauces and soups, where it has the advantage of not curdling when boiled.

• Pasteurized and Ultra-pasteurized: Creams will generally be labeled pasteurized or ultra-pasteurized.
• Pasteurized cream will provide a better flavor, will whip up fluffier, and will hold up longer.
• As ultra-pasteurized whipping cream has been heated to above 280 degrees F. to extend its shelf life, it is more temperamental when it comes to whipping.Ultra-Pasteurized Heavy Cream “will not work” if peaks or frothing are required in your recipe.

Gravy

Lard: fat from the abdomen of a pig that is rendered and clarified for use in cooking

Leavening: a substance used in dough or batter to make it rise, such as yeast or baking powder.

Margarine Butter is made from the butterfat of milk, whereas modern margarine is made mainly of refined vegetable oil and water. In some places in the United States, it is colloquially referred to as oleo, short for oleomargarine. Margarine consists of a water-in-fat emulsion, with tiny droplets of water dispersed uniformly throughout a fat phase in a stable crystalline form. In some jurisdictions, margarine must have a minimum fat content of 80 percent to be labelled as such, the same as butter. Colloquially in the United States, the term margarine is used to describe "non-dairy spreads" with varying fat contents.

Due to its versatility, margarine can be used as an ingredient in other food products, such as pastries, doughnuts, cakes and cookies

Mace

Milk

- buttermilk: Buttermilk is a fermented dairy drink. Traditionally, it was the liquid left behind after churning butter out of cultured cream; most modern buttermilk is cultured, however. It is common in warm climates where unrefrigerated fresh milk sours quickly

 - condensed, sweetened condensed: Condensed milk is referred to as both condensed milk and sweetened condensed milk; the names are synonymous. This shelf-stable product is a form of concentrated milk in which about 60 percent of the water content has been removed, after which sugar is added before canning. Condensed milk contains 40 to 45 percent sugar. It’s rich and thick, with a caramel color and a super-sweet flavor.

 - evaporated: Similar to condensed milk, and as the name implies, evaporated milk is also made by heating milk until about 60 percent of its water content has evaporated. It is then homogenized, packaged, and sterilized. The result is a dense, creamy, ultra-concentrated milk that can be canned and stored for several months. The high heat used in processing also adds a slightly caramelized flavor and darker color than regular milk. There are skim, low-fat, and whole milk varieties of evaporated milk.

- powdered: Powdered milk or dried milk is a manufactured dairy product made by evaporating milk to dryness. One purpose of drying milk is to preserve it; milk powder has a far longer shelf life than liquid milk and does not need to be refrigerated, due to its low moisture content.

- sweet: basically just your plain whole milk. 
- sour:  a range of food products produced by the acidification of milk. Acidification, which gives the milk a tart taste, is achieved either through bacterial fermentation or through the addition of an acid, such as lemon juice or vinegar

- top milk: in milk that is bottled with a cream layer, the upper-most cream is the 'light cream', the second layer (which is still cream) is the TOP milk, and the rest is plain old milk.

Molasses:  a by-product of the sugar manufacturing process.  Molasses is an excellent source of iron, calcium, and vitamin B and serves as a great energy food.
 - fancy: also known as Gold Star, when used in baking, the results are a light colored, sweet product, also good as a topping on bread, biscuits, and crackers.
 - lite: ccontains 40% less sugar than our Fancy Molasses.  Recipes made with Light Molasses have a subtle flavor and are lighter in color.  Cookies are slightly softer while breads are more crusty.  Light molasses comes from the first boiling of the sugar.
 - cooking:a blend of Fancy and Blackstrap Molasses.  The use of Cooking Molasses results in a darker, less sweet baked product (great for ginger snaps).
 - unsulphured: has the best flavor, is made from sun-ripened cane which has grown 12-15 months.
 - blackstrap:  the final by-product of the sugar making process, it is dark and has a slightly bitter, robust flavor.  The thick dark brown liquid obtained from the refining of sugar cane is commonly referred to as “Blackstrap Molasses.”  Some of it’s more common uses is in the production of industrial alcohol and feeding livestock.

Oats/Oatmeal

 - instant: These quicker-cooking oats are rolled, too—just a little bit thinner—and often pre-cooked and dried so they go from container to hot cereal in a matter of minutes.

 - Irish/steel-cut: These long-cooking oats are groats that have been cut with a blade—shockingly enough, a steel one—into several pieces and make a marvelous thick, hot cereal or a congee alternative. They’re sometimes packaged as Irish oats and make a cracking match with a slow cooker.

