Pantry & Condiment

Every pantry & condiment entry in the Typed food library. Each one is a full page: what it does, stage by stage, and what the evidence says.

• Baking PowderHalf a teaspoon in a cake is nothing. A spoonful straight is a medical emergency.
• Baking SodaNot a food, an ingredient. It has no energy at all, but gram for gram it carries more sodium than salt.
• Balsamic VinegarThe only vinegar with real sugar in it — and still 79 calories per hundred.
• BarThe health-food end and the confectionery end of this shelf are closer together than the packaging suggests.
• Barbecue SauceThirty-eight grams of sugar per hundred. More than most confectionery.
• Berry JamTwo-thirds sugar, and the sugar is why it keeps.
• Brown SugarWhite sugar with a film of molasses on it. That is the entire difference.
• Cake MixThe numbers here are for the powder in the box, not the cake that comes out of the oven.
• Capers2,348 mg of sodium per hundred grams — the saltiest food in the library.
• Cardamom SeedThe nutrition table is per 100g. Nobody eats 100g of cardamom.
• Chocolate Hazelnut SpreadMore than half sugar, under a third fat, and the hazelnuts are the smallest part.
• Chutney or RelishMade of fruit and vegetables, but preserved with enough sugar and salt to change what it is.
• Cocoa PowderThe drinking chocolate without the three-quarters sugar. Almost nothing else changes.
• Coriander SeedThe numbers here look impressive, but a teaspoon weighs two grams — treat this as flavour, not nutrition.
• Cornflour (Cornstarch)Pure starch, nothing else — which is exactly what it is for.
• Cream of TartarAn acid powder for baking — the huge potassium number on the table is per 100g, and a recipe uses about a gram.
• Cumin SeedThe table says cumin is loaded with iron. A teaspoon of it is not — read the serving size first.
• Curry PowderFifty-three per cent fibre and 25 mg of vitamin E. In teaspoons.
• Custard PowderIt is cornflour with colour and vanilla in it. Everything nutritious in the finished bowl comes from the milk.
• Fenugreek SeedA spice, not a food. The impressive iron and fibre numbers shrink to almost nothing at the teaspoon you actually use.
• Fish SauceSaltier than seawater by a wide margin, and a genuine iodine source.
• GelatineEighty-four per cent protein and one of the least useful proteins you can eat.
• GingerA spice, not a food — read the table knowing a teaspoon weighs under two grams.
• GlucoseNot the same thing as the glucose in your blood test. This is a thick starch syrup used to stop sweets going grainy.
• GlutenThe stretchy protein in wheat, sold on its own. Harmless for most people, genuinely dangerous for those with coeliac disease.
• Golden SyrupRefinery by-product, rebranded as heritage. Seventy-five grams of sugar per hundred.
• GravyAlmost no calories, almost no nutrients, and a great deal of salt.
• Gravy PowderMostly salt and thickened starch — the sodium figure is the whole story here.
• Ground ChilliThe most nutrient-dense thing in this batch, in the smallest serves.
• HoneySugar with trace extras — and one genuine, well-evidenced use.
• Instant Cup SoupAlmost no food in it — but a serious share of your day’s sodium.
• JamThe sugar in jam is not just for sweetness — it is doing the setting and the preserving.
• LecithinIt is the ingredient that stops oil and water separating — sold in a tub as though it were a breakfast cereal.
• Maple SyrupSixty grams of sugar per hundred. The tree does not change that.
• MarjoramA teaspoon is about a gram, so divide everything in the table by a hundred.
• MarmaladeJam with peel in it, which changes the taste and almost nothing else.
• Milk ChocolateThe cocoa research is real. Most of it does not apply to this.
• MirinA sweet rice seasoning that is about a quarter sugar, used a tablespoon at a time for shine and flavour.
• MustardThe rare condiment where the flavour costs almost nothing.
• Mustard PowderGround mustard seed. It only turns hot when mixed with cold water, and only for a while.
• Nutritional YeastA savoury powder that happens to be one of the densest B-vitamin foods there is.
• PasteThese are flavour bases, not foods. The numbers are per 100g, and a recipe uses a teaspoon.
• PestoThirty-seven per cent fat, and most of it the kind worth eating.
• Potato CrispsA third fat by weight — and genuinely hard to stop eating, by design.
• PsylliumA fibre that turns to gel in water — which is why it needs plenty of it.
• SageA herb, not a food. The impressive numbers on the table belong to 100g of dried leaf, and a generous pinch is about one gram.
• Salad Dressing (French or Italian)The fat is the part doing you a favour. It’s the fat-free version that costs you.
• Salt Substitute (Potassium Chloride)One of the few dietary swaps with a hard trial outcome behind it — and a real contraindication.
• SauceSauces split into two kinds: a spoonful on the side, and half the meal poured from a jar.
• SoupInstant soups differ mostly in thickener and salt, not in nourishment.
• Soy SauceThe saltiest thing in most kitchens — and a tablespoon is half a day’s sodium.
• SpreadYeast spreads and chocolate spreads sit side by side and have almost nothing in common.
• StarchNot a flour. Starch is the one part of the plant left after everything else is washed away.
• StockA stock cube is mostly salt, and the numbers only make sense once you dilute it.
• Stock CubeEighteen grams of sodium per hundred. One cube is a quarter of a day’s worth.
• SugarRaw, brown and white sugar are the same thing with different amounts of molasses on the outside.
• SyrupSugar made from grain starch instead of cane. It sounds gentler than it is.
• Table Salt (Iodised)The single biggest sodium source in most diets — and, iodised, a public-health success.
• Taco SeasoningA spice mix that is mostly salt and sugar, sold as spice.
• Taco Seasoning MixEvery number here looks extreme until you remember a sachet is 30 grams shared between four people.
• Tomato PasteThe one thing on this shelf that is concentrated nutrition rather than concentrated salt.
• Tomato Sauce (Ketchup)A quarter sugar by weight, and one of the better lycopene sources you will eat.
• Treacle (Molasses)The one sweetener whose mineral content is genuinely worth mentioning. It is still 69% sugar.
• Treacle or MolassesWhat is left over when sugar is refined out of cane, minerals included.
• Vanilla Bean ExtractReal extract and imitation essence taste different, but neither adds anything nutritionally at the amounts used.
• Vanilla EssenceNutritionally nothing, and it makes food taste sweeter without any sugar.
• Vinegar (White & Cider)Sixteen calories per hundred grams, and a small real effect on blood sugar.
• White SugarPure sucrose. No micronutrients at all — this is the reference point.
• Worcestershire SauceContains anchovies, which surprises a great many vegetarians.
• YeastExtraordinary nutrition per 100g, and almost nobody eats anything close to 100g of it.

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