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Preserve

Curry-powder

A spice blend made from coriander, turmeric, vinegar, black pepper, mustard, cinnamon, cayenne pepper, and cumin seeds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Pound and mix all the ingredients together until fine.

  2. Store the powder in a bottle with a glass stopper.

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. Cinnamon + cumintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,103 recipes

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

  4. Coriander + turmerictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,253 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Turmeric + cinnamontop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,197 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Coriander seeds
Provides the main earthy, citrusy body of the blend.
Turmeric
Gives the powder its yellow color and a warm, bitter note.
Cumin seeds
Adds a warm, earthy aroma that stands out in the blend.
Black pepper
Adds sharp pungency that gives the blend its bite.
Mustard
Adds a sharp, pungent flavor to the mix.
Cinnamon
Contributes a sweet, woody aroma in small amounts.

The step that matters

Grinding to a fine powder. Grinding breaks open the seeds and releases their volatile aromatic oils. Finer powder has more exposed surface, so these aromas fade faster, which is why the blend should be kept sealed airtight afterward.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits about as well
  3. Spinachfits about as well
  4. Mustardthe original

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

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