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An Excellent Curry-powder

A spice blend made from turmeric, coriander, ginger, cinnamon, cayenne, black pepper, mace, fenugreek, pimento, cloves, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

An Excellent Curry-powder

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Pound each ingredient separately in a mortar.

  2. Sift the mixture and pound the remains again.

Mix and finish

  1. Mix all the ingredients thoroughly for 20 minutes.

  2. Once in the finest powder, mix everything together.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Turmeric + fenugreektop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together229 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turmeric + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,776 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Turmeric
Gives the powder its yellow colour and an earthy, slightly bitter flavour.
Coriander seeds
Provide the main citrusy, warm base flavour of the blend.
Ginger
Adds a sharp, peppery warmth to the blend.
Cinnamon
Adds sweet, woody aroma to the blend.
Black pepper
Adds sharp heat and a pungent bite to the blend.
Cloves
Add a strong, pungent aroma that is dominant in small amounts.

The step that matters

Sift and re-pound the remains. Whole pieces that are not fully ground stay gritty and uneven in the blend. Sifting separates the coarse bits so they can be pounded again, giving a fine, even powder that mixes and releases aroma more consistently.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turmeric, coriander, ginger, cinnamon, pepper, fenugreek, clove):

  1. Cardamomfits better
  2. Cuminfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turmeric, coriander, ginger, cinnamon, pepper, fenugreek, clove. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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