Spices by cuisine
Grouped by region for navigation only. Bengali and Punjabi spicing are not the same thing, and the profiles record them separately rather than averaging them into “Indian”.
Africa
Asia
Japanese
A cuisine that seasons with fermented liquids, dashi and fresh aromatics far more than with dried spices, and where the few spice preparations used are deployed precisely rather than layered.
Korean
A cuisine built on fermentation and on chilli, where gochugaru is less a seasoning than a structural ingredient and the distinction between chilli products matters more than in most cuisines.
Caribbean
East Asia
Europe
Spanish
A cuisine defined in spice terms by pimentón and saffron, both produced domestically.
Italian
A cuisine of restrained spicing, where black pepper, chilli, nutmeg and saffron do focused work rather than layered blending.
French
A cuisine using spice sparingly and precisely, with nutmeg, mace, pepper and saffron in defined classical roles.
British
A cuisine with a long history of spice use through trade, including mace in charcuterie and mixed spice in baking, alongside a substantial adopted South Asian tradition.
Hungarian
A cuisine defined by paprika, with an everyday domestic vocabulary of paprika grades that has no equivalent elsewhere in Europe.
Greek
A cuisine that seasons lightly and repeatedly from a small palette — oregano, bay, cinnamon, dill — and uses cinnamon in savoury meat cooking in a way that surprises anyone who meets it in a pudding first.
Mediterranean
Not one cuisine but a shared spice grammar across the basin: bay, oregano, thyme, garlic and pepper, applied to olive oil, tomato and pulses. Useful as a family resemblance and misleading if taken as a single tradition.
Scandinavian
Cuisines using cardamom in baking far more heavily than elsewhere in Europe, alongside dill, caraway and juniper.
North Africa
North America
Mexican
A cuisine built on chillies used as distinct varieties rather than as generic heat, with cumin, oregano and canela arriving through Iberian contact.
American
A grouping covering distinct regional traditions including Louisiana, Chesapeake, Southwestern and barbecue cooking.
Cajun
The rural Louisiana cooking tradition of the Acadian communities, distinct from urban Creole cooking despite frequent conflation.
South Asia
Indian
A group of highly distinct regional cuisines united by sophisticated layered spicing techniques rather than by a shared spice palette.
Pakistani
Cuisines of Pakistan, with strong Punjabi, Sindhi and Mughlai traditions and a characteristic emphasis on meat and warm aromatic spicing.
Bangladeshi
Bengali cooking, characterised by restrained spice blends, mustard oil and a distinctive five-spice mix (panch phoron) unrelated to the Chinese blend of the same English name.
Sri Lankan
A cuisine using cinnamon, curry leaf and coconut in ways distinct from mainland South Asian cooking, and the origin of true cinnamon.
Southeast Asia
Vietnamese
A cuisine balancing fresh herbs with warm aromatic spicing, notably in phở, and the source of the most assertive cassia in trade.
Thai
A cuisine built on fresh pounded pastes rather than dried spice blends, balancing hot, sour, salty and sweet.
Indonesian
The cuisine of the archipelago from which nutmeg, mace and cloves originate, using fresh rhizomes and pounded spice pastes.
West Asia
Middle Eastern
A broad grouping covering distinct Levantine, Gulf, Persian and Anatolian traditions, which should not be treated as one cuisine.
Levantine
The cooking of the eastern Mediterranean, characterised by sumac, za'atar, warm all-purpose blends and generous use of herbs.
Persian
A cuisine of restrained, aromatic spicing built on saffron, dried limes and rose, with an emphasis on rice and slow-cooked stews.
Turkish
A cuisine bridging Anatolian, Ottoman and Levantine traditions, using pul biber, sumac and mint extensively.