Alioli
Catalan garlic and oil, pounded until it stands — mayonnaise is a cousin, not the same.
French cuisine · Pantry
The French pantry
Every mix, leaf, chile, fat, and spice French cooking names in the International Cuisines series — the full shelf a home cook actually reaches for.
The French shelf from the book: what the recipes assume, what the free pages smell like, and what belongs next to the hearths of this kitchen.
Back to French cooking · Open French cookware · The full pantry
Special mixes
Special mixes
Bouquet garni
A tied bunch that flavors a pot and then leaves — thyme, bay, and parsley on a string.
Herbes de Provence
The dried hillside that walks into a French roast: thyme, savory, rosemary, and the memory of summer.
Quatre épices
Four spices that taste like French sausage and gingerbread at once: pepper, clove, nutmeg, ginger.
Herbs
Herbs
Basil
One name, many plants: the sweet leaf of pesto, the anise leaf of Thai curries, the holy leaf of Indian kitchens.
Bay leaf
The leaf you never eat and always miss if it is gone: 29 kitchens in the series drop it into a pot and fish it out later.
Chervil
The delicate parsley of spring — a French fines-herbes leaf that hates a long simmer.
Chives
A green onion you do not cook hard: the last snip on eggs, a soup, and a Thai or German plate that wants freshness.
Dill
The feathery green of pickles, yogurt, and fish — and, in this series, of 23 kitchens that refuse to treat it as only a Northern herb.
Flat-leaf parsley
Italian parsley: flatter, louder, the bunch that finishes a tagine and a gremolata.
Lavender
Flower as spice — a pinch in herbes de Provence, a warning if you add a handful.
Lemon verbena
The herb the books still call Lemon verbena — a working jar, not a garnish word.
Mint
The cool leaf of tea trays, chutneys, and lamb: a plant that refuses to stay in one garden bed or one continent.
Oregano
The pizza-and-souvlaki herb that is stronger dried than fresh — a rare plant that prefers the jar.
Parsley
The green that finishes a pot in 27 of the 30 books: not a garnish, a last bright note.
Rosemary
The pine-scented needle of roast meats and memory — 'rosemary for remembrance,' and for a chicken that needs a backbone.
Savory
The bean herb: peppery, small-leaved, and older in European gardens than most cooks remember.
Tarragon
Anise in a leaf: the French tarragon that finishes chicken, vinegar, and béarnaise.
Thyme
The small leaf that survives a long simmer: bouquet garni's backbone and the scent of a French Sunday pot.
Spices
Spices
Black pepper
The berry that paid rents, launched fleets, and still sits beside salt on almost every ComidaTime table.
Cinnamon
Bark rolled into quills: the sweet wood that traveled with frankincense and still perfumes both pastry and stew.
Clove
A flower bud that once belonged to a handful of islands — and to every power that wanted those islands.
Ginger
A knobby root that travels better than most kings did — fresh in the wok, dried in the cake, pickled beside sushi.
Juniper
The berry of gin and German game — pine and citrus in a sauerbraten.
Lemon zest
The oil in the skin: the brightest way the books add citrus without juice.
Mustard
Prepared mustard — Dijon, Bavarian, senafich — the wet heat the books name beside the seed.
Nutmeg
A hard brown seed you grate at the last second: milk sauces, meatballs, and the sweet side of a stew.
Paprika
The red powder the 30 books reach for more than any other named spice after salt and pepper: color, sweetness, and a little smoke.
Saffron
Three red threads from each autumn flower — the scarcest spice in the series, and still the one that turns a pot of rice into a feast.
Vanilla
The orchid pod that sweet kitchens treat as air — and savory Mexican moles still remember.
White pepper
The same vine as black, soaked and hulled — heat without the dark specks, a Chinese and French habit.
Chiles
Chiles
Oils and fats
Oils and fats
Butter
The fat that appears in every volume of the series: pale, sweet, and older than the word cuisine.
Cooking oil
The unnamed bottle the books reach for when the fat should stay quiet: fry, coat, and get out of the spice's way.
Duck fat
The golden fat of confit and roast potatoes — southwest France in a jar.
Ghee
Butter that learned to live without a cellar: the gold of dals, sweets, and a ladle over rice.
Lard
The quiet white fat of tamales, pie crusts, and refried beans — a pantry that industrial kitchens tried to shame, and home cooks never quite abandoned.
Olive oil
The green-gold fat of 29 kitchens in the series: a fruit juice that learned to travel, and then to stay.
Walnut oil
Pressed walnut: a French salad oil that goes rancid if you treat it like a fry fat.
Flavorings
Flavorings
Dry white wine
A splash for a stew, a risotto, a fish pot — the cook's glass and the pot's glass.
Honey
The first sweetener: Ethiopian raw honey, Spanish orange-blossom, a glaze on chicken.
Red wine
The braise wine: daube, estofado, and a Portuguese roast.
Red wine vinegar
The salad and marinade acid of Europe and the Southern Cone.
Tomato paste
The spoon of cooked tomato that turns a thin pot into a sauce — 28 kitchens in the series keep a tin.
Aromatics
Aromatics
Garlic
The clove that starts more ComidaTime pots than any other aromatic — smashed, sliced, or left whole in oil.
Leek
The long allium of soups and tarts — wash the grit, keep the pale green.
Onion
The first cut in almost every ComidaTime pot: sweet when slow, sharp when raw, the aromatic the books assume you already have.
Shallot
Onion's finer cousin — the French and Thai allium that melts into a sauce instead of shouting.
Keep cooking
The French pantry, pots, and table
The spices, mixes, and hearths that belong to French cooking — then the people around them, and the kitchens still joining the table.
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