Synonyms of meat-and-potatoes

1 Syllable
first
2 Syllables
bottom, simple, bottoms, basal, grass-roots, grassroots, vital, central
3 Syllables
principal, lowermost, underlying, beginning, nethermost, undermost, essential, radicals, life-or-death, radical
4 Syllables
ultimate, elemental, foundational, underived, fundamental, substrative, primitive, coal-and-ice, original, name-of-the-game
5 Syllables
elementary, introductory, axiological, rudimentary
6 Syllables
underivative