Ingredients

In this chapter

• Almond — A shelled tree nut in U.S. mixed-nut identity, and a high-fat flour in gluten-free baking — not a spice and not marzipan until it is ground with sugar.
• Apple — A firm fruit whose pectin and acid, when the fruit is sour and not overripe, can gel jelly with sugar alone — and which U.S. jam identity allows in mixed fruit combinations.
• Apricot — A stone fruit that Ohio State groups with fruits that always need added acid, pectin, or both, and a Group II fruit in U.S. jam identity.
• Barley — A cereal grain whose malted flour is the enzyme correction U.S. wheat-flour identity allows in small amounts.
• Black pepper — Dried peppercorns used as a pickle spice and as table heat — aroma and bite, not a preserving acid.
• Blackberry — A cane berry that, when sour and not overripe, can gel with sugar alone — and which U.S. jam identity lists in Group I.
• Blueberry — A small berry that Ohio State groups with fruits that always need added acid, pectin, or both, and which U.S. jam identity lists in Group I.
• Butter — Milk fat concentrated from milk or cream, with or without salt and color, and — in U.S. law — not less than 80 percent milk fat by weight.
• Cabbage — A headed brassica whose shredded leaves, with salt, become sauerkraut — an acid fermented vegetable, not a vinegar pickle.
• Cherry — A stone fruit whose sour sorts Ohio State places as low in acid or pectin, and which U.S. jam identity lists in Group I with pit weight excluded.
• Chili pepper — The fruit of Capsicum used as a spice — paprika, cayenne, and red pepper in U.S. GRAS names, not black pepper and not gochugaru by default.
• Cinnamon — Dried bark sold under several U.S. GRAS names — Ceylon cinnamon and cassia species are listed separately, not as one folklore spice.
• Citric acid — A fruit acid used, where a tested formula names it, to acidify tomatoes or figs for canning and to help a pectin gel set — not a free sourness knob.
• Corn — A cereal whose meal is a standardized U.S. mill product, and a low-acid vegetable when you freeze or can the kernels.
• Cranberry — A high-acid berry that, if not overripe, Ohio State treats as able to gel with sugar alone — and a Group II fruit in U.S. jam identity.
• Cream — The high-fat fraction of milk, used as itself in cooking and as a starting material for butter and for adjusting cheese-milk fat.
• Cucumber — A low-acid vegetable whose firm, correctly sized fruit is the usual body of a pickled product made with vinegar, sugar, and spice.
• Currant — A small, high-acid berry that, if not overripe, Ohio State treats as able to gel with sugar alone — red currant is a Group II fruit in U.S. jam identity.
• Dry bean — Dry threshed field and garden beans sold as an edible commodity — a legume ingredient class, not a catalog of every variety and not the soybean oilseed.
• Durum — A wheat class milled to durum flour or to coarser semolina — legally not the same identity as ordinary wheat flour.
• Egg — A hen’s egg used whole, as white, or as yolk — a kitchen substance whose shell form has no U.S. FDA standard of identity, while liquid, frozen, and dried products do.
• Fig — A fruit that sits slightly above the canning acid line, needs pectin or acid help to gel, and appears in heavy-syrup preserves that are not jam.
• Garlic — A pungent bulb used as a pickle spice and as a low-acid vegetable — flavor in a brine, not a canning shortcut.
• Gelatin — An animal protein that gels water on cooling — a thickener some no-sugar fruit spreads use, and not pectin.
• Ginger — A pungent rhizome used as a seasoning in kimchi and many other kitchens — heat and aroma, not a fermentation culture.
• Gochugaru — Korean red chili pepper powder — the heat and red color in typical baechu kimchi, not cayenne and not a smoked paprika substitute by default.
• Gooseberry — A tart berry that, if not overripe, Ohio State treats as able to gel with sugar alone — and a Group II fruit in U.S. jam identity.
• Grape — A berry grown for eating, juice, jelly, raisins, and wine, whose sugar, acid, and skins decide which of those foods it can become.
• Grapefruit — A large citrus that Ohio State places as low in acid or pectin, and which U.S. jam identity lists in Group I.
• Honey — A floral syrup that can replace part of the sugar in some tested fruit spreads — not a free swap for the sugar a regular-pectin jam requires.
• Hops — The cone (or parts or products) of the hop plant used with malted barley in a malt beverage, and in small amounts as a permitted flavoring in honey wine.
• Lemon — A high-acid citrus whose juice is the usual added acid for jam gel, and whose peel is a pectin-and-aroma source in marmalade.
