Aromatic flavor bases like Mirepoix and Sofrito form the foundational starting point for regional cooking traditions around the world.

• Ingredients: Onion, carrot, and celery.
• Ratio: 2 parts onion, 1 part carrot, and 1 part celery (by weight).
• Cooking Fat: Usually sweated or sautéed in butter.
• Use: Classic French soups, stocks, and sauces.
• See also: Suppengrün, its German counterpart, and Soffritto, its Italian cousin - both built on the same onion-and-root-vegetable trio. In Espagnole and Sauce Tomate, it is the aromatic start.

• Ingredients: Carrot, celery root (celeriac), and leek, sometimes with a bit of parsley root.
• Ratio: Roughly equal parts by weight, with leek often used more generously.
• Cooking Fat: Usually simmered directly in the stock or water rather than sautéed first.
• Use: German soups and stocks (Suppe), pot roasts, and long-braised dishes.
• See also: Mirepoix, which swaps celery root and leek for stalk celery and onion, and is typically sautéed before simmering rather than added raw. Suppengrün is also the base of the German braune Grundsoße.

• Ingredients: Onion, carrot, and celery, the same trio as mirepoix, often joined by garlic, herbs, or pancetta.
• Ratio: Similar to mirepoix, roughly 2 parts onion to 1 part each carrot and celery, though home cooks vary it freely.
• Cooking Fat: Olive oil, cooked down slowly until soft and lightly caramelized rather than just sweated.
• Use: Italian sauces (ragù), soups, risottos, and braises.
• See also: Mirepoix, its French relative - soffritto is generally cooked longer and more deeply colored. It is the start of Bolognese, a Sauce Tomate derivative.

• Ingredients: Onion and carrot, sometimes joined by tomato or garlic.
• Ratio: Roughly equal parts onion and carrot; tomato, when used, is added in a smaller proportion.
• Cooking Fat: Sautéed in oil or lard until soft and lightly golden.
• Use: The base for Russian and Ukrainian soups like borscht and solyanka, plus many braises.
• See also: Mirepoix, its Western European cousin - zazharka usually skips the celery, staying a duo rather than a full trio.

• Ingredients: Onion, green bell pepper, and celery.
• Ratio: Typically equal parts celery and bell pepper, with 1 to 2 parts onion.
• Cooking Fat: Butter or oil.
• Use: Louisiana gumbos, jambalayas, and étouffées.
• See also: Mirepoix, brought to Louisiana by French Acadian settlers and adapted by swapping in bell pepper for carrot. In a gumbo, the trinity goes into a dark roux.

• Ingredients: Garlic, onion, bell pepper, and tomato.
• Ratio: Varies by recipe, but heavily features tomato and garlic alongside onion.
• Cooking Fat: Olive oil.
• Use: Spanish paellas, stews, and bean dishes.
• See also: Recaito, its tomato-free, herb-forward Puerto Rican cousin, and Refogado, its Portuguese-Brazilian sibling. Cooked down further, tomato-based sofrito shades into Sauce Tomate and Mexican salsa roja.

• Ingredients: Onion, garlic, and tomato, sometimes with bell pepper.
• Ratio: Onion and garlic form the base, with tomato added generously once they've softened.
• Cooking Fat: Olive oil or a neutral vegetable oil.
• Use: Brazilian feijoada, rice, and bean dishes.
• See also: Sofrito, which shares nearly the same ingredient list under Spanish colonial influence.

• Ingredients: Green aromatics like culantro (recao), cilantro, garlic, onion, and ajíes dulces or cubanelle peppers.
• Difference from Sofrito: It is bright green because it omits tomatoes, leaning heavily into pungent fresh herbs rather than cooked-down red vegetables.
• Use: Puerto Rican stews, rice, and soups.

• Ingredients: Tomato, red bell pepper (or scotch bonnet for heat), and onion, blended into a smooth base.
• Ratio: Tomato dominates by volume, with onion and pepper providing the aromatic backbone; scotch bonnet is added to taste for heat.
• Cooking Fat: Palm oil or vegetable oil, fried down until the raw tomato taste cooks off and the base darkens.
• Use: The foundation of West African stews and jollof rice, from Nigeria to Ghana and beyond.
• See also: Sofrito and Refogado, distant cousins sharing the same tomato-onion-pepper backbone, though ata/obe developed independently in West Africa.

