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Poblano Chiles. These long green chiles have an excellent balance of sour and hot; they are often used in chiles rellenos. Dried poblanos become anchos. There should be no substitute, although you can use a green bell pepper and a quarter or half of a jalapeño chile if you must.

Pomegranate Molasses. This sour Middle Eastern condiment is made from yellow or red pomegranates, boiled down with sugar until molasses-like. In a pinch, you can substitute frozen cranberry juice concentrate and balsamic vinegar in a 2-to-1 ratio.

Preserved Szechuan Vegetables. These small cans of salted, pickled mustard greens, cabbage, radishes, turnips, or mixed vegetables provide a musky, salty, distinctly Chinatown taste. Any variety can be used: preserved Chinese vegetables are salty; preserved Szechuan versions are, of course, much hotter, laced with chiles or chili oil. In a pinch, substitute wilted greens, seasoned with sugar, salt, and chili oil. Look for the cans in the supermarket Asian aisle, at Asian markets, or from mail-order suppliers.

Rice Vinegar. Made from glutinous rice, this low-acid vinegar comes in two varieties: regular (often simply not marked as “seasoned” on the bottle) and seasoned (that is, with sugar added). Unless otherwise noted, we only call for the regular variety. Plain rice vinegar can be hard to track down except through Asian markets or suppliers. If you have to, you can substitute white wine vinegar or sherry vinegar but the taste will be sharper. There are aged rice vinegars—usually tan to brown in color—but they should be used only as condiments.

Rum. The difference between run-of-the-mill bottlings of gold rum and white rum is mostly just caramel coloring. Jamaican rums, however, must by law be colored with actual caramel (that is, caramelized sugar), not just food coloring. In even better bottlings, gold rum is aged in oak.

Dark rum, such as Myers’s, is flavored, spiked with aromatics, and quite distinctive.

Salt. Unless otherwise specified, use table salt or other fine-grained salt. All amounts are actually to taste because the quantity of salt in a dish, unlike that for almost any other ingredient, is truly a matter of personal preference.

Kosher salt is a coarse-grained salt that does not contain magnesium carbonate and so will not make a brine solution murky. In these recipes, it’s called for mostly because of its crunchy texture, a foil for soft vegetables and the like.

Coarse-grained sea salt is a highly specialized product, originally farmed on sea ledges in Brittany, France, but now produced all over the world; it is actually a condiment, prized for its mineral taste and delicate crunch.

Serrano Chile. A small, narrow chile that can be harvested green (in its immature stage), red, or even yellow. There is a subtle taste difference among the astringent green serranos, the more sour red ones, and the somewhat nuttier yellow ones. Always cut off the stem and discard the seeds as well as their fleshy membranes—unless you want the added heat. Work with rubber gloves to avoid skin irritation; if you don’t use gloves, wash your hands thoroughly before you touch your face or eyes. You may substitute half a fresh jalapeño chile, seeded, for each serrano, but the dish will have a duller, more palate-drenching heat, rather than a bright spike.

Sesame Oil. It’s sold in two varieties: toasted and untoasted. The former is what’s called for again and again in this book for its nutty, aromatic taste. Store it in the refrigerator and sniff it before using to make sure it hasn’t gone rancid.

Shaoxing. This is a salted Chinese rice wine (pronounced variously, but something like “Shoh-Shing” and also bottled as Shoa Shing, Shaohsing, or Huo Tiao). In a pinch, substitute dry sherry.

Smoked Paprika. See Paprika.

Soy Sauce. The condiment of northern Asia actually comes in many varieties—basically, from light to dark (not a reference to the sodium content but to how long it’s aged after fermentation). Any soy sauce will do, depending