Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓
Kitchen Pepper
Ingredients
Directions
Grind together ginger, cinnamon, black pepper, nutmeg, Jamaica pepper, cloves, and coarse sea salt.
For mustard flour, dry black mustard seeds until they form a powder when bruised, then grind and sift to separate the husks.
Mix equal parts mustard flour and coarse sea salt.
Combine mustard flour, wheat flour, Cayenne pepper, and common salt in large proportions; pea flour or turmeric can be used instead of wheat flour.
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.
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Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together11,917 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,189 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,686 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,380 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,038 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the ginger
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cinnamon, pepper, nutmeg, clove):
- Allspicefits better
- Cardamomfits better
- Marjoramfits about as well
- Gingerthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cinnamon, pepper, nutmeg, clove. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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