How to make your own spice blends: weighing versus measuring, toasting and grinding in the right order, balancing base, character and accent spices, and storing the result.
Why make your own¶
A home-made blend is fresher than almost anything bought, and it can be adjusted: more heat, less clove, no salt. It also costs less once you have the whole spices, many of which are used across several blends. The downside is time, and the fact that a big batch goes stale as fast as a shop-bought one, so make small amounts often.
Think in three layers¶
Most successful blends, whatever their origin, have a structure like this:
| Layer | Share of blend | Role | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base | 50–70% | Bulk, body, earthiness | Coriander seed, cumin, paprika, fennel |
| Character | 20–40% | The blend's identity | Black pepper, cardamom, cinnamon, turmeric, fenugreek |
| Accent | 5–10% | Top notes and punctuation | cloves, nutmeg, mace, star-anise, allspice, chilli |
The accent spices are the ones that ruin a blend when overdone. A teaspoon too much clove can make a garam masala taste medicinal; a teaspoon too much coriander just makes it milder.
Weigh, don't scoop¶
Whole spices vary hugely in size and density: a tablespoon of cardamom pods weighs much less than a tablespoon of cumin seed, and a "stick" of cinnamon can be anything from 5 to 15 cm. For repeatable results, weigh whole spices in grams, record what you used, and adjust next time. If you only have spoons, measure the whole spices (not the ground powder) and note the size of any sticks or pods.
Method¶
- Choose a recipe and scale it small. 20–40 g of finished blend is a sensible first batch.
- Weigh each whole spice separately.
- Toast each spice separately, or group spices of similar size. Small seeds finish before large ones. Some blends are not toasted at all: many North African and Middle Eastern blends, such as ras-el-hanout and baharat, are often made with raw spices, and toasting is a matter of house style for garam-masala.
- Cool completely, spread on a plate, for at least 10 minutes.
- Grind the hardest spices first (cinnamon, fenugreek, cassia), then add softer ones (cumin, coriander) and pulse again. See grinding-spices.
- Sieve if you want a fine, even powder, and regrind the coarse remainder.
- Add pre-ground ingredients last: turmeric, paprika, ginger powder, garlic powder, dried herbs, salt, sugar.
- Mix thoroughly and taste. Rub a pinch between your fingers and smell it, then cook a quarter-teaspoon in a spoonful of oil and taste that; raw blends taste very different from cooked ones.
- Jar, label and date it.
A starter formula¶
A simple, balanced all-purpose curry-style blend, by weight:
| Spice | Weight | Layer |
|---|---|---|
| Coriander seed | 20 g | Base |
| Cumin seed | 10 g | Base |
| Black peppercorns | 4 g | Character |
| Ground turmeric | 6 g | Character |
| Fenugreek seed | 2 g | Character |
| Dried chillies (stemmed) | 2–4 g | Accent |
| Cloves | 0.5 g (about 6) | Accent |
| Cinnamon or cassia | 2 g | Accent |
Toast everything except the turmeric, grind, then stir in the turmeric. Use about 1–2 tablespoons for a curry serving four.
🛟 One spice dominates
Do not throw it out. Make a second small batch of the blend leaving out the overpowering spice entirely, and mix the two. Clove, star anise, fenugreek and allspice are the usual offenders; halve them in your written recipe for next time.
Salt and sugar¶
Salt in a blend is convenient for rubs but makes it harder to season a dish properly, because adding more flavour means adding more salt. Keep salt out of general-purpose blends and add it separately. Sugar helps rubs caramelise but burns over direct high heat (see dry-rubs-and-marinades).
Storing¶
Store in a small airtight jar, filled as close to the top as possible, away from light and heat. Ground blends are at their best for roughly three months and usable for about six; after that they fade rather than spoil. See storing-spices and masala-dabba.