Meat Masala

Most "meat masala" packs you'll find on a shelf are a finished curry kit — chilli for heat, turmeric for colour, coriander for the base, plus the warm aromatics. Tip the whole packet into your pan with onions and tomato and you're 80% of the way to a meat curry.

Ours is different. It's the other 20% — the aromatic warmth and pepper-led depth that turns a competently-cooked meat dish into the kind of Kerala-style beef, mutton, or pork curry where the spices are the headline, not the background.

Six spices, pepper-led: black pepper, green cardamom, nutmeg, clove, mace, garlic. No chilli. No turmeric. No coriander. No filler. Just the aromatics — and they're concentrated, because nothing else is taking up space in the pack.

You add this at the end of cooking, after the meat is tender and the gravy is reducing. Two minutes off the heat is enough. The dish smells different the moment it goes in.

What's in it

Six spice powders, in approximate order of quantity:

• Black pepper — the headline
• Green cardamom — the floral lift
• Nutmeg — the warm, slightly sweet base
• Clove — used sparingly, for the dark depth
• Mace — the citrus-warm note that holds the blend together
• Garlic powder — for the savoury bottom

Best within: 12 months from packing. Store airtight, away from heat and direct light.