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Curry Powder

A spice blend of coriander, turmeric, black pepper, mustard, cumin, cinnamon, and cardamom ground and sifted.

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

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

  1. Preheat oven to 300°F (150°C).

  2. Place the coriander seed, turmeric, black pepper, mustard seed, cumin seed, cinnamon, and lesser cardamom in the oven overnight.

Grind and store

  1. Pound the mixture thoroughly in a marble mortar.

  2. Sift the ground mixture through a sieve.

  3. Store the powder in a well-corked 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 + cumintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,698 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Coriander + cumintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,866 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Cinnamon + cardamomtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,299 recipes

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

  5. 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, warm body of the blend.
Turmeric
Adds earthy flavour and its characteristic yellow colour.
Black pepper
Contributes sharp heat that builds as the spices are toasted.
Cumin seed
Adds a warm, earthy aroma that deepens when the seeds are toasted.

The step that matters

Drying the spices slowly in the oven. Long, low heat dries the seeds so they grind to a fine powder and release their aromatic oils gradually. Too much heat can scorch the spices, making the powder bitter and dulling its flavour.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Sweet potatofits better
  4. Mustardthe original

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