The Cook’s Thesaurus is a rather unassuming web page at first glance, but is actually a treasure trove of information. The site is a “cooking encyclopedia that covers thousands of ingredients and kitchen tools. Entries include pictures, descriptions, synonyms, pronunciations, and suggested substitutions.”

 

There is a search option where one can look for various definitions of specific foods, and most of the time the information contains suggested substitutions. For example, I typed “potatoes” in the search box and the site came up with a whole page of options, including basic potato definitions and information about other varieties such as sweet potatoes (sub-categories: tropical, Cuban, white sweet potato, etc).

Vegetables > tubers & corms > potatoes; Potatoes Synonyms: spuds. America's most popular vegetable, potatoes can be boiled, baked, fried, microwaved, steamed, or roasted, with or without their peels. They're often paired with butter, sour cream, or oil, but left to themselves they're quite low in calories and loaded with nutrients.

The page about potatoes also contains photos of different varieties, and which types are best for certain dishes:

• Best for baking: russet potato

• Best for potato salads, gratins, and scalloped potatoes: Yellow Finn potato, new potato, red-skinned potato, white round potato, and purple potato

• Best for mashing: russet potato, Yukon gold potato, Caribe potato, and purple potato

• Best for soups and chowders: Yukon gold potato, Yellow Finn potato, red-skinned potato, white round potato, and purple potato

• Best for pan-frying: red-skinned potatoes, white round potatoes, new potatoes, and fingerling potatoes

• Best for French fries: russet potato, purple potato, Bintje potato

• Best for purees: fingerling potatoes

• Best for roasting: new potatoes, Bintje potatoes

• Best for steaming: new potatoes, Yukon gold potatoes

• Best for potato pancakes: russet potato, Yukon Gold potato

It wasn’t my intention to go on a lengthy discourse about spuds; I merely wanted to see what sort of information the Cook’s Thesaurus provides. The site is a great resource and I will probably reference them in the future.