What decides whether spices suit each other? | A map of 67, joined by aroma

Are there rules for combining spices? Cumin and coriander for curry, cardamom and cinnamon for chai — you may know the rough patterns, but they are hard to explain.

There is a reason for them. Spices that suit each other share several aroma compounds. The origins differ, the appearance differs, yet part of the aroma is held in common. That is why they do not quarrel when set side by side.

We have made our seasonings from this view all along. We do not start from tasting; we read the aroma first, and only then go to the pan. A single plant carries anywhere from dozens to hundreds of aroma compounds. Linalool, pinene, anethole — we hold the named particles up against one another, see which overlap with which, and then decide where each goes, to 0.01g. Confirming it on the tongue comes after that.

It is no different from looking at how the fat sits on a fish on the day you choose it. Only the particles we watch are finer. Draw the blueprint of the aroma, then stand at the stove. That is the order Inspice has kept since the very first product.

Inspice publishes the spice index, where the 67 plants we use in our seasonings are each written up one by one. This article is about the “relationships” that come into view there.

Compatibility is decided by whether aromas overlap

Coriander and cumin. Mixed spices the world over have been built on these two. Coriander’s citrus and floral notes; cumin’s dry earth and bitterness. The directions look opposite, yet they share a number of aroma compounds.

Coriander is the interesting one, because it has no distinctive aroma you could point to and call “that is coriander”. Every aroma it holds, it shares with some other spice. Which is why it can stand next to anyone. This property is why all four Inspice spice curries put coriander first on the ingredient list.

Distant, and yet close

Of everything in the index, this is the relationship we most want to write about.

Juniper berry, and red sanshō from the Hida highlands. A berry from a Nordic forest and a berry from the mountains of deep Hida. As origins go they are on opposite sides of the planet, yet they share four aroma compounds. Conifer resin and the citrus of sanshō sit on the same side. Inspice Dish Symphony No.4 puts these two in the same bottle.

Caraway and kalonji. The seed in European rye bread, and the black grains scattered over Indian naan. The aroma compounds these two carry stand in a mirrored relationship. Same molecular formula, same skeleton, with only the three-dimensional structure reversed. One takes on a warm sweetness, the other a coolness. In FlareLine’s CITRUS EMBER, the two are set at exactly the same weight.

Black, white and green all come from the same berry

Black pepper, white pepper, green pepper, Tellicherry. Many people take them for different spices. They are all the same berry. Only the picking time and the processing differ.

Green is picked while unripe. Black is picked before full ripeness, heated, then dried. White is left to ripen, soaked in water, and the black outer skin removed. Tellicherry is the top grade, sorted out from among them for having grown to a large berry. A spice is decided not only by what you use, but by which one, and picked when.

The smallest amount, and the one you can least remove

Inspice chai and the cocoa contain rock salt. And in every one of them it comes last on the ingredient list. There are no exceptions.

Even so, it cannot be taken out. Salt works to draw out other tastes, so the sweetness of chai and the bitterness of cacao both come into focus with a pinch of it. Smallest in quantity, and yet remove it and everything blurs.

Habanero is the same. One at the very end of each of the five FlareLine blends. It is not there to make things hot, but to set the aroma alight. Being small in quantity and being small in effect are two different things.

How to use the index

The 67 cards are made so you can find them without knowing the names.

Type “pepper” into the search box and the pepper family comes up together; “sanshō” brings up the sanshō family. Names match whether you type them in English or in Japanese. Words like “curry”, “gin” and “cherry” work as well.

Use “narrow by aroma character” and you can filter by hot, numbing, sweet, citrus, toasted, earthy, cooling, savoury, bitter, green and salty. It lets you search the other way round — when you cannot recall the name, but you are looking for something with that kind of aroma.

What we set down there is exactly what we look at on the floor where aromas are built to 0.01g. Open one that catches your eye in the spice index.

Frequently asked questions

Q. Are there rules for combining spices?
A. There are no strict rules, but there are guides. Spices that suit each other share several aroma compounds, so they can stand side by side however different their origins or appearance. Conversely, layering aromas that all point the same way turns monotonous. Add one that points elsewhere and it gains depth.

Q. Are black pepper and white pepper different plants?
A. They are the same berry. Black is picked before full ripeness, heated and dried; white is left to ripen, soaked in water and stripped of its outer skin. The heat is much the same, and only the aroma becomes gentler. White suits dishes where you do not want the colour, such as white fish or cream sauces.

Q. What is the handiest way to use the spice index?
A. To search by name, type it into the search box. Search by aroma character instead — hot, sweet, citrus and so on — when the name will not come to you.