A la carte

Published 9:00 pm Tuesday, September 12, 2006

The Internet is a rich source of culinary information. Here are five useful sites.

Hormel Food Glossary www.hormel.com/kitchen/ glossary.asp

Hormel, one of the country’s leading producers of meat and meat products such as Spam, features an improbably sophisticated food glossary on its Web site.

The Cook’s Thesaurus www.foodsubs.com

The great strength of this extensive food dictionary is that everything is illustrated with color photographs. You can actually see the difference between Bhutanese red rice and Himalyan red rice.

Joy of Baking www.joyofbaking.com

Along with good recipes is a wealth of information on substitutions and conversions as well as clear explanations of technique.

Food Measurement Conversion Calculator www.ez-alculators.com/ measurement-conversion- calculator.htm

This site devoted to calculating conversions; the Food Measurement Conversion Calculator converts both within the American and metric systems (teaspoons in a cup; grams in a kilogram) and between them (fluid ounces to milliliters; ounces to kilograms).

Chowhound www.chowhound.com

Chowhound is a leading Web destination for discussing eating and cooking. A “home cooking” message board is a lively forum for cooks from all over the country.

Associated Press