Name: Curry Powder
Ingredients: 3 ounces turmeric powder; 4 ounces coriander seed powder; 2 ounces black pepper; 1 ounce fenugreek; 1 ounce ginger; 1 ounce cayenne pepper; 1 ounce cumin seed

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 very fine, then sift the mixture.

Store

Store in a tightly 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.

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 + fenugreektop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together229 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Turmeric + gingertop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,776 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together178 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Turmeric powder: Gives the blend its yellow colour and earthy, slightly bitter flavour.
Coriander seed powder: Provides the bulk of the blend with a citrusy, mildly sweet aroma.
Black pepper: Adds sharp heat and a pungent note that lifts the other spices.
Cayenne pepper: Adds direct chilli heat to the blend.
Cumin seed: Contributes a warm, earthy aroma that gives curry its characteristic flavour.

Swap the ginger

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

Cardamomfits better
Fennelfits better
Gingerthe original
Oreganofits about as well

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