Cook the places you travel: the travelling pantry and each cuisine's signature ingredients, from 353 recipes in 13 cuisines. Our count, 2026-10-30
The answer first (our count [1] from TheMealDB's public recipe database)
- The travelling pantry: garlic, sugar, onion, olive oil and eggs. Garlic is in 42% of a cuisine's recipes on average and common (in at least a fifth of recipes) in 11 of the 13 cuisines; onion in 11, sugar in 12.
- Each cuisine then turns on one to three ingredients that are far more common there than elsewhere: soy sauce in 81% of the Chinese recipes, with sesame oil (59%) and cornstarch (41%); fish sauce and lime for Thai (48%, 70%) and fish sauce and mint for Vietnamese (48%, 37%); scotch bonnet (33%), thyme (56%) and allspice (37%) for Jamaican; chorizo for Spanish (31%), parmesan for Italian (33%), plain flour (38%) and butter (58%) for British, mint (30%) and lemon (47%) for Turkish.
- So, to cook a place: stock the five staples once, then buy that place's two or three signature ingredients.
The travelling pantry (our count [1]; two ways)
| Ingredient | Average share of a cuisine's recipes (each cuisine counts equally) | Share of all 353 recipes (pooled) | Cuisines where it is in at least 20% of recipes | |---|---|---|---| | garlic | 42% | 41% | 11 of 13 | | sugar | 37% | 36% | 12 of 13 | | onion | 35% | 37% | 11 of 13 | | salt | 34% | 28% | 7 of 13 | | olive oil | 31% | 30% | 7 of 13 | | egg | 29% | 30% | 8 of 13 | | butter | 24% | 26% | 6 of 13 | | chilli | 19% | 18% | 3 of 13 | | tomato | 18% | 16% | 5 of 13 | | water | 18% | 14% | 4 of 13 | | lemon | 16% | 15% | 3 of 13 | | ginger | 14% | 0% | 3 of 13 | The two ways agree on the top seven; "each cuisine counts equally" keeps British (60 recipes) from outweighing Algerian or Saudi Arabian (12 each).
Signature ingredients by cuisine (our count [1]; in at least a quarter of that cuisine's recipes and at least 4 of them, ranked by how much more common than the average cuisine)
| Algerian (12 recipes) | water (67% of its recipes); black pepper (42% of its recipes); salt (92% of its recipes) |
|---|---|
| Australian (13 recipes) | lemon (38% of its recipes); chilli (38% of its recipes); olive oil (46% of its recipes) |
| British (60 recipes) | plain flour (38% of its recipes); butter (58% of its recipes); milk (30% of its recipes) |
| Canadian (22 recipes) | potatoes (27% of its recipes); butter (64% of its recipes); milk (32% of its recipes) |
| Chinese (27 recipes) | scallion (33% of its recipes); sesame oil (59% of its recipes); cornstarch (41% of its recipes) |
| Italian (21 recipes) | parmesan (33% of its recipes); olive oil (71% of its recipes); onion (52% of its recipes) |
| Jamaican (27 recipes) | scotch bonnet (33% of its recipes); thyme (56% of its recipes); allspice (37% of its recipes) |
| Polish (27 recipes) | butter (41% of its recipes); egg (44% of its recipes); onion (48% of its recipes) |
| Saudi Arabian (12 recipes) | black pepper (42% of its recipes); tomato (42% of its recipes); salt (67% of its recipes) |
| Spanish (48 recipes) | chorizo (31% of its recipes); parsley (50% of its recipes); olive oil (71% of its recipes) |
| Thai (27 recipes) | thai red curry paste (26% of its recipes); coconut milk (37% of its recipes); fish sauce (48% of its recipes) |
| Turkish (30 recipes) | mint (30% of its recipes); lemon (47% of its recipes); olive oil (60% of its recipes) |
| Vietnamese (27 recipes) | cucumber (33% of its recipes); rice noodle (30% of its recipes); fish sauce (48% of its recipes) |
How we counted
TheMealDB free API (https://www.themealdb.com/api.php), read 2026-10-30: every cuisine ("area") with at least 10 recipes (13 cuisines: Algerian 12, Australian 13, British 60, Canadian 22, Chinese 27, Italian 21, Jamaican 27, Polish 27, Saudi Arabian 12, Spanish 48, Thai 27, Turkish 30, Vietnamese 27), each recipe's ingredient list. Names lightly merged (e.g. "garlic clove" and "garlic" count once; plural and singular together); otherwise as the database writes them.
What this cannot tell you
- TheMealDB is a community recipe collection, often adapted for home cooks outside the country; it is not a measure of how people cook in each place.
- Small numbers: 12 to 60 recipes per cuisine. Popular cuisines (French, Indian, Mexican, Japanese) have fewer than 10 recipes there today and are left out.
- Salt and water are listed inconsistently by recipe writers, so their counts say more about the writing than the cooking.
- Quantities are not counted: a teaspoon of fish sauce and a kilo of potatoes count the same.
Sources
- TheMealDB API: https://www.themealdb.com/api.php
Voice notes for the writer
- Lead with the answer: five staples cook most places; each place then needs only two or three signature ingredients.