Five Spice Powder (2024)

FAQs

What can I use in place of five-spice powder? ›

Cinnamon and star anise are among the common spices to find in a grocery store that can help you make the closest substitute to Chinese five spice powder. You can swap Chinese five spice with a mix of ground cinnamon and ground star anise.

Although it's not spicy-hot, it is rather intense. “Less is more” is a good rule of thumb to use when cooking with it. With that in mind, feel free to experiment. It's such an easy way to add complex flavor to a dish, it's almost like cheating!

What is five spice powder made of? Five spice is a blend of star anise, cloves, cinnamon, Sichuan peppercorns and fennel seeds. If you don't have Sichuan peppercorns to hand, you could substitute them for black peppercorns – the flavour will still be nice, although it won't have the same heat.

Substitutes for Allspice include using a combination of cloves, nutmeg, and cinnamon as well as similar spice blends such as pumpkin pie spice (with some added pepper to achieve the savory notes of allspice) or apple pie spice.

To start with, Chinese five spice is Chinese in origin. Seven spice powder is Japanese, and also called shichimi togarashi. Unlike Five Spice, Seven spice's foundation is comprised of chilis, dried orange peel, sesame seed, dried ginger, and seaweed, as well as Sichuan peppercorns.

You will find this spice blend used within the cuisines of China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Hawaii. While the name implies only five ingredients, blends vary in the spices they're made from.

It is like an upgrade version of Five Spices, meaning it has a deeper, profound flavor profile. Thirteen Spices has similar function as Five Spices, but it works better to remove stronger odor from meat such as lamb or deer, or for a cuisine that requires stronger seasonings e.g. a Sichuan spicy hot pot.

In the culinary arts, five spice (also known as Chinese five spice) is a blend of ground spices used in Chinese and Vietnamese cooking.

Substitutes for Allspice

“I'd recommend a mixture of four parts ground cinnamon, one part ground cloves, one part nutmeg,” says CarlyFarine.

Is too much allspice bad for you? ›

Allspice is considered safe in small amounts. While anecdotal evidence suggests potential side effects, such as nausea, vomiting, and drug interactions, when it's consumed in large amounts, no scientific evidence supports these claims.

Five-Spice Powder Substitutes

The best replacement for five-spice powder is a spice mix with similar flavor profiles. Garam masala, an Indian spice mix which contains cumin, coriander, cardamon, black pepper, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg, is a good alternative, though it lacks signature punch of star anise.

If you need a substitute for mixed spice in a recipe and don't want to make your own you can just use Pumpkin Pie Spice instead. Both are made up of similar spices. Make mixed spice in small batches so it stays fresher longer.

Be careful, shichimi togarashi is very different to Chinese five spice which is very aromatic and includes different spices like cinnamon and aniseed; it isn't spicy like Japanese seven spice.