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Ras el Hanout vs. Garam Masala: Turmeric, Chile and Rose Set Them Apart

By · Reviewed · 22 sources

ras el hanout vs garam masala

Ras el hanout and garam masala share a warm-spice core of cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, pepper, cumin and coriander, and neither one has a fixed recipe. What sets them apart is what ras el hanout adds: turmeric and ginger on its standard list, usually cayenne, and in the longer versions rosebud and lavender.12 In the pot, ras el hanout tints a dish yellow and can add heat. Garam masala does neither. Each can stand in for the other with some adjusting, but the swap doesn’t work the same in both directions.

Side by side

Ras el hanoutGaram masala
WhereFound in varying forms in Morocco, Algeria and TunisiaUsed across the Indian subcontinent
NameSomething like “top of the shop”Literally “hot spices”; Saveur says the heat refers to spices thought to warm the body in Ayurvedic medicine, not chile3
Fixed recipe?No: “one of the most complex such mixtures” (Oxford Companion)1No: varies widely by region and personal taste; one food writer says it changes with every state and every home4
Core spicesCumin, coriander seed, turmeric, ginger, cardamom and nutmeg as standard; cinnamon, cayenne, rosebud and oregano usually added1Cardamom, cinnamon and cloves at its most basic (Bengali);5 Great British Chefs’ common list adds bay leaf, fennel, cumin, coriander seed, mace and black and white pepper6
Number of spices, in the versions compared8 (Saveur), 24 (World Spice Merchants), 27 (a list recorded by Mme Guinaudeau)7213 (Bong Eats), 6 (Madhur Jaffrey via Saveur), about 10 named by Great British Chefs536
TurmericOn the standard list; also in World Spice’s blend12Not in the Bengali, Jaffrey or Great British Chefs versions536
ChileCayenne usually included; Saveur’s recipe uses 1 1/2 tablespoons17None in the versions compared635
Floral notesRosebud on the standard list; roses, lavender and chamomile in World Spice’s blend12None in the versions compared
Toasted?Not addressed by the sources comparedSometimes: Bong Eats dry-roasts; Jaffrey’s version is untoasted53
Official standardNone found; not in the USDA spice-blend specification8None found; not in the USDA spice-blend specification8
FlavorWarm and sweet with an earthy, yellow base, often some heat, and in long blends a perfumed liftSweet, warm and resinous, cardamom and clove up front, a mild pepper bite

The counts belong to the specific recipes and products named, not to either blend in general. You’ll see counts of 80 or 100 ingredients in ras el hanout all over, but no source we found backs them up.

The differences that change a dish

Color and earthiness: turmeric and ginger

Turmeric’s yellow comes from curcumin.9 It’s on the Oxford Companion’s standard list for ras el hanout1 and missing from all three garam masala versions above, so ras el hanout tints a braise where garam masala leaves it brown. Ginger is the other standard ras el hanout spice that the garam masala versions above leave out. Its pungency comes from non-volatile gingerols.10

Heat

Ras el hanout usually has cayenne, and Saveur’s eight-spice version uses a tablespoon and a half of it.7 Chile heat comes from capsaicinoids. Garam masala’s “hot” isn’t chile heat,3 and none of the versions above has any. Ras el hanout varies, too. A floral, cardamom-led jar can be mild, and a Saveur-style blend won’t be. Check the label.

Perfume

The longer ras el hanout blends have flowers in them. The Oxford Companion lists damask rosebud among the usual additions, and World Spice’s 24-ingredient blend includes roses, lavender and chamomile.12 Garam masala gets its perfume from cardamom. Jaffrey’s recipe starts with a quarter cup of cardamom seeds.3

What they share

Both lean on the same aroma compounds for their warm side. Clove oil is about 85 to 92% eugenol,11 cardamom oil is led by α-terpinyl acetate with 1,8-cineole second,12 true cinnamon bark oil is about 49.9 to 62.8% cinnamaldehyde,13 coriander seed oil is 60 to 80% linalool and related terpene alcohols,14 and cumin oil is 20 to 72% cuminaldehyde.15 Those figures are for each spice’s own oil, from separate studies. We found no analysis of either finished blend. Which spice dominates depends on the recipe, so a cumin-heavy garam masala and a clove-heavy ras el hanout can land closer together than two jars with the same name.

Can one stand in for the other?

Yes, with some adjusting, and it doesn’t work the same in both directions. Our ras el hanout substitutes and garam masala substitutes pages go deeper.

SwapStarting amountTreatment
Garam masala for ras el hanout1:1, plus a pinch of paprika and a pinch of cayenne (Mike Hultquist)Attributed
Ras el hanout for garam masalaHalf as much, then tasteMethod
  • Garam masala in place of ras el hanout. The Spice House and Hultquist both name garam masala as a substitute.1617 Hultquist says to use it 1 for 1 and add a pinch of paprika and a pinch of cayenne to bring it closer.17 He doesn’t say how he came up with that, and we found no second figure to check it against. What it can’t give you is turmeric’s color, ginger, or the floral notes of a long blend. A pinch of turmeric helps with the color.
  • Ras el hanout in place of garam masala. Frontier Co-op suggests ras el hanout in place of garam masala in dishes like tagines, but gives no amount.18 Start with half the amount and taste, since ras el hanout can bring chile and turmeric that garam masala doesn’t. Skip it as a last-minute finish on an Indian dish, where garam masala is there for aroma. The yellow and any cayenne will show.

