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Savoury Ragout Powder

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

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

Make the powder

  1. Dry the spices in a Dutch oven over gentle heat to preserve their flavor.

  2. Pound the dried spices until fine, then sift the mixture through a fine sieve.

  3. Bottle the powder for future use.

Make the relish

  1. To make a savory relish, infuse the powder in 1 quart of vinegar or wine.

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

Salt
Seasons the powder and draws out flavor from the other spices.
Black pepper
Adds sharp heat and pungency that carries the blend's savory character.
Mustard
Contributes pungent, sharp flavor that balances the warmer spices.
Cayenne pepper
Adds clean, lingering heat to the savory blend.
Lemon peel
Adds bright citrus aroma and a touch of acidity to the powder.
Nutmeg
Adds warm, aromatic sweetness that rounds out the spice mix.

The step that matters

Drying the spices over gentle heat. Gentle heat drives off moisture so the spices grind fine and keep their aroma. Too much heat scorches the volatile oils, leaving the powder bitter and dull.

Swap the allspice

The recipe marks allspice as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mustard, pepper, lemon, ginger, nutmeg):

  1. Cardamomfits about as well
  2. Allspicethe original
  3. Turmericfits about as well
  4. Cinnamonfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against mustard, 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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