• Ingredients: Scallion, ginger, and garlic.
• Ratio: No fixed ratio - proportions shift with the dish, and the three are usually minced or sliced separately rather than combined into one base.
• Cooking Fat: Bloomed briefly in hot oil (peanut, vegetable, or sesame) at the very start of cooking.
• Use: The near-universal starting point for Chinese stir-fries, braises, and soups.
• See also: Master Stock & Hong Shao, the soy-wine-sugar braise it starts, and Jang, the Korean fermented bases it is seasoned with.

• Ingredients: Ginger, garlic, and onion blended into a paste, often paired with a separate tempering (tadka/chaunk) of whole spices, such as mustard seed, cumin, and dried chilies, bloomed in hot oil or ghee.
• Ratio: Ginger and garlic are typically used in equal parts, with onion added more generously as the base of the dish.
• Cooking Fat: Ghee, mustard oil, or a neutral vegetable oil.
• Use: The foundation of most Indian curries, dals, and gravies.
• See also: Rempah, Southeast Asia's pounded-paste counterpart, and Base Gravies, the white, red, brown, and green gravies built on it.

• Ingredients: Shallot, garlic, galangal, and lemongrass, frequently pounded with chilies and other spices such as turmeric, candlenut, and shrimp paste into a wet paste.
• Ratio: Varies widely by region and dish, though shallot and garlic usually dominate by volume.
• Cooking Fat: Fried in oil until fragrant and the raw edge cooks off, a step called "menumis."
• Use: The base for curries, sambals, and rendang across Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore.
• See also: Ginger-Garlic-Onion Paste, a similar pounded-aromatic approach used in Indian cooking, and Bumbu Dasar, Indonesia's own three-variant base-paste system.

• Ingredients: A shared white base (bumbu dasar putih) of shallot, garlic, candlenut, and ginger, built up further into a red base (bumbu dasar merah) with red chilies, or a yellow base (bumbu dasar kuning) with turmeric.
• Ratio: Shallot and garlic dominate by volume, with candlenut and ginger rounding out the paste; the chili or turmeric addition varies by dish.
• Cooking Fat: Pounded or blended into a paste, then fried in oil until fragrant before the rest of the dish is added.
• Use: Indonesia's mother-paste system - the white, red, and yellow variants are each the starting point for a different family of curries, soups, and stir-fries.
• See also: Rempah, the broader Southeast Asian pounded-paste tradition it belongs to.

• Ingredients: Lemongrass, galangal, garlic, shallot, and chilies, frequently joined by kaffir lime zest, coriander root, and shrimp paste, pounded into a paste.
• Ratio: Varies by curry color - red curry paste leans heavily on dried red chilies, green uses fresh green chilies with a higher herb ratio, and yellow adds turmeric for a milder result.
• Cooking Fat: Fried in oil or coconut cream until fragrant and the paste's color deepens.
• Use: The base for Thai curries (gaeng), plus many stir-fries and soups built on the same paste.
• See also: Rempah and Bumbu Dasar, sharing the same pounded-paste, fried-until-fragrant approach.

• Ingredients: Garlic, onion, and tomato, sautéed together.
• Ratio: Garlic and onion form the base in roughly equal parts, with tomato added more generously once they've softened.
• Cooking Fat: Vegetable oil, sautéed until the onion turns translucent and the tomato breaks down.
• Use: The near-universal starting point for Filipino adobo, sinigang, and countless other ginisang (sautéed) dishes.
• See also: Sofrito and Refogado, sharing the same onion-garlic-tomato lineage carried by Spanish colonial influence, though ginisa reached the Philippines rather than the Americas.

• Ingredients: Garlic and shallot, built on nước màu (sugar cooked down into a dark caramel) and fish sauce, with black pepper.
• Ratio: Garlic and shallot minced generously; the sugar is caramelized on its own first, then fish sauce and pepper are added to taste once the aromatics go in.
• Cooking Fat: Little to none - the sugar is cooked dry, or with just a touch of oil, until deeply caramelized before anything else joins it.
• Use: The base for Vietnamese kho braises - cá kho tộ (caramelized clay-pot fish), thịt kho, tôm kho, and trứng kho - kho meaning "to braise" in this lightly sweet-salty caramel sauce.
• See also: Ginisa, the Philippines' garlic-onion-tomato sauté base - both start from garlic, but kho builds on caramelized sugar and fish sauce rather than tomato. See also Hong Shao, the Chinese red-braise that also begins with caramelized sugar.