What's really in curry powder?

Curry powder is a spice mix created by the British in an effort to replicate the flavor of the freshly ground spice blends they encountered in India. "Curry" comes from the Tamil word "kari," which means spiced sauce, according to "The Oxford Companion to Food." Commercially prepared mixtures were available to the British cook late in the 18th century. With time, the book notes, "what had been an Indian sauce to go with rice has become an English stew with little rice in it."

Curry powder was one of the "exotic treasures" brought back by American sailors to their wives or mothers, wrote Avanelle Day and Lillie Stuckey in "The Spice Cookbook." They note a "currey of chicken" was included in a 1792 cookbook published in Philadelphia.

Curry powder contains up to 20 spices, herbs and seeds, according to "The New Food Lover's Companion." Most commonly used are cardamom, chilies, cinnamon, cloves, coriander, cumin, fennel seed, fenugreek, mace, nutmeg, red and black pepper, poppy and sesame seeds, saffron, tamarind and turmeric.

Commercial curry powders come in two basic styles, standard and the hotter Madras.