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Sofrito
Sofrito is an aromatic flavor base of vegetables and herbs in fat, central to Spanish, Caribbean, and Latin American cooking; Puerto Rican recaíto is its raw green, culantro-based, tomato-free variant.
Soft serve
Soft serve: semi-soft frozen dairy dessert dispensed from a continuous freezer and eaten immediately; lower milkfat (about 3-10%) than ice cream, high air overrun, served around -6 C; also called soft cream in Japan.
Sopaipilla
Sopaipilla, also sopapilla, sopaipa, torta frita, or cachanga: a deep-fried flour pastry of Spanish-heritage America. Arrived with colonizers around 1700; central Chile adds pumpkin, sopaipillas pasadas soak fried rounds in chancaca syrup; New Mexico serves honey-drizzled or stuffed sopapillas.
Sorbet
Sorbet (Italian sorbetto, from Arabic sharbat) is a dairy-free frozen dessert of fruit juice or purée, water, and sugar, with 0% milk fat, distinct from sherbet, which contains dairy; typically 25–35% sugar, served as dessert or palate cleanser.
Soto (food)
Soto (also sroto, tauto, coto, saoto) is an Indonesian spiced soup of Chinese origin, known since the 19th century, with about 75 regional varieties; named one of Indonesia's five national dishes in 2018.
Soufflé
Soufflé, a French baked dish of a flavored base lightened with stiffly beaten egg whites that rises in the oven; savory or sweet; earliest recipes 1730s, perfected by Carême; deflates on serving.
Soup
Soup: a primarily liquid food of meat, vegetables, or grains in stock, juice, or water, served warm or cold. Covers clear and thick types (broth, bisque, chowder, cream, purée), etymology, and the soup origin of the word restaurant.
Sour cream
Sour cream: cultured dairy product made by fermenting pasteurized, homogenized cream (18-20% fat in the US) with lactic acid bacteria to about 0.6% lactic acid; distinct from crème fraîche and German Saure Sahne.
Sourdough
Sourdough is a flour-and-water fermentation of lactic acid bacteria and yeasts used as a natural leavening agent instead of baker's yeast, with pH 3.7-4.2, a roughly 100:1 bacteria-to-yeast ratio, and documented effects on bread flavor, shelf life, and protein digestibility.
Souvlaki (σουβλάκι)
Souvlaki (σουβλάκι), also called kalamaki in Athens, is Greek skewered grilled meat in pita, distinct from rotisserie gyros; first modern shop opened 1924 in Nikaia by refugee Isaak Meraklidis; Greece's most consumed fast food, now 4-6 euros.
Soy Foods
Soy foods, made from Glycine max (soybean), include tofu, miso, tempeh, edamame, natto, and soy milk; high in protein and isoflavone phytoestrogens, studied for cholesterol, hot flashes, bone, and breast cancer effects.
Soy sauce (酱油)
Soy sauce, known in Chinese as 酱油 and in Japanese as shoyu, is a fermented condiment of soybeans and wheat that originated in China and seasons East Asian cooking.
Spaghetti
Spaghetti, from Italian spago (string), is a long thin solid durum-wheat strand, Italy's most popular pasta at over two-thirds of consumption, documented in Sicily by 1154, with a Marco Polo origin myth debunked.
Spaghetti alla puttanesca
Spaghetti alla puttanesca, also aulive e chiappariell, is a Neapolitan pasta with tomato, olives, capers, anchovies, garlic, and chili; named from puttana, first named in print in 1961.
Spam (food)
Spam (SPAM brand) is Hormel Foods' canned pork luncheon meat, introduced July 5, 1937 in Austin, Minnesota; six ingredients, over 9 billion cans sold, spread worldwide by WWII military rations and staples like Hawaiian Spam musubi.
Spam musubi
Spam musubi, also called SPAM musubi (スパムむすび), is a Hawaiian snack of grilled Spam on a pressed block of plain rice wrapped in nori, adapted from Japanese onigiri and popularized in Hawaii in the 1980s.
Spanish omelette
The Spanish omelette, tortilla de patatas or tortilla española, is Spain's thick egg-and-potato omelette cooked in olive oil, optionally with onion; first documented in an 1817 Navarrese memorial, subject of the national con cebolla o sin cebolla debate, and a national symbol.
Speculaas
Speculaas (Dutch, speculaas): a thin, crisp, spice-filled shortcrust biscuit from the Low Countries, molded in carved wooden boards for St. Nicholas (5-6 December); distinct from the cinnamon-only caramelized Belgian speculoos.
Sponge cake
Sponge cake (bizcocho, bizcochuelo) is a foam-type cake of flour, eggs, and sugar, leavened mainly by air whipped into eggs with 0.1–10% fat, distinct from angel food cake (whites only) and chiffon (oil).
Spotted dick
Spotted dick, also known as spotted Richard or railway cake, is a British steamed suet pudding studded with currants or raisins and served hot with custard.
Spring roll
Spring roll (春卷, chunjuan; Japanese harumaki, Vietnamese nem/goi cuon): a Chinese rolled food of thin wheat wrapper around vegetable, meat, or sweet filling, usually deep fried, eaten at lichun and New Year, with fresh rice-paper variants in Vietnam.
Sprinkles
Sprinkles, also called jimmies, nonpareils, or hundreds and thousands, are small sugar-based confectionery decorations for cakes, cookies, and ice cream; made of sugar, starch, oil, dyes, and shellac glaze, with nonpareils dating to 17th-century France.
Sprouted bread
Sprouted bread is bread made from whole grains allowed to germinate before milling, as in Ezekiel 4:9 and Essene bread. Sprouting raises phytase activity, reduces phytate, and may lower glycemic response, though evidence is mixed.
Sriracha (ศรีราชา)
Sriracha (ศรีราชา) is a Thai chili sauce from Si Racha, Chonburi, first made by Thanom Chakkaphak's family (Sriraja Panich, 1935); American-style sriracha is Huy Fong Foods' thicker jalapeño version created by David Tran in 1980.
Stargazy pie
Stargazy pie is a Cornish fish pie from Mousehole in which pilchards or sardines are baked whole under a pastry crust with their heads poking through the lid. It is tied to Tom Bawcock's Eve, 23 December, and the Ship Inn.
Steak
Steak: thick beef slice cut across the muscle fibers for high-heat cooking. Key cuts include ribeye, strip, tenderloin, and sirloin; USDA grades Prime, Choice, and Select rest on ribeye marbling, which drives tenderness, juiciness, and flavor.
Steak and kidney pie
Steak and kidney pie, a traditional British baked pie of diced beef and kidneys in gravy, related to the suet-steamed steak and kidney pudding; first recipe 1694, modern form from 1851, Mrs Beeton 1861, British Pie Awards class.
Steak Diane
Steak Diane is a pan-fried beefsteak finished with a pan sauce of shallots, mustard, Worcestershire, cream, and cognac, often flambéed tableside. Disputed origins involve Tony Clerici in 1938 London and Beniamino Schiavon of New York's Drake Hotel.
Steak frites
Steak frites, also written steak-frites, is the classic French and Belgian bistro dish of a seared beef steak (entrecôte, bavette, onglet) with crisp fried potatoes and a sauce such as béarnaise or au poivre, with contested Franco-Belgian origins.
Steak tartare
Steak tartare (tartare de bœuf) is a French dish of raw, finely chopped or minced beef seasoned and served cold with egg yolk, capers, and shallots; first written down in 1896 as Hamburg steak, its Tatar saddle origin story is folklore.