# Single most critical/key/amazing food/ingredient **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 21, 2010, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-most-critical-key-amazing-food-ingredient/561478 "2010-11-21T21:57:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2010, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-most-critical-key-amazing-food-ingredient/561478/1 "2010-11-21T21:57:20Z")
It’s hard to imagine modern life and modern eating without certain specific foods. At least, Western eating. My vote for the single most versatile, key, important, and overall delicious and fabulous food/ingredient we have is the egg. It is key to the widest range of foods and plus I just LOVE eggs and everything they contribute to. I was going to make this a poll, but I couldn’t think of anything else that even comes close. If you have a candidate that you believe surpasses the egg, please share. Eggs make the following dishes and meals possible: Fried, poached, scrambled eggs all by themselves omelettes fritattas quiches **custards:** creme brulee pots de creme pastry cream creme anglaise Lemon curd meringue angel food cake ALL cake, even (especially!) flourless cake cookies, muffins and just about anything baked noodles BREADING and frying… without egg, what would you dip before you dip? A bunch of french sauces MAYONNAISE on and on and on… EGGS ROCK. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2010, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-most-critical-key-amazing-food-ingredient/561478/2 "2010-11-21T22:09:23Z")
Cheese. Maybe not as a base/structure food like eggs but think of all the dishes that are defined by cheese. ---
**Author:** ![Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8edcca/32.png) [@Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superfluous_Parentheses)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2010, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-most-critical-key-amazing-food-ingredient/561478/3 "2010-11-21T22:10:24Z")
I think this is not a question that will give a singular best answer, but in my opinion, there is an ingredient that can at least qualify as being as versatile as eggs: Milk. Milk gives us butter, creams, cheeses (almost a food group in its own right), yoghurts, buttermilk, [lactose-acid soft drinks](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rivella), and [milk sugars](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactose). And that’s just the types of food or drink where milk is the overwhelming majority of the components. If you include the more derivative recipes, the only competing ingredient that comes to mind quickly is grains - wheat and rice in particular which by the way work very well with milk in many recipes. I suspect though that the real ultimate ingredient is the humble water. [Wat is water? We just don’t know](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCWA7uevo_Q). ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2010, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-most-critical-key-amazing-food-ingredient/561478/4 "2010-11-21T22:30:13Z")
Milk is key mostly for the cheese. And cheese is indeed a major food (see my thread on cheese!) But I don’t think either milk or cheese is as critically important to as many different types of dishes as eggs, simply because of the jobs that eggs do and are capable of doing. The amazing nature of eggs, both whites and yolks, together and apart, means that eggs are irreplaceable in a huge percentage of the huge number of foods they contribute to. The way eggs contribute structure and texture to foods simply can’t be replicated by non-egg substitutes. If you doubt that, try eating vegan for very long and tell me you don’t miss them! ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2010, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-most-critical-key-amazing-food-ingredient/561478/5 "2010-11-21T22:44:47Z")
Salt. ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2010, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-most-critical-key-amazing-food-ingredient/561478/6 "2010-11-21T23:25:48Z")
Salt was my first thought; corn is my second. Not only is corn made into obvious stuff like corn chips and corn meal, it’s the source of corn syrup and corn oil as well as the biodiesel that transports our food so far, and a lot of the plastic products it’s packaged in so that it _can_ travel. Plus, it’s animal feed. I know that more and more feed is soy, but plenty is still corn. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2010, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-most-critical-key-amazing-food-ingredient/561478/7 "2010-11-22T00:32:04Z")
> [@Sattua](#): > > Salt was my first thought; corn is my second. Not only is corn made into obvious stuff like corn chips and corn meal, it’s the source of corn syrup and corn oil as well as the biodiesel that transports our food so far, and a lot of the plastic products it’s packaged in so that it _can_ travel. > > Plus, it’s animal feed. I know that more and more feed is soy, but plenty is still corn. Plus a lot of the inks on the labels of the corn-derived plastic packaging containing the corn-derived food, which let us know its identity. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2010, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-most-critical-key-amazing-food-ingredient/561478/8 "2010-11-22T00:33:16Z")
I instantly thought of onions. I’m not sure why. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2010, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-most-critical-key-amazing-food-ingredient/561478/9 "2010-11-22T01:16:13Z")
