Foods that start with S

List of Foods That Start With S

1

Safflower Oil

A pale neutral oil pressed from safflower seeds, valued for its high smoke point and high oleic-acid content — common in commercial cooking and salad blends.

2

Saffron

The dried red stigmas of a small autumn-flowering crocus — by weight, the most expensive spice in the world, and the source of the deep gold color in paella, biryani, risotto, and bouillabaisse.

3

Sage

A silvery-leafed Mediterranean herb with a strong, slightly camphor-bitter flavor — the defining herb of Italian browned-butter sauces, English roasted poultry stuffing, and many sausage recipes.

4

Sake

A Japanese alcoholic beverage brewed from rice, water, yeast, and koji mold — neither beer nor wine in technical terms, but a unique fermentation tradition with classification rules as strict as French wine.

5

Salad

A cold dish of raw or cooked vegetables, leaves, grains, or proteins dressed with oil, acid, or other seasonings — one of the most universally prepared dishes in human food history.

6

Salade Niçoise

The defining salad of Nice and the French Riviera — traditionally tuna, anchovies, hard-boiled eggs, tomatoes, black olives, green beans, and artichoke hearts dressed in olive oil; the subject of fierce debate over whether cooked vegetables should be included and whether the tuna should be fresh or tinned; a complete meal that epitomises the flavours of Provence.

7

Salmon

A pink-fleshed migratory fish — the most-eaten fish in many Western markets, eaten raw as sushi, smoked into lox, grilled, baked, and central to Norwegian, Japanese, and Pacific Northwest cooking.

8

Salsa

A Mexican uncooked or lightly-cooked sauce of tomato, chili, onion, and cilantro — the broadest term in Mexican cuisine, encompassing dozens of regional varieties from raw pico de gallo to roasted salsa roja.

9

Sardines

Small, oily, schooling Atlantic fish — sustainable, nutrient-dense, and traditionally canned in oil or sauce; named for the Mediterranean island of Sardinia where they were first canned commercially.

10

Sausages

Ground meat seasoned and stuffed into casing — a near-universal preserved-meat tradition with hundreds of regional forms, from Italian salami to Polish kielbasa to British bangers.

11

Scallops

A bivalve mollusk eaten almost exclusively as the white adductor muscle that closes its fan-shaped shell — sweet, tender, and one of the few seafoods that benefits from a dramatic sear.

12

Schnitzel

A thin, breaded cutlet fried in clarified butter — Austria's Wiener Schnitzel must be veal; Germany's Schnitzel uses pork; both are pounded paper-thin, coated in flour, egg wash, and fine breadcrumbs, and fried until golden.

13

Scones

The cornerstone of the British cream tea — small, leavened quick breads made from flour, butter, and buttermilk or milk, baked until risen and golden; served split and spread with clotted cream and strawberry jam; the cream-first versus jam-first controversy (Cornish versus Devonian tradition) is a persistent source of gentle British regional rivalry.

14

Scotch Egg

A boiled egg encased in seasoned sausage meat, coated in breadcrumbs, and deep-fried until golden — a British picnic and pub staple invented in London in 1738 by Fortnum and Mason; the perfect Scotch egg has a soft, still-runny yolk inside the crispy shell, and achieving this requires precise timing.

15

Sea Salt

Salt produced by evaporating seawater — the world's oldest harvested seasoning, with regional traditions from French fleur de sel to Hawaiian alaea to Korean bamboo-burned salt creating very different products.

16

Semolina

A coarse flour ground from durum wheat — the foundation of dried Italian pasta, North African couscous, Indian semolina cakes (rava), and many other grain traditions across Mediterranean and South Asian cuisine.

17

Sesame Oil

An aromatic oil pressed from sesame seeds — fundamental to East Asian cuisine, with roasted (toasted) and unroasted versions serving very different culinary purposes.

18

Sesame Seeds

Tiny oil-rich seeds from one of the world's oldest oilseed crops — toasted, sprinkled, ground into tahini, pressed for oil, or scattered across breads and sweets globally.

19

Shakshuka

Eggs poached in a spiced tomato and pepper sauce — a Middle Eastern and North African staple that has become one of the world's most popular brunch dishes; cooked and served in the pan it was made in, eaten with bread for scooping, and ready in 30 minutes.

20

Sheep's Milk Yoghurt

A thick, rich yoghurt made from sheep's milk with more protein, fat, and calcium than cow's milk yoghurt — a staple of Balkan, Greek, and Middle Eastern food cultures with a distinctively creamy, tangy character.

21

Shepherd's Pie

A British baked casserole of minced lamb (or beef, correctly called cottage pie) under a mashed potato crust, browned under the grill — a frugal dish designed to use leftover roast meat.

22

Shortbread

Scotland's most celebrated biscuit — a buttery, crumbly, melt-in-the-mouth confection made from just three ingredients in a 3-2-1 ratio of flour, butter, and sugar; Scots shortbread is associated with Hogmanay, Burns Night, and the gift tins that have represented Scottish craftsmanship worldwide for over a century; Walkers of Aberlour is among the most recognised brands.

23

Soufflé

France's most technically demanding dish — a base sauce folded with stiffly beaten egg whites and baked in a straight-sided ramekin; it must be served within seconds of leaving the oven before the trapped air escapes and it collapses.

24

Sourdough

Bread leavened by wild yeast and lactic acid bacteria captured from flour and air — a 6,000-year-old technique with a 2020 pandemic-era revival, producing complex flavor unobtainable from packaged yeast.

25

Soy Sauce

A salty fermented Asian condiment made from soybeans, wheat, salt, and koji — the most-used condiment in East Asian cooking and increasingly globalized as a savory base for dishes worldwide.

26

Spaghetti

The world's most recognizable pasta — long thin round strands made from durum wheat semolina, the canvas for thousands of sauces.

27

Spotted Dick

A classic British steamed suet pudding studded with currants or raisins — the "spots" are the dried fruit, and "dick" is thought to derive from an old dialect word for dough or pudding; rich, dense, and warming, it is served hot with custard and remains a staple of British school dinners, pub menus, and traditional restaurant pudding lists.

28

Spring Roll

A crispy, golden fried roll of Chinese origin filled with vegetables, glass noodles, and sometimes pork or shrimp, wrapped in a thin wheat or rice flour wrapper and deep-fried; distinct from the egg roll, with a thinner, crisper wrapper that shatters rather than chews.

29

Steak

A thick cut of beef cooked to a desired doneness over intense heat — the quality of the steak depends on the cut, the breed and feeding of the animal, the aging process, and the heat source, not the seasoning.

30

Sushi

A Japanese specialty pairing vinegared rice with raw or cooked seafood, vegetables, and sometimes egg, presented as nigiri, maki, or other forms.

31

Syllabub

A whipped cream dessert from Tudor and Stuart England — sweet double cream whipped with white wine or sherry, lemon zest, and sugar until it stands in soft, cloud-like peaks; one of the oldest still-made British desserts, syllabub was fashionable at Elizabethan and Stuart banquets and is now enjoying a quiet revival as a light, elegant alternative to heavy puddings.