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Kitchen Pepper

A spice blend of ginger, cinnamon, black pepper, nutmeg, Jamaica pepper, cloves, and coarse sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Kitchen Pepper

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Mix all ingredients in a bowl until well combined.

Store and use

  1. Store the mixture in a tightly sealed bottle.

  2. Use as an addition to brown sauces or soups.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 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

Ginger
Adds a sharp, warm aromatic flavor to the blend.
Cinnamon
Contributes sweet, woody aroma and warmth.
Black pepper
Provides a sharp, pungent bite that lifts the other spices.
Nutmeg
Adds a rich, warm aroma with a subtle sweetness.
Jamaica pepper
Contributes a blended clove-and-cinnamon-like aroma and warmth.
Cloves
Adds a strong, pungent aroma that deepens the blend's warmth.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cinnamon, pepper, nutmeg, clove):

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Marjoramfits about as well
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cinnamon, pepper, nutmeg, clove. 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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