Ingredients

1086 articles on substrates, cultures and additives.

All meat and fish53Meats and offal22Fish17Animal fats5Casings5Shellfish and other invertebrates4

Meat and fish

Two whole violet pig’s ear mushrooms and two lengthwise halves showing pale flesh sit on a warm ivory background.
Other

Pig's ear

Gomphus clavatus, the pig's ear or violet chanterelle, is a club-shaped wild fungus of old spruce and beech forest. It is eaten in Europe and North America, and it is red-listed in parts of Europe.

Pale translucent natural casings coated with white salt crystals lie in loose folds and loops on an ivory surface.
Substrates

Natural casings

Natural casings are cleaned animal guts, stomachs, bladders and skins used to hold sausage and pudding fillings; the organ, animal and diameter decide the food's shape and drying.

Photograph of Ndunduma (Diplotaxodon spp.).
Substrates

Ndunduma (Diplotaxodon spp.)

Ndunduma is the Malawian name for small deep-water cichlids of the genus Diplotaxodon, caught in Lake Malawi and dried with usipa and utaka. The species in a given lot is often not recorded.

Photograph of Utaka (Copadichromis spp.).
Substrates

Utaka (Copadichromis spp.)

Utaka is a small cichlid of Lake Malawi, from the genus Copadichromis, sold dried in Malawi. It is one of the small fish that solar tents were tested on alongside usipa and ndunduma.

A fresh raw abalone in its shell, showing the attached edible foot and iridescent inner shell.
Substrates

Abalone

Abalone are marine snails valued for their broad muscular foot and distinctive shell. They are eaten fresh or dried and appear in documented Korean dishes and preserved seafood traditions.

Whole raw squid on a pale plate against a warm ivory background.
Substrates

Squid

Squid is a cephalopod used fresh, dried and in salted seafood ferments such as Japanese shiokara. Its body, viscera and ink appear in distinct regional preparations, so the name alone does not specify a species or process.

Raw pork skin cut into pale ivory sheets, loosely folded into a small pile on a warm ivory surface.
Substrates

Pork skin

Pork skin is collagen-rich pig skin used fresh or cooked; in documented Southeast Asian meat ferments it is usually prepared separately before it joins the pork.

Whole raw Arctic char on a pale stoneware platter against a warm ivory background.

Arctic char

Arctic char (Salvelinus alpinus) is a circumpolar salmonid eaten fresh and preserved in northern communities. Its local forms and food traditions vary; dried or smoked fish and fermented char are distinct from the raw ingredient.

Substrates

Pork fat

Pig adipose tissue used raw in some fermented meats and made into distinct products such as cured lardo, salo and rendered lard. Cut and firmness affect processing.

Illustrative depiction of fresh eulachon (Thaleichthys pacificus); not a smoked, dried, ripened or rendered product.

Eulachon

Eulachon (Thaleichthys pacificus) is a small anadromous North Pacific smelt used fresh, dried, smoked and, in some communities, to make rendered grease. Ripened fish and eulachon grease are separate stages and products.

Source-grounded editorial photograph of a raw cattle lung with natural lobed tissue and its trachea; not a cooked dish or handling recommendation.
Substrates

Beef lung

Beef lung is cattle offal used in regional Indonesian dishes and studied as a substrate for a modern fermented-sauce proof of concept. Culinary, regulatory and experimental uses vary; the sources support no universal process.

Whole raw pork liver with distinct lobes on a warm ivory platter.
Substrates

Pork liver

Pork liver is a richly flavoured pig organ used fresh, in cooked sausages and pâtés, and in several preserved meat traditions. Its documented uses differ in process and place; it is not one finished product.

Saithe

Saithe (Pollachius virens), also called coalfish and coley, is a North Atlantic cod-family fish used fresh and in distinct preserved forms. Faroese ræstur fiskur and Shetland salted piltocks are not the same product.

Puntius fish

Puntius is a genus of small freshwater fishes cited as raw material for fermented fish in northeastern South Asia. Shidal studies name the genus broadly; studies of ngari and hentak identify Puntius sophore specifically.

Trout

Trout names several salmonid food fish, not one globally uniform ingredient. Inuit accounts from Nunavut and Norway’s Valdres rakfisk document distinct fermented preparations; neither establishes a universal process or safe limits.

Substrates

Pig caecum casing

A cleaned pig caecum forms the broad, closed-end casing used for Slavonski kulen and Baranjski kulen. Its shape, preparation and regional names differ from other pig intestines.

Three whole raw Baltic herring with silvery sides and dark blue-green backs, arranged on a plain light-gray surface.

