Swiss

Crunchy chicken, gooey center—this old-school dinner delivers big comfort fast.

This silky, stable frosting smooths beautifully over cake and can take any number of flavorings, from vanilla to chocolate to espresso.

Raclette is the most mild tasting of these three cheeses, while Comté and Gruyère deliver some sharpness. For a crowd-pleasing mix, try 3 parts raclette to 1 part Comté and/or Gruyère.

Tarragon leaves and meaty morel caps shoot up all over the Jura mountains in the spring. Here, tossed with juicy green and white asparagus — Europeans are particularly mad for the latter — they're a genuine sampling of the season.

These lacy, savory, funnel-cake-like squiggles, made with the mild Swiss cheese known as Appenzeller, are unbelievably light because of the carbonation of the beer in the batter. They are wonderful when hot — and they're still amazing at room temperature or even a few days later (if you can keep them around for that long).