When to Add Spices | The Three Moments: Oil, Liquid, Finish

There are three moments to add spices: into the oil, before the liquid, and at the finish. Whole spices go into the oil at the start; ground spices after the ingredients have cooked and before the liquid; toasted whole spices just before eating. The same spice arrives differently depending on which moment you choose.

There are only three moments

Some of a spice's aroma dissolves in oil and some in water. So “when to add it” is not a matter of taste — it is the method for getting the aroma out. Three is all you need to remember.

First, into the oil (whole spices)

Put oil in the pan over low heat, and once it is warm, drop in the whole spices. Mustard seeds crackle and pop; cumin seeds throw off fine bubbles and the aroma comes up. That is the signal to move on.

In Indian cooking this is tempering. The aroma of cumin dissolves in oil, so meeting the oil first and being dropped into water later are two completely different things. Do not turn the heat up. Burnt whole spices leave only bitterness behind, and the aroma does not come back.

Next, before the liquid (ground spices)

Once the onion and the other ingredients have cooked through, add the ground spices. Coat the ingredients with the powder as it is, cook it briefly, and only then add the tomatoes or the liquid. In that order the edges come off and everything pulls together.

Put the powder into the oil at the start and it burns. It has far more surface area, so it changes colour much faster than whole spice does. Drop it in after the liquid, though, and it sinks in lumps without the aroma ever rising. The place for ground spice is after the ingredients and before the liquid.

Last, scattered at the finish (toasted whole spices)

Put the spices alone into a frying pan and toast them slowly over low heat. With cumin, the green note goes and a buttery, roasted scent comes out. Scatter that over just before eating and the whole plate changes.

Aroma drifts off little by little while a dish simmers, so when you want the aroma at its highest, add it at the end. Salads, grilled meat, yoghurt. It works outside curry just as it is.

How to fix it when it goes wrong

Burnt — it cannot be brought back. Bitterness does not turn into aroma, so starting again is quicker.
No aroma — the ground spice may be old. The scent of a powder falls away in two or three months. Toast some whole spice and add it, and the aroma comes back up.
Too strong — catch it with dairy or fat. Yoghurt, cream, butter. Tightening it with acidity works too.

At Inspice, we take it apart into separate sachets

Three moments means three things to remember in the kitchen. Inspice spice curry takes them apart inside the box.

Open the box and there are two sachets of spices. One holds the whole spices, the other the ground spices. The whole-spice sachet goes into the oil at the start; the ground-spice sachet once the ingredients have cooked. Add them in the order of the sachets and you are already following the three moments. There is nothing to weigh out. Instead of memorising the order, the sachets remember it for you.

The blending is done at the workshop in Kanazawa, with exacting precision. So that you never have to reach for a scale in your kitchen, all of it is settled before the box reaches you.

Which moment suits each spice is set out on every page of the spice encyclopedia. All 67 of them differ in whether they belong to the oil, the liquid or the finish.

Frequently asked questions

Q. Whole spices or ground spices — which goes in first?
A. Whole first. Put them into the oil to move the aroma across, fry the ingredients, and add the ground spices once those have cooked through. The other way round, the powder burns.

Q. If I get the timing wrong, can I add spice later?
A. You can. When the aroma is weak, scattering toasted whole spice at the finish is the surest way. The one thing you cannot undo is the bitterness of something burnt.

Q. Can I eat the whole spices?
A. Cassia bark and cardamom husks are not usually eaten — lift them out when you find them. Some, like cumin and mustard, can be eaten as they are.