Skip to main content
Main

Household Curry-stuff

A homemade blend of turmeric, coriander, cumin, poppy seed, fenugreek, ginger, mustard, dried chillies, and peppercorns.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Household Curry-stuff

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Weigh all ingredients carefully before cleaning.

  2. Clean the ingredients and weigh them again, including any husks removed.

Mix and store

  1. Mix all the ingredients thoroughly.

  2. Store the curry powder in airtight bottles.

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 + fenugreektop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together229 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Turmeric + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,776 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Cumin + fenugreektop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together178 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Turmeric
Gives the blend its yellow colour and earthy, bitter aroma.
Coriander seed
Provides a citrusy, warm aroma that forms the base of the blend.
Cumin seed
Adds a warm, earthy aroma characteristic of curry flavour.
Dried chillies
Supplies heat and pungency to the finished powder.
Black peppercorns
Adds sharp, pungent heat that rounds out the spice mix.
Mustard seed
Contributes a sharp, pungent flavour when ground into the mix.

The step that matters

Weigh all ingredients carefully before cleaning.. Cleaning removes husks and moisture, so weights taken before cleaning differ from weights after. Recording both keeps the proportions of the blend consistent and reproducible from batch to batch.

Swap the poppy seed

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

  1. Cardamomfits better
  2. Fennelfits better
  3. Cinnamonfits better
  4. Poppy seedthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turmeric, coriander, cumin, fenugreek, ginger, mustard. 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.

More curry powder recipes

Bengal 13Delhi 3Indian 3Madras 3 See all 102 →

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes