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Bengali 5-Spice

"A spice blend that is often used as a pickling mixture in East Indian cuisine. If you can find kalonji seeds, use it in place of the oregano."

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cumin and oregano match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 983 recipes mention both. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

The recipe

1 1/2 cups
Prep5 min
Cook2 min

Ingredients

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Set a dry skillet over medium heat. Add the cumin seeds, fennel seeds, black mustard seed and fenugreek seeds.

  2. Toast the seeds, stirring constantly, for about 2 minutes until they smell fragrant and the mustard seeds start to pop. Watch closely so they do not scorch.

  3. Tip the toasted seeds onto a plate and let them cool completely, about 5 minutes.

  4. Grind the cooled seeds in a spice grinder or with a mortar and pestle until they form a coarse powder.

  5. Stir the dried oregano into the ground spice mix until evenly combined.

  6. Transfer to a clean, dry airtight jar and store in a cool, dark place.

By allrecipes. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Cumin + oreganotop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together983 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cumin + fenneltop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together276 recipes

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

  3. Fennel + oreganotop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together112 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cumin + fenugreektop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together178 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Mustard + fenugreektop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together137 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cumin, fennel, oregano, fenugreek):

  1. Tomatobetter flavor fit
  2. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  3. Carrotbetter flavor fit
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cumin, fennel, oregano, fenugreek. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).