Skip to main content
Main

Bengal Curry Powder, No. 7

A spice blend of coriander, cayenne, turmeric, cumin, fennel, and black pepper, optionally flavored with lime or lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Bengal Curry Powder, No. 7

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Dry the coriander seeds, cayenne pepper, turmeric, cumin seeds, fennel seeds, and black pepper thoroughly.

  2. Pound the dried spices into a fine powder.

  3. Sift the powder to remove any larger particles.

Use

  1. When using the curry powder, add lime or lemon juice to taste.

  2. If you dislike turmeric, you may substitute saffron.

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 + limetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Coriander + cumintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,866 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Cumin + limetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,216 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Cumin + fenneltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together276 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

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

What each ingredient does

Coriander seeds
Provide the bulk of the warm, citrusy base flavour of the blend.
Cayenne pepper
Adds heat and pungency to the powder.
Turmeric
Gives the blend its yellow colour and earthy, bitter note.
Cumin seeds
Contribute a warm, earthy aroma characteristic of curry.
Fennel seeds
Add a sweet, anise-like aroma to the blend.
Black pepper
Adds sharp, pungent heat and aroma.

The step that matters

Dry the spices thoroughly. Residual moisture left in the seeds and roots can cause the ground powder to clump, develop mustiness, and spoil faster in storage. Thorough drying before pounding keeps the powder fine, free-flowing and more stable.

Swap the fennel

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (coriander, pepper, turmeric, cumin, lime):

  1. Cardamomfits better
  2. Oreganofits about as well
  3. Fennelthe original
  4. Gingerfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against coriander, pepper, turmeric, cumin, lime. 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.

You might also like

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