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Bengal Currie Powder

A spice blend of coriander, black pepper, cumin, fenugreek, cayenne, and turmeric, ground and dried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Fenugreek and turmeric 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 ↓

Bengal Currie Powder

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the powders

  1. Grind all ingredients separately to a fine powder.

  2. Sift the powders through a fine sieve.

Mix and dry

  1. Mix the powders thoroughly.

  2. Set the mixture before the fire to dry, turning it often.

Bottle

  1. Once dry, let it cool and bottle it immediately.

  2. Keep the bottle tightly corked.

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. Fenugreek + turmerictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together229 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Coriander + turmerictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,253 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Coriander + fenugreektop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together236 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Pepper + turmerictop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,478 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Coriander + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,949 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

What each ingredient does

Coriander seed
Forms the bulk of the blend and adds a mild, citrusy aroma.
Black pepper
Adds sharp pungency that gives the powder its background bite.
Cumin seed
Contributes the earthy, warm aroma typical of curry blends.
Fenugreek seed
Adds a bittersweet, maple-like aroma to the mixture.
Cayenne pepper
Supplies the chili heat that is the blend's sharpest flavour.
Turmeric
Gives the powder its yellow colour and earthy, slightly bitter flavour.

The step that matters

Drying and cooling before bottling. Any moisture left in the powder can cause clumping and mould during storage. Bottling while still warm traps steam and condensation, so the powder must be fully dry and cool before it goes into the bottle.

Swap the fenugreek

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

  1. Cuminfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Gingerfits better
  4. Fenugreekthe original

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