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Cheap Curry Powder

A homemade blend of coriander, turmeric, black pepper, ginger, cayenne, cardamom, and cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

Cheap Curry Powder

Ingredients

Directions

Make the powder

  1. Dry the spices thoroughly.

  2. Grind the spices into a fine powder.

  3. Mix all the ground spices together.

Store

  1. Store in a wide-mouthed bottle.

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. Turmeric + cardamomtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together667 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Cardamom + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,299 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Coriander + cardamomtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together872 recipes

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

  5. Ginger + cardamomtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,114 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 base citrusy, floral aroma that forms the body of the blend.
Turmeric
Adds earthy flavor and the characteristic yellow color to the blend.
Black pepper
Contributes sharp, pungent heat and aroma to the blend.
Ginger
Adds warm, peppery aroma and a light spicy bite.
Cayenne pepper
Adds direct chili heat to the blend.
Lesser cardamoms
Contributes a fragrant, resinous aroma to the blend.

The step that matters

Dry the spices thoroughly. Any residual moisture left in the spices can promote mold and clumping during storage, and it dulls the aroma when the spices are ground. Fully dry spices grind into a powder that stays fine and keeps its flavor longer.

Swap the cinnamon

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

  1. Cuminfits better
  2. Saffronfits about as well
  3. Cinnamonthe original
  4. Clovefits about as well

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

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