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Rachel Kim writes the ingredient column. She shops three markets a week and reports what is genuinely worth buying, what a label is hiding, and how long the thing actually lasts once it is open. She likes ingredients that do more than one job.

Seed a pomegranate underwater and the kitchen stays clean

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pomegranate seeds bowl

How to seed a pomegranate in a bowl of water: the exact cuts, why the pith floats and the arils sink, and how long loose arils keep cold or frozen.

Categories Ingredient Spotlight Tags freezing fruit, knife technique, pomegranate, produce prep, seasonal produce, winter fruit

Fresh cranberries show up for eight weeks, so freeze them whole

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fresh cranberries bowl

How to freeze cranberries with no blanching and no sugar, how to sort a bag before it goes in, and four uses that have nothing to do with a holiday.

Categories Ingredient Spotlight Tags autumn fruit, cranberries, cranberry sauce, food storage, freezing fruit, seasonal produce

Almost nothing labeled yam in an American store is a yam

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Copper skinned sweet potatoes of different sizes piled in a woven basket at a market

Sweet potato vs yam, settled: what the label really means, four varieties compared by moisture, and which one to roast, which to mash, which to bake.

Categories Ingredient Spotlight Tags produce labels, produce storage, roasting vegetables, root vegetables, sweet potatoes, yams

White miso reads as salted caramel inside a cookie

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A small bowl of pale miso paste with a wooden spoon beside an open tub

Miso in desserts reads as salted caramel: which tub to buy, how much per batch, where it goes in the method, and the three sweets it improves most.

Categories Ingredient Spotlight Tags cookie dough, fermented ingredients, pantry ingredients, salted caramel, umami, white miso

Golden, amber, dark: what the maple grades actually taste like

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Several glass bottles of maple syrup in different shades lined up against the light

Maple syrup grades explained after the rules changed: what Golden, Amber, Dark and Very Dark taste like, which belongs in baking, and how to spot fakes.

Categories Ingredient Spotlight Tags breakfast cooking, food grading, label reading, maple syrup, pantry staples, sugar substitutes

Buy pears hard, because they ripen off the tree

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Several brown skinned pears with long necks resting in a shallow bowl on a counter

How to ripen pears without guessing: the neck-press test, a paper bag timeline by variety, and which of the five common pears hold their shape in heat.

Categories Ingredient Spotlight Tags bosc pears, ethylene, fruit ripening, pears, poaching fruit, seasonal produce

Nine ways to finish the buttermilk carton in ten days

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buttermilk glass jar

What to do with leftover buttermilk: nine uses sorted by how much the carton has left, the ice cube tray method, and the substitute that actually behaves.

Categories Ingredient Spotlight Tags baking substitutions, buttermilk, cultured dairy, food waste, freezing dairy, ranch dressing

Delicata skin is edible, so stop peeling it

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Striped cream and green delicata squash piled in a crate at an autumn market stall

How to cook delicata squash without peeling: half-moons at 425 degrees, rings for a sheet pan dinner, a raw shaved version, and how to spot a watery one.

Categories Ingredient Spotlight Tags delicata squash, fall produce, roasted vegetables, sheet pan dinner, squash seeds, winter squash

A fig season lasts four weeks, and color tells you nothing

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fresh figs basket

How to tell if figs are ripe using weight, give and a bent neck, why color misleads, Black Mission against Brown Turkey, and uses for a soft box.

Categories Ingredient Spotlight Tags black mission figs, brown turkey figs, fresh figs, fruit storage, late summer fruit, no bake desserts

Cut the corn now and you eat sweet corn in February

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sweet corn ears husks

How to freeze fresh corn that still tastes like September: picking an ear through the husk, the bowl trick for cutting, and exact blanching times.

Categories Ingredient Spotlight Tags blanching, corn on the cob, food preservation, freezing produce, late summer produce, sweet corn
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