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Indian Curry Powder

A spice blend of coriander, turmeric, cinnamon, cayenne, mustard, ginger, allspice, and fenugreek.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Turmeric and fenugreek match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 229 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Indian Curry Powder

Oven, in the book's wordsA cool oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Place all ingredients in a cool oven and let them sit overnight.

Grind

  1. Pound the ingredients in a mortar until finely ground.

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Ginger + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Coriander seed
Provides the main citrusy, warm body of the blend's flavor.
Turmeric
Gives the blend its yellow colour and an earthy, slightly bitter flavour.
Cinnamon seed
Adds warm, sweet aroma that rounds out the blend.
Cayenne pepper
Adds heat, pungency and a sharp edge to the blend.
Fenugreek seed
Contributes a bittersweet, maple-like aroma typical of curry powders.
Mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavour that lifts the other spices.

The step that matters

Grinding until finely ground. Whole spices release their aromatic oils only when broken down, so a coarse grind leaves the powder weak in aroma and uneven in flavour. Fine, even particles also blend and disperse more evenly in cooking.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (coriander, turmeric, cinnamon, pepper, ginger, allspice, fenugreek):

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Carrotfits about as well
  3. Mustardthe original
  4. Eggplantfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against coriander, turmeric, cinnamon, pepper, ginger, allspice, fenugreek. 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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