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Copyright © 2025 Foodies Only
Copyright © 2025 Foodies Only
5 min
05/01/2026
Dry grinding concentrates aroma and sharpness in spices like cumin and coriander, while wet grinding creates body, sweetness, and cohesion in curries using ingredients like ginger, coconut, and onions.
While modern kitchens have somewhat blurred the line between wet and dry grinding because of the convenience of ready-made powders or pastes, there are clear distinctions between the two methods of grinding spices. Each method serves a different purpose and, when used incorrectly, can result in dramatically different outcomes for the final dish. Understanding which grinding method to choose is key to achieving the intended flavours in each curry and not simply relying on random accidents.
In dry grinding, whole spices such as cumin, coriander seeds, peppercorns, and cloves are ground into a powder form without any moist environment to allow the spices to break open their essential oil pockets. Once the spices are ground into a fine powder, they begin to release their aroma and will quickly disperse when added to hot oil. In addition, the flavour profile of dry ground spices is generally sharp and high, which typically contributes to the overall flavour and aroma of the dish, being added at the very beginning or midway through the cooking process.
When making a dry spice mix (powder), clarity and warmth from the spices are much more important than the added weight of the dry spice. As far as dry spice mixtures are concerned, dry spices can produce outstanding results with dry sabzis, dals, the complete list of tempering, and the garam masala family of spice blends. Because there is no moisture in dry spices, they can be toasted without difficulty and easily become infused with oil. If a recipe is meant to display strong spice flavours but not create a sauce that thickens, using dry ground spices would likely be preferred.
Dry ground spices can become burned or bitter if handled incorrectly, i.e., when not removed from heat soon enough. Dry spices do not form the base of a curry; therefore, they cannot provide the body or richness of pastes. Overusing dried ground spices will often lead to food having a dusty, rather than rounded, flavour.
Wet grinding uses water or oil to mix fresh ingredients. Fresh ingredients may include ginger, garlic, green chillies, coconut, nuts, or onions. The wet grind method extracts both water-soluble flavours and hidden natural sugars from the ingredient. Wet grind pastes take longer to cook down and develop sweetness and thickness in curry dishes by creating a cohesive mixture.
The wet grind method is essential for gravies intended to be smooth and have depth of flavour, versus just the sharp notes of the various spices. All wet grind-based curries, typical of coastal dishes and Northern Indian curries, depend upon wet grinding methods. Also, ingredients such as coconut and soaked cashews cannot be effectively converted into dry ground spice mixtures; they require moisture to release their oils, starches, and sugars.
Spices in their dry forms do not affect the feel of food but rather provide flavouring alone. Whereas one would use a paste of the same spices as a wet grind to change the texture from a thin liquid to a creamy consistency, such as those found in a sauce. Therefore, if you were to take the same spices online and put them into a dry form, their taste would differ entirely.
Most dry-ground spice blends will be added to the recipe earlier in the cooking process to allow the spice to increase its flavour profile. Conversely, wet-ground spice mixes require longer cooking times to lose the rawness of the mixture and develop sweetness when combined. If you attempt to rush the cooking of wet-ground spice mixtures, they will become very astringent, while if you overcook dry-ground spice mixtures, they will develop a bitter flavour.
This method of layering dry-ground spices with wet-ground spices is used for most Indian curry recipes. Wet-ground spices are used to develop the base of the curry, and dry-ground spices are used to add layers of complexity and aroma. Understanding the proper combination of these methods prevents the overuse of spices and allows for the development of complex flavours at various stages of the cooking process.
When using mortars, spice grinders and blenders, each of these three tools affects the appearance of the spice mixture. When a dry-grained mixture is coarsely ground, it has a rustic appearance; when finely ground, it has a more polished appearance. The stone-ground wet grind method retains a greater concentration of aromatic scents and therefore retains the characteristic of the cooked product longer than a high-speed blending method.
Wet and dry grinding are two distinct yet complementary techniques. Dry grinding provides an immediate and aromatic product, whereas wet grinding adds structure and depth. The proper use of wet and dry grinding significantly enhances the cooking experience by providing a more deliberate approach to the preparation of flavoured foods and distinguishes between using spices for seasoning a dish versus to flavour or define it.
