Spices in Scandinavian cooking

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 genuine tradition rather than a garnish: Havarti, Munster, Leyden and a number of Dutch and central European cheeses carry caraway through the paste. The sharpness cuts the fat and the seed gives something to bite.

Add alongside: Rice, Black pepper, Apple

Pumpkin is sweet, dense and slightly flat, and the standard warm-spice treatment risks burying it. Cardamom is aromatic rather than heavy, so it lifts the squash instead of sitting on it.

Add alongside: Cassia, Ginger, Honey

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

Vanilla is broad and rounded and can read as flat on its own; cardamom is sharp and aromatic and gives it an edge to sit against. A Scandinavian and Middle Eastern combination more than a British one, and one of the few things that genuinely improves vanilla rather than competing with it.

Add alongside: Cassia, Saffron, Honey

Cardamom cuts through chocolate in a way warm spices do not — it is aromatic and slightly camphorous rather than sweet, so it lifts the bitterness instead of layering onto it. A Scandinavian and Middle Eastern pairing more than a Latin American one.

Add alongside: Cassia, Vanilla, Coffee

Chai, Scandinavian baking and Middle Eastern coffee all reach for this pair. Ginger is sharp and immediate, cardamom is floral and slow, and the two occupy different parts of the same warm register without overlapping — which is why both survive being boiled with milk.

Add alongside: Cassia, Cloves, Black pepper

A cornerstone of garam masala, of Middle Eastern blends and of Nordic baking. Cardamom's cool eucalyptus character and cinnamon's warm sweetness sit at opposite ends of the same aromatic range and produce a rounded whole. The answer to "does cinnamon work with cardamom?" is emphatically yes, in both sweet and savoury contexts.

Add alongside: Cloves, Nutmeg, Black pepper

Salmon is oily and distinctly flavoured, and fennel’s sweetness with its faint cooling quality cuts against that richness rather than sitting on top of it. The affinity extends to the fennel bulb and fronds, which are a standard accompaniment to the same fish.

How: Toasted and coarsely crushed into a rub before roasting or grilling; Whole seeds in a cure alongside dill and sugar

Add alongside: Dill, Black pepper, Lemon

• Ground fennel goes muddy against salmon; the coarse crush is doing textural work as well as aromatic work.

The pairing that made the spice fashionable, and it holds up. Salmon is oily, pink and mildly sweet, and pink peppercorns give a resinous citric lift and a visible colour echo without adding heat that would fight the fish.

How: Crushed over seared or cured salmon; In a gravlax cure with dill and citrus

Add alongside: Dill, Lemon, Juniper

• Crush by hand and add at the end — cooked into a dish they contribute almost nothing.

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

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

Recorded for red meat and game generally, which is juniper’s home ground. Strongly flavoured dark meat carries the resin and the bitterness that would overwhelm chicken or fish, and a long braise gives the berries time to release without turning harsh.

How: In a red wine braise; Crushed into a cure or a marinade for venison

Add alongside: Black pepper, Bay leaf, Allspice

Oily and smoked fish is the other half of the horseradish repertoire, and it works for the same reason as beef: fat needs sharpness, and horseradish gives it without the acidity that would firm the flesh. Central and Northern European cooking pairs it with smoked and cured fish as a matter of course, and chrain with gefilte fish is the same principle in a different tradition.

How: Creamed horseradish with hot-smoked salmon; Grated into soured cream as a dressing for cured fish; Chrain, white or beetroot-reddened, with gefilte fish

Add alongside: Dill, Lemon

• Creamed sauces are far milder than freshly grated root; season by tasting rather than by the recipe.

A Central and Eastern European staple combination, and a useful one because potato is bland, absorbent and starchy — it takes as much pungency as is given and softens the bitterness of the root at the same time. The two are also seasonal partners: both are winter keepers, which is how the pairing arose.

How: Grated through a warm potato salad with soured cream; Folded into mash to serve with beef or sausage

Add alongside: Dill, Onion

• Add it once the potatoes are off the heat. Stirred into a hot mash over the flame it will lose most of its bite.

A Northern and Eastern European standing pair, and it is really a pairing with fermentation as much as with the vegetable. Cabbage is sulphurous and, once soured, sharply acidic; the carvone in dill seed cuts through both and adds a warmth that keeps a plate of sauerkraut or braised cabbage from reading as merely sour.

How: Whole seed in sauerkraut and pickled cabbage; Toasted and stirred through braised or fried cabbage

Add alongside: Caraway, Juniper, Black pepper

• A teaspoon is generous for a large pan. Dill seed is more assertive than its size suggests and easy to overdo by eye.

Scandinavian curing practice puts dill and salmon together and the seed does a different job from the herb: the herb is a fresh top note added at the end, while the seed goes into the cure or the poaching liquid, where carvone moves into the fish and gives a warmth that survives the salt. Oily fish needs something sharp against it and dill seed supplies that without acidity.

How: In a cure for gravadlax, alongside the herb rather than instead of it; In a court-bouillon for poached salmon

Add alongside: Dill, Mustard seed, Lemon

• Seed and herb are not alternatives here. A cure using only the seed tastes of rye bread and one using only the herb has no depth.

Potato is starchy, bland and absorbent, which makes it a carrier rather than a competitor, and dill seed supplies warmth and a slight bitterness that stops a potato salad tasting flat under soured cream. The combination is standard across Eastern Europe and Scandinavia and works hot or cold.

How: Toasted and tossed through a warm potato salad with soured cream; In the water for boiled new potatoes

Add alongside: Dill, Onion, Mustard seed

A modern European pairing built on a genuine complement: dark chocolate is bitter and liquorice is sweet and earthy, and the root’s lingering finish extends the chocolate rather than competing with it. It appears in confectionery across the Nordic countries and Italy, where both traditions have their own liquorice industry.

How: In ganache and truffles; Liquorice and chocolate confectionery

Add alongside: Fennel seed, Star anise