Bouillon cube

A bouillon cube is stock with the water taken out, so the FODMAP of whatever allium went in is concentrated into a few grams - and the ingredient list will say "vegetables" or "flavourings" without a quantity. One cube makes half a litre, which is not a small serving of anything.

Same reason as the FODMAP level: allium fructans concentrated into a few grams. They are water-soluble, which here works against you - the cube is designed to dissolve completely into the liquid you then drink. This is a PREPARED food, and that is the difficulty on this axis: the oligosaccharides come from whatever went in - onion, garlic, a legume, an added fibre - not from a single plant that could be looked up. The level follows work on fructooligosaccharides in prepared and preserved foods for that reason. The survey behind this ranks by PLANT FAMILY rather than by food: the Compositae highest in total fructooligosaccharide, then the Allium species. A prepared food takes its place from whichever of those went into it - onion and garlic are Allium, artichoke and chicory are Compositae - and the survey names no prepared food itself.

A stock cube is broth with the water removed, and it adds two things a homemade broth does not: yeast extract and glutamates, both of which carry histamine in their own right. It is also shelf-stable for years, which means everything in it was concentrated and then left.

A stock cube is broth with the water removed, and it usually carries yeast extract on top - one of the four foods the MAOI-diet reviews restrict absolutely, named there as concentrated yeast extract. The cube is a concentrate of a concentrate.

A bouillon cube uses lactose as a carrier - a cheap, free-flowing powder to hold the salt, fat and flavourings together in a pressed block. It is a small dose in a cube that makes half a litre, but it is there, and it is not obvious from the name.

A stock cube has to hold together as a pressed block, and flour is one of the cheapest ways to do that - alongside barley malt extract for flavour. Gluten-free cubes exist and are labelled; the ordinary ones frequently are not clear.

A bouillon cube is salt and fat with a little sugar to round the flavour. It dissolves into a litre of water, which is the dilution that matters.

A bouillon cube is concentrated stock, so the salicylate of whatever herbs and yeast extract it contains is concentrated too. A cube is small, which is what keeps it here.

A bouillon cube is salt, fat, yeast extract and vegetable powder compressed together. The yeast extract is the part that carries most, and it is the part listed last.