Pantry

Va-Va's red cherry peppers stuffed with cheese in the starter pour — Macedonia's bite-sized mezze for the small kitchen. Sweet-red cherries, cheese...

Macedonia's yellow cherry peppers stuffed with cheese from Va-Va in the everyday pour — sweet-yellow mezze for the smaller crowd. Cheese-stuffed ch...

Va-Va's yellow cherry peppers stuffed with cheese in the holiday-host jar — Macedonia's sweet-yellow variant of the mezze classic. Bright yellow ch...

Macedonia's red cherry peppers stuffed with cheese from Va-Va in the family-host jar — the bite-sized mezze scaled for crowd-feeding. Sweet-red che...

Sunday lunch back home often started with mixing this seasoning straight into the ground meat before shaping the patties for the grill. This is Pod...

Va-Va Ajvar With Cheese — the Macedonian breakfast shortcut. Kapija-pepper mash folded with bijeli sir into a single spread — the morning plate of ...

Shchi like this, a cabbage soup thick with sturgeon, is the kind of home cooking Armenian families lean on through a cold winter. Royally cans it, ...

Spanakoryzo — spinach and rice simmered soft — was the lunchbox staple every Greek kid grew up eating, warm or straight from the fridge. Made in Th...

Livada Parsley — Serbian-pantry peršun standby. Dried parsley flakes for the soup pot when fresh isn't in the fridge. Stir into čorba in the last s...

Vispak Tajna's sarma packet — Bosnian cabbage-roll filling. Visoko-recipe spice blend for the rice-and-meat that goes inside sour cabbage leaves. P...

Pag island salt on lamb roasted slow over an open fire tastes like the Adriatic itself. This is Solana Pag's Paska Morska Sol Sitna Jodirana, a fin...

Sea salt from the island of Pag has flavored Croatian tables for generations, the base note under every home-cooked meal. Solana Pag harvests this ...

A bowl of buckwheat kasha next to the main dish was a fixture at the Russian family table, plain and unshakeable through generations. Made by Soyuz...

Podravka Hot Ajvar — Croatian classic, smaller pour. The starter jar of Koprivnica's 1947 hot recipe — for the apartment kitchen, the single househ...

Marco Polo Hot Ajvar — Macedonian-sourced, US-distributed. Marco Polo carries Macedonian-recipe kapija-pepper ajvar into the broader US grocery cha...

A bouillon cube dropped into the pot was the start of nearly every soup on a cold day, dissolving before the vegetables even went in. Vegeta Natur ...

The smell of the roštilj smoking in the yard always came with a shake of Vegeta seasoning over the meat first. This is Vegeta Natur BBQ Seasoning M...

Va-Va's fire-roasted red peppers in the holiday-host jar — Macedonia's kapija charred, peeled, garlic-oil bathed, scaled for crowd-feeding. Smoke-r...

Va-Va's whole tomato peppers in the holiday-host jar — Macedonia's round paradajz paprika scaled for the big-family Slava. Snap-firm sweet-red fles...

A jar of lutenica opened at breakfast, spread thick on fresh bread next to white cheese, is a taste of a Bulgarian pantry staple. Zergüt Lutenica i...

Va-Va Original Recipe Mild — the founding-formula jar. The Macedonian mild ajvar in the recipe register Va-Va built the brand on — kapija pepper, o...

A jar of mixed pickled vegetables like this sat on every table for the winter months, the crunch of cabbage and carrots cutting through a heavy mea...

Sombor's homemade pfefferoni jar, the way village cooks have always done it — slender yellow peppers, brine-clean, with a slow tingle that builds. ...

The Halkidiki pepperoncini that earns standing room on every mezze board — Krinos in the family-size pour. Mild green peppers, vinegar-bright, with...