what to keep at home
Insights
One question, counted over the whole archive: what has to be in the kitchen so that the most dishes can be cooked without a trip out first.
Computed August 29, 2026
This much is enough
Most dishes here lean on the same short list of seasonings. Keep it at home, and nearly every recipe is one or two fresh things away.
seasonings
78% of every ingredient call in the archive
21% of recipes cookable with nothing bought
garam, bawang putih, gula pasir, merica, bawang merah, minyak goreng, cabai merah, cabai rawit, kaldu bubuk, daun bawang, tepung terigu, jahe, kunyit, daun jeruk, daun salam, serai, ketumbar, kecap manis, santan, gula merah, and tepung maizena
91% of every ingredient call in the archive
54% of recipes cookable with nothing bought
kemiri, lengkuas, kecap asin, saus tiram, tepung tapioka, terasi, susu, margarin, bawang bombai, and baking powder
Over 4,030 recipes that name a seasoning, against a vocabulary of 42 seasonings, each of them used in at least 150 recipes. Rarer spices are not counted and do not count as covered. The large figure is the strict one: a recipe counts as covered only when every seasoning it names is on the list.
main ingredients
83% of every ingredient call in the archive
71% of recipes cookable with nothing bought
Telur, Ayam, Tomat, Ikan, Daging Sapi, Wortel, Mie & Pasta, Tahu, Coklat, Keju, Kol, Kentang, Udang, Nasi, and Tempe
98% of every ingredient call in the archive
95% of recipes cookable with nothing bought
Jamur, Bakso, Tauge, Sosis, Sawi, Jagung, Ubi & Singkong, Buncis, Roti, Pisang, and Cumi
Over 3,643 recipes carrying a main-ingredient tag, against a vocabulary of 32 ingredients, exactly the chips on From the Fridge.
49 recipes use Telur, Ayam, and Tomat together. From the Fridge matches every chip at once, so the button carries only the top of the list.
Each tier's size is found, not chosen: the point on the curve furthest from the straight line joining its two ends. The second tier is the same point taken again on what is left.
Buy them as a pair
Seasonings that rarely arrive alone. Once one is in the basket the other is almost certainly wanted too.
- Buying kecap asin, take minyak wijen too Together in 174 recipes 4.97x
- Buying minyak wijen, take saus tiram too Together in 153 recipes 4.69x
- Buying daun salam, take lengkuas too Together in 326 recipes 4.44x
- Buying daun jeruk, take serai too Together in 426 recipes 4.40x
- Buying lengkuas, take serai too Together in 314 recipes 4.29x
- Buying ketumbar, take kunyit too Together in 387 recipes 3.99x
Lift, over 4,175 recipes. At least 150 recipes per pair. The commonest pair by raw count (garam + gula pasir) is not shown: both are in every kitchen already, so it is not shopping advice.
The most versatile ingredients
The ingredients that open the most kinds of cooking. One purchase, many directions.
- Sosis 18 of 20 shelves · 177 recipes 88%
- Kol 19 of 20 shelves · 303 recipes 85%
- Jamur 19 of 20 shelves · 242 recipes 85%
- Wortel 19 of 20 shelves · 475 recipes 83%
- Sawi 18 of 20 shelves · 151 recipes 82%
The opposite: Pisang. Only 12% of its recipes leave Drinks & Desserts, so buying it buys one direction. Main-ingredient tags read automatically off the ingredient list, at least 80 recipes each. The figure is the share of a tag's recipes landing outside its own biggest shelf.
How long each dish takes
Median video length per shelf, for a day with no time in it.
- Western 10.2 min
- Japanese 10.0 min
- Baking & Air Fryer 9.2 min
- Korean 8.8 min
- Batch & Freezer 8.5 min
- Noodles & Pasta 7.8 min
- Holiday Menu 7.5 min
- Quick & Easy 7.3 min
- Takjil & Ramadhan 7.3 min
- Beef & Lamb 7.2 min
- Drinks & Desserts 7.1 min
- Chicken 6.9 min
- Seafood 6.6 min
- Everything Else 6.5 min
- Snacks & Starters 6.5 min
- Rice 6.4 min
- Egg 6.2 min
- Sambal & Sauces 6.0 min
- Vegetables & Soup 5.4 min
Quickest: Vegetables & Soup, Sambal & Sauces, and Egg.
The archive median is 6.7 minutes. Shelves with fewer than 50 videos are left out.
The archive in numbers
What is on the shelves today.
- videos
- 4,713
- recipes read out
- 4,175
- with steps
- 3,350
- with per-step timings
- 2,948
- with an English version
- 3,348
- ingredient lines
- 62,594
- hours of video
- 583
- kitchens
- 6
20 shelves. The biggest is Chicken with 946 recipes, the smallest Kitchen Tips with 25.