Curry Powder - Mild House Blend, Egyptian-Milled

Curry powder is not an Indian product, and saying so is not a criticism of it. There is no single blend called curry powder in India. Indian cooking uses masalas made per dish, per region and very often per household, ground fresh and varying enormously. The idea of one yellow all-purpose powder is a British invention of the colonial period, standardised for kitchens that wanted the flavour without the method.

The word itself probably comes from the Tamil kari, which means something closer to a sauce or a dish than to a spice mixture. British households and manufacturers in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries fixed a blend, put it in a tin and sold it as the flavour of a whole subcontinent, which it never was.

What happened next is the interesting part, because the blend escaped and became real food in its own right elsewhere. Japan took it in the Meiji era through the British navy and built kare raisu, now one of the most-eaten dishes in the country. The Caribbean built its own curries around it. And Egypt took it too - the catalogue calls it a popular Egyptian spice-shop item.

Our blend, in descending order by weight: coriander, turmeric, cumin, fenugreek, chilli, black pepper, ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves and fennel. Coriander gives it body, turmeric the colour and the earthy base, cumin the weight, and fenugreek is the one most people cannot name but would miss instantly - the slightly bitter, maple-like note that makes a curry powder taste like curry powder.

The heat is mild. Chilli sits fifth by weight and is there for warmth and roundness rather than to make the blend hot, on the assumption that you would rather add heat yourself than find it already there - and we sell a hot chilli powder for exactly that. For more fragrance, add a little garam masala at the end of cooking.

How to use it: bloom it in fat at the start. Warm oil or ghee, the onions and garlic first, then a tablespoon of the powder stirred in for twenty to thirty seconds before any liquid. That cooks off the raw dustiness and blooms the turmeric. Do not let it scorch - turmeric burns quickly and goes bitter, and there is no rescuing it.

Be honest about what it is for. It is a good everyday blend for chicken, lentils, potatoes, chickpeas, fish and vegetable dishes, and for the Japanese and Caribbean styles built on it. It is not a substitute for a dish-specific masala, and if what you want is Egyptian flavour then buy our baharat instead - a different blend for a different job.

Milled in Egypt in the same workshop as our za'atar and dukkah, so although the blend contains no declarable allergens itself, it is made on equipment that also handles sesame and nuts. Curry powder has had a place in Egyptian spice shops for generations, which is offered as a description of the custom, not as a health claim or medical advice. Dried packaged food for personal use is normally fine in EU and UK baggage; rules change, so check your own country's customs page before you fly.