Quote from: coffee on December 27, 2011, 06:34 PM
Black pepper, Cinnamon,Cloves,Black Cardomons,Star Aniseed,Coriander, Cummin,Red chilli, Mixed spices.
The first four ingredients are standard components of traditional Garam Masala and should constitute the bulk of the ingredients in a good one. My take on the Black as opposed to Green Cardamon is one of cost alone - Green Cardamons are more expensive than Black which have a more earthy less refined aroma and flavour and consequently lower cost. The remaining ingredients I'd suspect are in much smaller quantities than the first four. I'd guess that the 'mixed spices' consists of small quantities of Fenugreek, Mace, Nutmeg etc.
Interesting to compare against the other brands of Garam Masala such as Rajah and Natco that list Coriander as the largest proportional ingredient, which is uncoincidentally a much cheaper ingredient than any of the traditional Garam Masala ingredients of Black Peppercorns, Cinnamon, Cloves or Cardamons.
The only conclusion you can draw from this is that the Jalpur GM is a much higher quality one than either Rajah or Natco that basically just use large quantities of cheaper ingredients and lower quantities of the more expensive ones.