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Curry Powder

A spice blend made from ginger, mustard, black pepper, coriander seed, turmeric, cardamom, cayenne pepper, and cumin seed.

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

Prepare

  1. Combine all ingredients in a bowl.

  2. Pound the mixture until fine.

  3. Sift the powder to remove any lumps.

Store

  1. Store in a tightly corked container.

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. Ginger + turmerictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,776 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  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
Adds citrusy, floral aroma that forms the base of the blend.
Turmeric
Gives the powder its yellow colour and an earthy, slightly bitter flavour.
Black pepper
Adds sharp, pungent heat and aroma.
Ginger
Adds warm, spicy flavour and a fresh aroma.
Cardamom
Adds sweet, aromatic flavour.
Cumin seed
Adds earthy, nutty aroma.

The step that matters

Pound the mixture until fine. Grinding to a fine powder releases the aromatic oils and lets the spices blend evenly. Coarse pieces give uneven flavour and can leave gritty texture, so the sifting step depends on this one.

Swap the mustard

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

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

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