Curated substitution registry · extract through September 2026

Ingredient substitution statistics

Key findings compiled from 135 ingredient records and 486 documented pairings. Every figure is computed at request time. These are registry counts, not cooking advice and not a grocery-volume census.

135
ingredient records
486
documented pairings
15
categories
15.2%
quality-5 pairings

The registry in one line

135 ingredient records, 486 documented pairings, 135 ingredients with at least one swap, and Dairy leading categories at 11.9%.

135
ingredient records
486
documented pairings
81.3%
pairings tagged vegan
15.2%
pairings scored 5 of 5

Vintage September 2026. Quality scores and diet tags are editorial inventory fields, not a recommendation to eat, avoid, or medically substitute a food.

Key findings

Standalone, citable statements from the linked registry extract. Free to reuse with attribution to PlainSubstitute (CC BY 4.0; cite the page).

  • 135 ingredient records sit in the PlainSubstitute registry, joined to 486 documented substitute pairings across 15 categories. Every figure below is recomputed from that extract at request time.
  • 135 of 135 ingredients have at least one documented pairing (mean 3.6 pairings per covered ingredient; maximum 8). That is registry coverage, not a claim that every home pantry item has a swap.
  • 8 documented pairings is the registry maximum, shared by All-Purpose Flour, Buttermilk, and Whole Egg. Pairing count is how many substitute rows this extract stores for that ingredient, not search popularity or grocery volume.
  • 16 Dairy is the largest category (11.9% of 135 ingredient records). Category size is an ingredient-row count, not pounds sold or recipe frequency.
  • 74 of 486 pairings (15.2%) carry an editorial quality score of 5 on this portal's 1-5 scale. The score is a documented flavor and texture parity rating for listed contexts, not a safety or nutrition grade.
  • 395 of 486 pairings (81.3%) carry a vegan dietary tag. That is a tag on the substitute row, not a count of vegan ingredients and not dietary advice.
  • 7 Whole Egg has the most vegan-tagged pairings in this extract (7). The ranking orders ingredients by tagged pairing count, not by how "vegan-friendly" a food is.
  • 6 Butter has the most gluten-free-tagged pairings (6; 396 of 486 pairings, 81.5%, carry that tag). Tag inventory is not a certification census.

Documented pairings by category

Documented pairings by category

Counts of substitute rows joined to ingredients in each category, not pounds sold.

pairings

What this shows Dairy leads ingredient-record count; pairing volume by category is the bar length here.

Source PlainSubstitute curated substitution extract As of September 2026

How to read these numbers

Pairing counts, diet tags, and quality scores use different populations. A pairing is one substitute row for one ingredient. A vegan or gluten-free tag lives on that row; it is not a certification and not a property of the original ingredient. A quality score of 5 is this portal's editorial parity rating for listed recipe contexts. Category size counts ingredient records, not market share. See methodology.

Download the ingredient pairing snapshot: Substitution statistics CSV (CC BY 4.0).

Source: PlainSubstitute curated substitution database Ingredient and substitute pairing extract · 2026 Ratios and quality scores are compiled from culinary references and food-science literature on ingredient functionality.

PlainSubstitute is rendered directly from a curated culinary and food-science substitution corpus, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, the data & editorial changelog, or report a data error. Data current as of September 2026.

What to do with this registry

Use the counts to compare coverage, then open the ingredient page for ratios and contexts.

These figures describe this curated extract. They are not medical, allergen, or dietary advice.