Less than 7 thousand ingredients [1]. Even if you think it's way more than that on account of underrepresented cultures (which does not seem to be the case), it

Less than 7 thousand ingredients [1]. Even if you think it's way more than that on account of underrepresented cultures (which does not seem to be the case), it's still just a few thousand. Most cuisines use around 50 of them. [1] https://flowingdata.com/2018/09/18/cuisine-ingredients/ https://flowingdata.com/2018/09/18/cuisine-ingredients/ Total number of techniques should be in the hundreds (not thousands), to be generous, even accounting for historical / prehistorical techniques.