About

Ingredient Household is an internet slang term for a household that only keeps a stock of food commonly used as ingredients in larger dishes, such as chocolate chips, marshmallows, peanut butter, graham crackers and dried fruit. The term started to become popularized on TikTok in late 2022.

Origin

The term "ingredient house" was first defined on Urban Dictionary^[1] on December 23rd, 2021. The idea of households that only stock ingredients first appeared on TikTok in late September 2022. For example, on September 30th, 2022, TikToker^[2] @enbyybabyy posted a video captioned, "I live in a 'we have ingredients' household" where they make a meal by frying a tortilla and covering it in tomato paste and shredded cheese, garnering over 311,000 views in three months. On November 29th, TikToker^[3] @curri_cherri posted a video captioned, "Me and my brother whenever we want something sweet bc we grew up in a 'ingredient household'" where she eats a handful of semi-sweet chocolate chips, garnering over 8 million views in a month and coining the term "ingredient household" (shown below).

Spread

The term spread on TikTok throughout December as users made videos about living in ingredient households. On December 3rd, 2022, Twitter^[4] user @ziibiing made a post sharing the idea of ingredient households, garnering over 103,000 likes and 5,400 retweets in just over two weeks (shown below).

On December 6th, TikToker^[5] @ceyrudd posted a video using the term that garnered over 4.6 million views in two weeks (shown below, left). On December 10th, TikToker^[6] @hannahdrapinski posted a similar video, garnering over 486,000 views in just over a week. On December 13th, TikToker^[7] @rjoleach posted a video showcasing what she used to eat growing up in an ingredient household, garnering over 6 million views in six days (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References