Baltic herring

A small, schooling herring of the brackish Baltic Sea, sold under regional names including Finnish silakka and Swedish strömming. It is the raw fish behind several regional preparations, including Sweden’s fermented surströmming.

Fat or oil

Pilot-whale blubber

Faroese spik is the under-skin blubber of the long-finned pilot whale, eaten salted alongside dried fish or whale meat and sometimes spread on bread. It is a distinct fat tissue, not meat, sheep tallow or rendered whale oil.

Salmon roe

Salmon roe is the eggs of salmon, eaten fresh, salted or dried and preserved in distinct regional ways. Nuxalk records distinguish fresh roe from aged mutsi; those accounts are historical, not safe-process instructions.

Thin dark strips of wind-dried pilot-whale meat (tvøst) on a pale plate, one preserved form.
Substrates

Pilot-whale meat

Long-finned pilot-whale meat, called Faroese tvøst, is eaten fresh and preserved in the Faroe Islands. Historical accounts place it among the meats hung to dry and pass through the ræst stage, distinct from blubber and other whale foods.

Three fresh whole tilapia with silvery scales rest on an ivory ceramic platter; the species is unspecified.
Substrates

Tilapia

Tilapia is a common market name for several African freshwater cichlids, not one species. It is eaten fresh, farmed and preserved in distinct regional forms, including Ghanaian koobi and Botswana salt-dried fish.

Substrates

Reindeer meat

Reindeer meat is the flesh of Rangifer tarandus, used fresh and preserved across northern foodways; animal populations, cuts, and regional practices differ, and no single culinary origin is established.

A clear glass bowl holds dark red animal blood on a warm ivory surface.
Substrates

Blood (animal)

Animal blood is a perishable food material used fresh, coagulated, cooked, dried or processed into ingredients. Its uses range from grain-filled puddings to functional protein ingredients, each with distinct history and handling needs.

Substrates

Seal meat

Seal meat is the flesh of hunted seals, eaten fresh, frozen, boiled, dried and, in distinct preparations, aged or fermented. Species and community practices vary; the name describes neither one recipe nor one place of origin.

Fat or oil

Seal blubber

Seal blubber is the fat beneath a seal’s skin, used as food and oil. Greenlandic iginneq is a named fermented blubber food, distinct from aged seal meat.

Raw lamb shoulder with pale bone and creamy fat on an ivory platter.
Substrates

Sheep meat (lamb and mutton)

Sheep meat spans lamb from younger animals and mutton from mature sheep; age, breed, diet, cut and fat cover shape its texture and how it behaves in curing and fermentation.

Raw boneless water-buffalo meat cuts laid on clean butcher paper, shown as an ingredient as sold.

Buffalo meat

Water-buffalo meat, often called carabeef, is the flesh of Bubalus bubalis; its colour, texture and fat vary with animal, cut and production system. “Buffalo” can also mean bison or African buffalo in other contexts.

Walrus meat

Walrus meat is an Arctic subsistence food whose forms, names, and uses vary by community. Its fermented preparations require source-specific description, and fermentation or freezing cannot be assumed to control Trichinella.

Raw horse-meat rib and lean muscle cuts with natural pale fat on a warm ivory background.
Substrates

Horse meat

Horse meat is raw equine muscle and fat used fresh or in regionally distinct cooked and preserved foods; cuts and processes vary, and no single culinary origin is established.

Raw yak meat cuts on a plain ceramic platter against a warm ivory background.
Substrates

Yak meat

Yak meat is the flesh of domestic yak (Bos grunniens), eaten fresh and used in regional highland foods, including khyopeh, the fermented meat of Lachung, North Sikkim.

Raw goat meat cuts, including one bone-in piece, on an ivory ceramic plate against a warm ivory studio background.
Substrates

Goat meat

Goat meat is the edible flesh of domestic goats, traded as many cuts and forms whose character depends on the animal, the herd system and local butchery.

Illustrative raw pork pieces; the source does not identify a cut or connect this depiction to the Welsh salting trough.
Substrates

Pork

Pork is meat from domestic pigs, sold as distinct cuts, ground meat and fat; its form and composition shape its roles in fermented foods.

fresh raw sheep fat trimmings
Fat or oil

Sheep fat

Sheep fat is edible adipose tissue from sheep, including back and tail depots. A South African zebra-droëwors experiment compared several fat levels; its findings are specific to that formulation.

whole fresh southern mullet

Mullet

Mullet is a broad name for several coastal fishes. In the Cape West Coast bokkom tradition, the local harder is the southern mullet Chelon richardsonii, formerly Liza richardsonii; identify species and product before substituting.