> [@amanset](#): > > I instantly thought of onions. I’m not sure why. Onions & chocolate are the 2 perfect foods. Everything you eat is better when one of them is added. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2010, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-most-critical-key-amazing-food-ingredient/561478/10 "2010-11-22T02:47:14Z")
Except chocolate-covered onions. Another vote for salt. Not sodium, salt. ---
**Author:** ![Zjestika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/8edcca/32.png) [@Zjestika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zjestika)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2010, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-most-critical-key-amazing-food-ingredient/561478/11 "2010-11-22T02:51:45Z")
When I saw the thread title I thought instantly of eggs. I made my banana pancakes last week and forgot the egg. They were meh. Then I made them yesterday with the egg and they were so yummy. ---
**Author:** ![KinkiNipponTourist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e9bcb4/32.png) [@KinkiNipponTourist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KinkiNipponTourist)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2010, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-most-critical-key-amazing-food-ingredient/561478/12 "2010-11-22T03:08:13Z")
Yet another vote for salt. It’s not a main ingredient in anything, but its necessary in both sweet and savory dishes, and its presence or absence can literally make or break a dish in terms of taste. ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2010, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-most-critical-key-amazing-food-ingredient/561478/13 "2010-11-22T03:25:18Z")
Well, I give you salt, but I was thinking more of actual food, vs. seasoning. Corn is major, but as far as food alone, it wouldn’t be missed the way eggs would be. Even if you don’t like eggs much for themselves, if they were suddenly deleted from everything you eat, you’d notice. Bigtime. Like Zjestika’s pancakes. ---
**Author:** ![Waterman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b2d939/32.png) [@Waterman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waterman)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2010, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-most-critical-key-amazing-food-ingredient/561478/14 "2010-11-22T07:35:29Z")
I cast my vote for the most important (versatile) ingredient - garlic! ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2010, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-most-critical-key-amazing-food-ingredient/561478/15 "2010-11-22T07:37:13Z")
Sugar and salt. Our bodies are simply made to react to them. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2010, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-most-critical-key-amazing-food-ingredient/561478/16 "2010-11-22T07:57:46Z")
> [@Stoid](#): > > Well, I give you salt, but I was thinking more of actual food, vs. seasoning. Well, you did say “ingredient”… 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2010, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-most-critical-key-amazing-food-ingredient/561478/17 "2010-11-22T08:05:56Z")
Fat ueberalles. Butter, crisco, olive oil, lard…pony mane, foie gras, and blubber. ---
**Author:** ![iamnotbatman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/858c86/32.png) [@iamnotbatman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamnotbatman)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2010, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-most-critical-key-amazing-food-ingredient/561478/18 "2010-11-22T08:09:54Z")
I was going to say “oil/fat”. Most recipes require some. Butter qualifies, and is derived from milk. So I have to go with **milk**. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2010, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-most-critical-key-amazing-food-ingredient/561478/19 "2010-11-22T08:13:04Z")
> [@Stoid](#): > > It’s hard to imagine modern life and modern eating without certain specific foods. At least, Western eating. > > My vote for the single most versatile, key, important, and overall delicious and fabulous food/ingredient we have is the egg. It is key to the widest range of foods and plus I just LOVE eggs and everything they contribute to. > > I was going to make this a poll, but I couldn’t think of anything else that even comes close. If you have a candidate that you believe surpasses the egg, please share. > > Eggs make the following dishes and meals possible: > > Fried, poached, scrambled eggs all by themselves > omelettes > fritattas > quiches > > **custards:** > creme brulee > pots de creme > pastry cream > creme anglaise > Lemon curd > > meringue > angel food cake > ALL cake, even (especially!) flourless cake > cookies, muffins and just about anything baked > > noodles > BREADING and frying… without egg, what would you dip before you dip? > > A bunch of french sauces > MAYONNAISE > on and on and on… EGGS ROCK. You had to remind me that I’m allergic to eggs didn’t you? ---
**Author:** ![iamnotbatman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/858c86/32.png) [@iamnotbatman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamnotbatman)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2010, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-most-critical-key-amazing-food-ingredient/561478/20 "2010-11-22T08:24:46Z")
BTW, this can be answered scientifically: google _recipe egg OR eggs_: 22,200,000 results google _recipe milk OR butter OR cheese_: 50,500,000 results Winner: **milk** ETA: And **stoid** : > [@stoid](#): > > Milk is key mostly for the cheese Really? Don’t underestimate butter. Essential to French, Indian cuisine, Pastries, cookies, … [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-most-critical-key-amazing-food-ingredient/561478.md?page=2)