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
Mix
Mix all the powdered ingredients together in a bowl.
Store and use
Store the mixture in a tightly sealed bottle.
Use as an addition to brown sauces or soups.
Preparation notes
Ensure spices are dried before grinding.
Label separate bottles for each spice if needed.
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.
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Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together11,917 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,189 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,686 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,380 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked 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 warm, sharp, peppery aroma and flavour.
- Cinnamon
- Adds a sweet, warm aroma that rounds out the blend.
- Black pepper
- Adds the sharp, pungent heat that gives the blend its bite.
- Nutmeg
- Adds a warm, slightly sweet aroma to the blend.
- Jamaica pepper
- Adds a blended aroma of cinnamon, nutmeg and clove notes.
- Cloves
- Adds a strong, warm, aromatic flavour in small amounts.
The step that matters
Ensure spices are dried before grinding. Moisture in the spices can cause the powder to clump and go stale faster, and it dulls the aroma that the blend depends on.
Swap the ginger
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cinnamon, pepper, nutmeg, clove):
- Allspicefits better
- Cardamomfits better
- Marjoramfits about as well
- 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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