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Spice mix

Blend of spices or herbs

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Spice mixes are blended spices or herbs. When a certain combination of herbs or spices is called for in a recipe, it is convenient to blend these ingredients beforehand. Blends such as chili powder, curry powder, herbes de Provence, garlic salt, and other seasoned salts are traditionally sold pre-made by grocers, and sometimes baking blends such as pumpkin pie spice are also available. These spice mixes are also easily made by the home cook for later use.

01Masala

Masala (derived from Sanskrit मषि (maṣi), to mash or powder/grind to powder) is a term from the Indian subcontinent for a spice mix. A masala can be either a combination of dried (and usually dry-roasted) spices, or a paste (such as vindaloo masala) made from a mixture of spices and other ingredients, often garlic, ginger, onions, chilli paste and tomato. Masalas are used extensively in Indian cuisine to add spice and flavour, most familiarly to Western cuisine in chicken tikka masala and chicken curry, or in masala chai. Other South Asian cuisines including Bangladeshi, Nepalese, Pakistani and Sri Lankan, Southeast Asian cuisine such as Burmese, and the Caribbean regularly use spice mixes.

A container of pumpkin pie spice
A container of pumpkin pie spice
A bowl of khmeli suneli
A bowl of khmeli suneli

02Notable spice mixes by region

Americas

European

Middle East and Africa

East and Southeast Asian

  • Bumbu, several Indonesian blends
  • Five-spice powder, a blend of cassia (Chinese cinnamon), star anise, cloves, and two other spices, usually fennel seeds and Szechuan peppercorns
  • Thirteen-spice powder (十三香), eight more (not always fixed) ingredients mixed with Five-spice powder
  • Húng lìu, a Vietnamese blend
  • Shichimi, a mix of ground red chili pepper, Japanese pepper, roasted orange peel, black and white sesame seed, hemp seed, ground ginger and nori

South Asia

Ingredients for a Gulf-style baharat
Ingredients for a Gulf-style baharat
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Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article Spice mix, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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