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Curry Powder

A spice blend of pepper, allspice, capsicum, cloves, ginger, mace, fennel, celery, cardamom, and coriander seed.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Curry Powder

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Pound all the ingredients together until finely ground, then mix well to combine.

  2. For ordinary purposes, use half of this quantity.

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 + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Pepper + capsicumtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,571 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Fennel + celerytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together276 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

Black pepper
Adds sharp, pungent heat that gives the blend its bite.
Capsicum
Provides warm, lingering heat.
Coriander seed
Contributes a citrusy, floral aroma that forms the base of the blend.
Cardamom
Adds a sweet, fragrant aroma.
Cloves
Contributes a strong, warm, aromatic flavour.
Ginger
Adds warm, zesty, pungent flavour.

The step that matters

Pound until finely and evenly ground. Aromatic compounds in spices are released when the cell structure is broken down, and they fade with time and exposure to air. Grinding finely and evenly spreads the flavour through the whole blend and avoids gritty, uneven pockets of spice.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, allspice, capsicum, clove, ginger, fennel, celery):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Turmericfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, allspice, capsicum, clove, ginger, fennel, celery. 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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