 - oat bran: If you’re looking to up your fiber intake, oat bran is a dandy way to do it. This is the outside layer of the oat grain, so it’s not considered a whole oat (like rolled oats are), but it still packs in plenty of healthy benefits. Cook them down with water or milk for a hearty morning meal, or add them to baked goods for a nutty, beneficial boost

 - oat groats: All cereal oats are made from groats, which are the whole, unbroken grains that come from the plant. If you find them in the store, they’ve likely had their hulls removed and have been lightly toasted to make them shelf-stable by deactivating the enzyme that causes them to go rancid. They take longer to cook than other forms of processed oats, but long-cooking transforms them into a chewy, satisfying breakfast. They can also be ground down into oat flour, which can be used in a lot of gluten-free baked good recipes.

 - old-fashioned/rolled/whole: These are groats that have been steamed until slightly soft, then pressed to flatten them until irregular discs. These fiber-packed grains are probably what pops into most people’s heads when they hear the word “oatmeal” and they’re a classic component in cookies, muffins, meatloaf, and as a standalone dish.

 - Scottish: Take oat groats, grind them down into meal, and you’ve got Scottish oats. They’re a little bit coarser than flour, and boiled with water, they make a pretty perfect porridge.

Oil/Liquid Fat

 - canola

 - cooking

 - peanut

 - olive,extra virgin olive

 - salad

 - sesame, toasted

 - vegetable

Oleo see Margerine

Rolled cracker crumbs

Shortening is any fat that is a solid at room temperature and used to make crumbly pastry and other food products. Although butter is solid at room temperature and is frequently used in making pastry, the term "shortening" seldom refers to butter, but is more closely related to margarine.
Crisco is a vegetable shortening (fat made from plant products) that is often used in these recipes

Suet: the hard white fat on the kidneys and loins of cattle, sheep, and other animals, used to make foods including puddings, pastry, and mincemeat.

Sugar
 - brown: retains some of the surface molasses syrup, which imparts a characteristic pleasurable flavor.  Dark brown sugar has a deeper color and stronger molasses flavor than light brown sugar.  Lighter types are generally used in baking and making butterscotch, condiments and glazes.  The rich, full flavor of dark brown sugar makes it good for gingerbread, mincemeat, baked beans, and other full flavored foods.
 - caster/castor: Spelled both “caster” and “castor.”  The spelling castor sugar used to be the prevailing one, but caster sugar seems to be more usual now, perhaps because it is used by some sugar manufacturers on their packaging. UK castor/caster sugar is very finely granulated sugar (finer than U.S. granulated sugar) which allows it to dissolve almost instantly.  In the United States, superfine sugar or the new Baker’s sugar may be substituted.  It is called “berry sugar” in British
 - confectioner's: see powdered sugar
 - coarse – the crystal size of coarse sugar is larger than that of “regular” sugar.  Coarse sugar is recovered when molasses-rich, sugar syrups high in sucrose are allowed to crystallize.  The large crystal size of coarse sugar makes it highly resistant to color change or inversion (natural breakdown to fructose and glucose) at cooking and baking temperatures.  These characteristics are important in making fondants, confections and liquors.
 - date: date sugar is more a food than a sweetener.  It is ground up from dehydrated dates, is high in fiber.  Its use is limited by price and the fact it does not dissolve when added to liquids.
- decorating: see coarse sugar
 - fruit – slightly finer than “regular” sugar and is used in dry mixes such as gelatin and pudding desserts, and powdered drinks.  Fruit sugar has a more uniform small crystal size than “regular” sugar.  The uniformity of crystal size prevents separation or settling of larger crystals to the bottom of the box, an important quality in dry mixes.
 - granulated – this is the sugar most known to consumers, is the sugar found in every home’s sugar bowl, and most commonly used in home food preparation.  It is the most common form of sugar and the type most frequently called for in recipes.  Its main distinguishing characteristics are a paper-white color and fine crystals.
 - icing: see powdered sugar
 - Indian: see maple sugar
 - maple: is prepared by heating maple syrup until the temperature is 45˚ to 50˚F (25˚ to 28˚C) above the boiling point of water.  It is then allowed to cool to about 200˚F (93˚C), and stirred either in the cooking vessel or in an appropriately sized container until granulation is achieved.
 - molasses, light, dark, black strap
 - pearl: see coarse sugar
 - powdered: In Canada and Great Britain (England) it is called icing sugar and in France sucre glace.  This sugar is granulated sugar ground to a smooth powder and then sifted.  It contains about 3% cornstarch to prevent caking.  Powdered sugar is ground into three different degrees of fineness.  The confectioners sugar available in supermarkets – 10X – is the finest of the three and is used in icings, confections and whipping cream.  The other two types of powdered sugar are used by industrial bakers.
 - stirred: see maple sugar
 - raw: is essentially the product at the point before the molasses is removed.
 - sanding sugar: see coarse sugar
 - superfine: see castor sugar
 - table: see granulated
 - turbinado: raw sugar which has been partially processed, where only the surface molasses has been washed off.  It has a blond color and mild brown sugar flavor, and is often used in tea and other beverages.
 - white: see granulated