Name: Curry Powder
Ingredients: 2 ounces mustard; 2 ounces black pepper; 6 ounces coriander seed; 6 ounces turmeric; ½ ounce red pepper; 1 ounce cardamom; 1 ounce cumin seed; 1 ounce ground cinnamon

Why it works: Turmeric and cumin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,698 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Curry Powder

Ingredients

Directions

Make the powder

Pound all ingredients finely.

Store

Put the mixture in a bottle.
Cork the bottle tightly and store for seasoning gravies and other dishes.

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 + cumintop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,698 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,866 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together667 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,299 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together872 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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, earthy body of the spice blend.
Turmeric: Gives the blend its yellow color and a warm, slightly bitter flavor.
Cumin seed: Adds a warm, earthy aroma characteristic of curry flavor.
Black pepper: Contributes sharp heat and pungency that carries through the blend.
Mustard: Adds a sharp, pungent note and helps give the blend its bite.
Cardamom: Contributes a floral, aromatic sweetness to the blend.

Swap the mustard

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

Capsicumfits better
Carrotfits better
Sweet potatofits better
Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, coriander, turmeric, cardamom, cumin, cinnamon. 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.