Dry, empty protein-lined fibrous casing sections on an ivory surface, with one open tube end and the pale fibrous material visible.
Processing aids

Protein-lined casings

Non-edible fibrous sausage casings with an inner protein treatment that helps them stay against the meat as it dries and shrinks.

A loosely folded length of pale, wrinkled natural dried casing with its hollow opening visible on a warm ivory surface.
Processing aids

60 mm natural dried casing

A 60 mm natural dried casing gives wide salami its animal-derived envelope and approximate stuffed diameter; its exact animal source and length depend on the chosen product.

Raw fish trim pieces in a shallow dish; species and cut unspecified.
Substrates

Fish trim

Fish trim is a variable food-processing material, from fillet offcuts to recovered flesh. Species, source tissues, bone and skin content, and handling history determine what a particular lot contains.

Three raw skin-on cross-cut fish steaks on an ivory plate.
Substrates

Fish

Fish is a broad raw ingredient whose species, cut and condition shape its texture, fat content and use. It can become a meal’s main portion or the raw material for distinct salted, dried and fermented preparations.

Whole small anchovies on ice in a shallow ceramic dish.
Substrates

Small fish used in fish sauces

Anchovies, scad, and small cyprinids appear in documented regional fish sauces. Species selection and handling matter because fish hazards vary by species and process.

Raw lean beef, lean pork pieces, and a distinct piece of pork back fat arranged on an ivory board.
Substrates

Meat and fat selection for fermented sausage

Dry sausage recipes depend on the chosen lean meat, fat source, particle size, temperature, and process. A percentage from one recipe should not be generalized to every salami.

A whole freshwater cyprinid fish rests side-on against a warm ivory background, showing silvery scales, a forked tail and a tall dorsal fin.
Substrates

Cyprinid fish

Freshwater fish substrate in a Vietnamese fish-sauce account, which particularly names Mekong cá dánh (*Puntioplites falcifer*) as a prized household sauce fish.

Three fresh whole amberstripe scad arranged on a shallow cream platter.
Substrates

Amberstripe scad

A marine scad named in a Vietnamese fish-sauce account as a whole-fish substrate; the account gives a 4:1 fish-to-salt example but no species-level voucher.

A raw bone-in pork shoulder joint with distinct muscles and white fat seams rests on a warm ivory tabletop.
Substrates

Pork shoulder

Pork shoulder is the forequarter of the pig, divided into the upper Boston butt and the lower picnic. It is a working muscle group with connective tissue and fat, and it is the usual lean meat for sausage.

A rectangular slab of raw skinless pork belly with pink meat and thick white fat layers rests on a white ceramic platter against a warm ivory background.
Substrates

Fatty pork belly

Raw pork belly combines muscle and adipose tissue in layers. Its fat content varies, and a recipe weight of belly is not a measured weight of pure fat.

Fresh whole silver anchovies lie in a loose overlapping pile on a shallow white ceramic plate against a warm ivory background.
Substrates

Anchovies

Anchovies are small schooling sea fish of the family Engraulidae, eaten fresh or dried and above all salted: as fillets in oil, whole salted fish or fish sauce.

A raw lean beef round steak with fine red muscle grain and a pale fat edge rests on a warm ivory tabletop.
Substrates

Lean beef

Lean beef is the trimmed muscle of cattle, Bos taurus and Bos indicus. In Genoa-style salami it is the second lean meat beside pork, ground fine, with pork back fat added separately.

Orange-pink shrimp heads and hollow peeled shells form a loose mound on a shallow white plate against a warm ivory background.
Substrates

Shrimp heads and shells

The combined head tissue and shells saved during peeling; chef Alex Perry uses a weighed kilogram of this mix in a distinct shrimp garum.

A loose heap of translucent pink-orange shrimp shells, tails and detached heads on a shallow white plate against a warm ivory background.
Substrates

Shrimp shells

Peeled shrimp exoskeleton used for strained stocks; modern quick-garum guidance names shells as a possible substrate without a shell-specific formula.

Two thick raw marbled beef ribeye steaks lie slightly overlapped on a warm ivory tabletop.
Substrates

Beef

Beef is the meat of domestic cattle, Bos taurus and Bos indicus, sold as steaks, roasts, ground meat and cured products, and used in broths, salami and koji seasonings.

A raw skin-on duck breast, meat-side up on an ivory plate.
Substrates

Duck

Duck is the dark, rich meat of a domesticated water bird, sold whole or as breast, leg, skin, fat, giblets, bones and trimmings, each with its own use in the kitchen.