Spices in Hungarian cooking

Smoked pimentón and pork are inseparable in Spanish cooking — it is what makes chorizo taste of chorizo. The sweet red-pepper body complements pork's sweetness, and the colour carotenoids are fat-soluble so they disperse through the fat.

How: Smoked pimentón in sausage and charcuterie; Stirred into fat off the heat for a pork stew

Add alongside: Garlic, Cumin, Oregano

• Paprika scorches in a hot dry pan; add it off the heat or into liquid.

Chicken paprikás is one of the defining dishes of Hungarian cooking, and paprika gives roast chicken both colour and sweet depth. Chicken's mildness means the paprika reads clearly rather than competing.

Add alongside: Garlic, Cayenne pepper, Yoghurt

Gulyás and pörkölt are built on beef and paprika in quantity. The paprika is stirred into fat off the heat before liquid is added, which extracts the colour and prevents scorching.

Add alongside: Onion, Caraway

Caraway is a traditional companion in Hungarian beef dishes and is not yet profiled in the dataset.

A central European pairing that surprises anyone who only knows apple with cinnamon. Caraway is sharp where cassia is warm, and against apple it reads as savoury — which is why it works with pork and red cabbage in the same dish rather than in a pudding.

Add alongside: Pork, Onion, Black pepper

• This is a savoury direction. In a crumble or a pie it will taste like a mistake.

The central and northern European treatment, in braised carrots and in the Tunisian carrot salads where caraway rather than cumin does the work. Caraway is sharp enough to keep a sweet root from cloying.

Add alongside: Onion, Black pepper, Coriander seed

A central European and North African pairing that appears in harissa, in rye breads and in sausage seasoning. Coriander softens caraway, which is assertive enough to need it, and the two share a family without sharing a compound.

Add alongside: Cumin, Black pepper, Chilli powder

Smoked paprika and aubergine is a Spanish and Balkan pairing, and it works because the smoke reinforces what charring the aubergine already started. On unroasted aubergine the effect largely disappears.

Add alongside: Garlic, Tomato, Cumin

Both are fruits of the same family and their sweetness and acidity are complementary. Paprika deepens the colour of a tomato base and adds body without adding acidity.

Add alongside: Garlic, Cumin

The standard way to separate colour from heat. Paprika supplies red colour and sweet body without pungency; cayenne supplies pungency without much flavour. Using both lets each be adjusted independently, which a single hot paprika does not allow.

Add alongside: Garlic, Oregano

Smoked paprika in particular, which supplies a savoury smokiness sweet potato has no way of generating itself. The colour also helps: roast sweet potato is already orange, and paprika deepens it rather than muddying it as most spices would.

How: Smoked pimentón on roast wedges; In a sweet potato and chickpea stew

Add alongside: Cumin, Garlic, Cayenne pepper

• Add it with the oil rather than to a hot dry tray; paprika scorches and turns bitter above a moderate heat.

A central European habit — poppy seed on and in cheese pastries, and with soft cheese fillings in strudel and kolache. The seed is used ground here, cooked with sugar and dairy into a filling rather than scattered.

How: In a sweet cheese and poppy seed strudel filling; Scattered on cheese pastries before baking

Add alongside: Sugar, Lemon, Cassia

Structural across central and northern Europe rather than optional. Sauerkraut without caraway is recognisably a different thing, and the same holds for braised red cabbage and most of the cabbage dishes of the region. The sharp carvone note meets the sulphurous edge of cooked cabbage instead of being buried by it, which very few spices manage.

How: Whole seed in a pot of sauerkraut; With apple and vinegar in braised red cabbage

Add alongside: Juniper, Black pepper, Bay leaf

Central European charcuterie and roast pork both run on it. Pork is fatty and mild and juniper is resinous and bitter, and the bitterness cuts the fat while the pine gives the meat something to taste of — which is why it appears in cures as reliably as in braises.

How: Crushed into a dry cure for belly or loin; In a braise with bay and black pepper

Add alongside: Bay leaf, Black pepper, Thyme

• Four to six crushed berries season a dish for four; juniper has a narrow useful range and doubling it reads as medicinal.

Sauerkraut and choucroute, where juniper is close to definitional. Fermented cabbage is sour, sulphurous and assertive, and juniper is one of very few spices that meets it rather than being buried by it.

How: Whole berries in a pot of sauerkraut; In braised red cabbage with apple

Add alongside: Caraway, Bay leaf, Black pepper