Name: Curry Powder
Ingredients: 2 ounces turmeric; 1 ounce ginger; 1 ounce black pepper; 2 ounces coriander seed; ½ ounce cumin seed; ¼ ounce cayenne pepper; ¼ ounce 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

Pulverize and mix all the ingredients together until well combined.
Store the mixture in a wide-mouthed bottle and seal it tightly with a cork.

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 + gingertop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,776 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,380 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Cumin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,103 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

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

What each ingredient does

Turmeric: Gives the blend its yellow colour and earthy, bitter flavour.
Coriander seed: Adds citrusy, floral aroma that forms the base of the blend.
Cumin seed: Contributes warm, earthy aroma characteristic of curry.
Black pepper: Adds sharp heat and pungency that carries the other spices.
Ginger: Provides warm, peppery aroma and a lingering spicy bite.
Cayenne pepper: Adds direct chilli heat in small amounts.

Swap the cinnamon

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

Cardamomfits better
Oreganofits about as well
Cinnamonthe original
Fennelfits about as well

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