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Savoury Ragout Powder

A dry spice blend of salt, mustard, allspice, pepper, lemon peel, ginger, nutmeg, and cayenne for savory ragouts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,331 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Savoury Ragout Powder

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Pound all ingredients together patiently.

  2. Pass the mixture through a fine sieve.

  3. Bottle the powder for use.

  4. For easier pounding, dry the ingredients in a Dutch oven over gentle heat before grinding.

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. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Allspice + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Mustard + allspicetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Lemon + gingertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,154 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

Ginger
Adds warm, aromatic pungency that carries the blend's flavour.
Cayenne pepper
Provides the main heat, giving the powder its sharp, spicy bite.
Grated lemon peel
Adds bright citrus aroma from the oils held in the peel.
Allspice
Contributes warm, clove-like aroma that rounds out the spice blend.
Grated nutmeg
Adds sweet, warm aroma that deepens the overall spice character.
Mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavour that brightens the blend.

The step that matters

Drying the ingredients over gentle heat. Heat makes dry spices and peel brittle so they grind more easily, but high heat can scorch volatile oils and make the powder bitter. Keep the heat low and stir often.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (allspice, pepper, lemon, ginger, nutmeg):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against allspice, pepper, lemon, ginger, nutmeg. 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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