• Lime — A sour citrus used as juice and peel, a marmalade cousin of lemon — not an automatic substitute for bottled lemon juice in a tested canning acidification.
• Malt — Malted grain — often barley — used in tiny amounts to supply enzymes when wheat flour is short of them, not as a beer recipe on a bread page.
• Milk — A secreted food whose fat, casein, whey proteins, and lactose become cheese, yogurt, and much of dairy cooking once they are heated or fermented.
• Mustard — Pungent seed used as a pickle spice — heat and aroma in a vinegar jar, not the acid that makes the pickle safe.
• Napa cabbage — An elongated heading brassica — also called Chinese or winter cabbage — whose leaves are the usual vegetable for baechu kimchi, not for USDA sauerkraut.
• Oats — A cereal grain whose rolled oats and whole oat flour are defined in U.S. food labeling, not a 21 CFR Part 137 wheat-flour identity.
• Olive — The fruit that becomes table olives or olive oil — two foods from one crop, not one ingredient with two names.
• Olive oil — Oil from olives, sold under several names; U.S. extra virgin is a voluntary USDA grade, not an FDA standard of identity.
• Onion — A layered bulb used as vegetable and as pickle companion, blanched before freezing so enzymes do not wreck it in the freezer.
• Orange — A citrus fruit listed in U.S. jam identity, grouped by extension as needing a pectin or acid assist when ripe, and a usual marmalade fruit.
• Peach — A stone fruit that needs pectin or acid help to gel, appears in heavy-syrup preserves that are not jam, and is a Group II fruit in U.S. jam identity.
• Pear — A stone-adjacent pome that Ohio State groups with fruits that always need added acid, pectin, or both, and a Group II fruit in U.S. jam identity.
• Pickling salt — Pure sodium chloride sold for brines and fermented vegetables — NCHFP's canning or pickling salt, not iodized table salt and not flake salt by volume.
• Pineapple — A tropical fruit listed in Group I of U.S. jam identity, with a special combination rule that pineapple may be as little as one-tenth of a mixed fruit weight.
• Plum — A stone fruit whose pectin class, on Ohio State’s chart, depends on whether it is an Italian plum — and a Group II fruit in U.S. jam identity.
• Potato — A tuber whose flour and starch are different baking ingredients — potato starch lightens gluten-free batter; potato flour is a denser, more flavored meal.
• Quince — A hard, high-pectin pome that, if not overripe, Ohio State treats as able to gel with sugar alone — and a Group II fruit in U.S. jam identity.
• Raspberry — A fragile cane berry that Ohio State groups with fruits that always need added acid, pectin, or both — and which U.S. jam identity lists in Group I.
• Rhubarb — A sour petiole used as fruit in jam kettles — listed in Group I of U.S. jam identity, where the regulation’s word “fruit” includes this vegetable.
• Rice — A cereal grain eaten as milled kernels; U.S. identity in 21 CFR Part 137 covers enriched forms of milled rice, not a risotto method.
• Rye — A cereal grain milled into bread flours that sit beside wheat in the bakery, not a synonym for wheat flour or for gluten.
• Salt — Sodium chloride used to season food, tighten gluten, slow yeast, and — in cheese — draw whey and steer microbes.
• Sesame — The seed of Sesamum indicum — a GRAS spice and oilseed, not a flavor-list garnish and not interchangeable with tahini by volume without noticing fat.
• Soybean — The oilseed Glycine max — protein and oil in one seed, and the starting food for soy flour, miso, tempeh, and koji work, not a recipe.
• Strawberry — A soft berry whose ripe flavor is excellent in jam and whose pectin is often too low to gel without help.
• Sugar — Sucrose used as sweetener, as a pectin partner and preservative in jam, and as the fermentable that wine grapes already contain.
• Tomato — A fruit used as a vegetable in the kitchen, sitting near the canning acid line, and listed among U.S. standardized jam fruits.
• Vanilla — Cured Vanilla pods, and the U.S. extract identity that requires at least 35 percent alcohol and one unit of vanilla constituent per gallon.
• Vinegar — Dilute acetic acid used to acidify pickles and other preserves — a different sour from lemon juice in a jam kettle or lactic acid in a sauerkraut crock.
• Water — The second ingredient in bread dough by weight, and the medium of fermentation, gluten formation, and oven steam.
• Wheat — A cereal grain whose flour, bran, and germ are central to bread and to much of the world’s staple cooking.
• Wheat flour — The milled endosperm of wheat, and the ordinary structure-building ingredient in bread, pastry, and many sauces.
• Yeast — Packaged baker’s yeast dosed into dough as a formula ingredient, distinct from the wild yeasts a sourdough starter captures.