I never met my paternal grandparents — but I’ve long felt like I knew them, thanks to one spice blend that’s always in my cabinet.
It’s called Atom Masala, and I grew up sprinkling generous shakes of it on cheese toasts, sliced fruit, pots of beans. It adds depth and intrigue to everything — simultaneously tart, pungent and acute. But you won’t find it in any grocery store or cookbook.
It’s the invention of my grandparents, Bal Krishna and Daya Gupta, a family recipe passed down since the early 20th century. My grandfather worked for the Indian Navy, and most places he visited, from Britain to Denmark, he found the food too bland. So he came up with an all-purpose spice blend that would add the zingy essence of Indian food to any dish.
Family lore says the first time my father’s older brother, Pradeep, tried the blend, he said it tasted as powerful as an atomic bomb. Thus the name was born.
For years, the recipe was the trade secret of my grandparents. As their four children — including my father, the youngest — left the house, they sent them with bottles of Atom Masala.
In college, I kept a bottle on my desk, sprinkling it on avocado toast. As I pursued a career in food writing, if I met a cook or writer I liked, I’d give them a small vial of Atom Masala. They’d devise new ways of using it — on grilled meats, or stirred into yogurt sauces — and ask for the recipe.
“How do you get it to taste so tangy and complex?” they would ask. “What’s that sharp, sweet note that tastes like sautéed garlic?”
But the recipe was a secret.
Eventually, I noticed that my supply was running disturbingly low, and there was no longer anyone who knew how to make it. On a visit to New York City, my father handed me a piece of paper containing the ratios of spices in Atom Masala that his father had written down before he died.
“You have to be the one to carry on the tradition,” he said.
I embarked on a more than yearlong journey to recreate Atom Masala at home and devise a version that everyone in my family would approve of. “How hard could it be?” I thought. “I already have the recipe.”
Those were famous last words.
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Priya Krishna is a reporter in the Food section of The Times.
The post The Quest to Recreate My Family’s Century-Old Secret Spice Blend appeared first on New York Times.
