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Savoury Ragout Powder

A spice blend of salt, mustard, allspice, pepper, lemon peel, ginger, nutmeg, and cayenne for savory ragouts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,331 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Savoury Ragout Powder

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Dry the spices in a Dutch oven over low heat before grinding.

  2. Combine all ingredients in a bowl.

  3. Pound them together until fine.

  4. Sift the mixture through a fine sieve.

Store

  1. Store in a bottle for later use.

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. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Allspice + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Mustard + allspicetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Lemon + gingertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,154 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Black pepper
Adds sharp, pungent heat that gives the blend its savory bite.
Mustard
Adds sharp, tangy pungency that balances the warm spices.
Ginger
Adds warm, peppery aroma.
Nutmeg
Adds warm, sweet aroma.
Lemon peel
Adds bright citrus aroma from its fragrant oils.
Cayenne pepper
Adds sharp, direct heat.

The step that matters

Dry the spices over low heat before grinding. Gentle heat drives off moisture so the spices grind finely and keep well in storage. Too much heat scorches the spices, causing bitter, burnt flavour that cannot be undone.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (allspice, pepper, lemon, ginger, nutmeg):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against allspice, pepper, lemon, ginger, nutmeg. 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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