Garam Masala

Details

A north Indian garam masala built from ten spices, each bought whole and cleaned before it is ground: coriander seed, cumin, black pepper, cassia bark, which is what dalchini actually is, green cardamom, black cardamom, clove, bay leaf, mace and nutmeg. The percentage of each is printed on the pack, and that is the part almost no masala tells you. A blend is the easiest place in a kitchen to hide things, because once the powder is brown and fragrant nothing in it can be seen. The three standard cheats are husk and stalk ground in as bulk, spent spice that has already been stripped of its oil for the oleoresin trade and then dried and re-ground, and salt, which is the cheapest filler there is and can be a large part of a pack. Artificial flavouring then supplies the smell that spent spice no longer has.

• No salt, no starch, no maida, no rice flour
• No husk, stalk or chilli seed as bulk
• No spent or de-oiled spice, volatile oil measured on every lot
• No artificial flavouring, no added colour, no anti-caking agent
• Every spice and its percentage by weight printed on the pack
• Cardamom, clove and mace are a quarter of the blend by weight, not a token pinch
• No ethylene oxide fumigation
• It is a finishing masala. Put in at the start of a dish it turns bitter, so add it near the end
• Nothing in it holds the aroma once the jar is open, so it fades over about three months.