When to reach for each

  • Ras el hanout for North African cooking. Saveur’s headnote says it goes into virtually every dish of the region,7 and World Spice lists tagines, couscous, stews and roasted vegetables, and even fruit pies.2 See Moroccan spices.
  • Garam masala for Indian cooking, early or late. Great British Chefs describes it going into marinades, sauces and the base of a dish, and also finishing a dish at the end of cooking.6 Bong Eats sprinkles a pinch, with a sliver of ghee, over finished vegetarian dishes like ghonto, dalna and khichuri.5 Saveur mentions stews, curries and fried snacks like samosas.3 See garam masala uses and cooking with garam masala.

When either one goes in early, America’s Test Kitchen’s advice on ground spices applies. Bloom them in fat, since powdered spices added straight to liquid can taste bland and musty, and keep an eye on them, because they burn fairly quickly.19

A note on Spanish fly

The Oxford Companion records that some Moroccan ras el hanout formulas have included supposed aphrodisiacs like cantharides, the beetles called Spanish fly, and says these seem irrelevant for flavor.1 Its active substance blisters skin on contact, and Britannica describes eating it as extremely hazardous.20 None of the published versions compared here contains it.72

What isn’t known

  • We found no analysis of either finished blend. The compound figures are for the individual spices.
  • The sources we compared don’t say whether ras el hanout spices are traditionally toasted before grinding.
  • Hultquist’s 1:1 ratio is the only published figure for either swap, and he doesn’t say how he came up with it.
  • We couldn’t trace the counts of 80 or more ingredients in ras el hanout.

Footnotes

  1. Alan Davidson, “Ras-el-hanout”, The Oxford Companion to Food, 2014. app.ckbk.com · Reference work ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10

  2. World Spice Merchants, Ras El Hanout, product page. worldspice.com · Merchant ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  3. “Garam Masala” (Madhur Jaffrey recipe), Saveur, 2014. saveur.com · Publication ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8

  4. Karishma H. Nandkeolyar, “How Hyderabadi biryani taught me not all of India’s garam masalas are the same”, Gulf News. gulfnews.com · Publication ↩

  5. “Bengali Garam Masala”, Bong Eats, 2016. bongeats.com · Publication ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  6. GBC Kitchen, “How to make garam masala”, Great British Chefs, 2025. greatbritishchefs.com · Publication ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  7. “Ras el Hanout (North African Spice Mix)”, Saveur, 2012. saveur.com · Publication ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  8. Commercial Item Description A-A-20001C, Spices and Spice Blends, USDA Agricultural Marketing Service, 2023. ams.usda.gov · Regulator ↩ ↩2

  9. “Turmeric: Usefulness and Safety”, National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, 2025. nccih.nih.gov · Regulator ↩

  10. Sutarno, Hadad and Brink, Zingiber officinale, Plant Resources of South-East Asia (PROSEA). uses.plantnet-project.org · Reference work ↩

  11. Batiha et al., “Syzygium aromaticum L. (Myrtaceae)”, Biomolecules, 2020. mdpi.com · Peer-reviewed ↩

  12. Blažeković et al., “Content and Chemical Composition of Essential Oil from Cardamom”, Croatica Chemica Acta, 2025. hrcak.srce.hr · Peer-reviewed ↩

  13. Ranasinghe et al., “Medicinal properties of ‘true’ cinnamon: a systematic review”, BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 2013. link.springer.com · Peer-reviewed ↩

  14. Al-Khayri et al., “Essential Oil from Coriandrum sativum: A Review”, Molecules, 2023. mdpi.com · Peer-reviewed ↩

  15. P.C.M. Jansen, Cuminum cyminum, Plant Resources of South-East Asia (PROSEA). uses.plantnet-project.org · Reference work ↩

  16. “Ras El Hanout Substitute”, The Spice House, 2020. thespicehouse.com · Merchant ↩

  17. Mike Hultquist, “Ras El Hanout Recipe (Moroccan Spice Blend + Substitutes)”, Chili Pepper Madness, 2026. chilipeppermadness.com · Publication ↩ ↩2

  18. “Our Guide to the Best Garam Masala Substitutes”, Frontier Co-op. frontiercoop.com · Merchant ↩

  19. “How to Bloom Spices”, America’s Test Kitchen, 2023. americastestkitchen.com · Publication ↩

  20. “Spanish fly”, Encyclopaedia Britannica. britannica.com · Reference work ↩

Also drawn on

  • garam masala, Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster. merriam-webster.com
  • Measuring Chile Pepper Heat (Guide H-237, Paul W. Bosland and Stephanie J. Walker, 2010), New Mexico State University College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences. pubs.nmsu.edu