Name: Currie Powder
Ingredients: 3 ounces coriander seed; 3 ounces turmeric; 1 ounce black pepper; 1 ounce mustard; 1 ounce ginger; ½ ounce allspice; ½ ounce lesser cardamom seeds; ¼ ounce cummin seed

Why it works: Turmeric and cardamom match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 667 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Currie Powder

Oven, in the book's wordsA cool oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a cool oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Toast the spices

Preheat your oven to 300°F (150°C).
Place all the spices in the oven and leave them overnight.

Grind and store

The next morning, pound the spices in a mortar.
Sift the ground spices through a sieve.
Store the mixture in a bottle with a glass stopper in a dry place.

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.

Turmeric + cardamomtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together667 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Turmeric + gingertop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,776 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Coriander + cardamomtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together872 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Ginger + cardamomtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,114 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Ginger + allspicetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,620 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

Coriander seed: Provides the main citrusy, warm body of the blend.
Turmeric: Adds earthy flavor and the characteristic yellow color.
Black pepper: Adds sharp heat that gives the blend its bite.
Ginger: Adds warm, sharp aroma and a gentle spiciness.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (coriander, turmeric, pepper, ginger, allspice, cardamom):

Carrotfits better
Capsicumfits better
Parsnipfits about as well
Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against coriander, turmeric, pepper, ginger, allspice, cardamom. 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.