Tempering (spices)
Tempering is a cooking technique used in India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka in which whole spices are cooked briefly in oil or ghee to liberate essential oils from cells and thus enhance their flavours, before being poured, together with the oil, into a dish. Tempering is also practiced by dry-roasting whole spices in a pan before grinding the spices. Tempering is typically done at the beginning of cooking, before adding the other ingredients for a curry or similar dish, or it may be done at the end for adding to a dish just before serving.Ingredients
Ingredients typically used in tempering include cumin seeds, black mustard seeds, fennel seeds, kalonji, fresh green chilis, dried red chilis, fenugreek seeds, asafoetida, cassia, cloves, urad dal, curry leaves, chopped onion, garlic, or tejpat leaves. When using multiple ingredients in tempering, they are often added in succession, with those requiring longer cooking added earlier, and those requiring less cooking added later. In Oriya cuisine and Bengali cuisine, mixtures of whole spices called pancha phutaṇa or panch phoron, respectively, are used for this purpose.Terminology
Some Indo-Aryan and Dravidian languages use a form inherited from the Sanskrit root vyághāra- "sprinkling over", as in in Hindi. Some Indo-Aryan languages use a form inherited from the Sanskrit root sphōṭana- "crackling, cracking", as in in Bhojpuri. Some Indo-Aryan languages use a form inherited from the Sanskrit root traṭatkāra- "crackles, splits, fizzes", as in in Hindi or in Garhwali. Another root beginning with an aspirated affricate is in Hindi.Similar techniques
In parts of the Arab world, similar tempering techniques include adha or qadha in the Levant, and tasha or taqliya in Egypt, which involve frying garlic and sometimes spices in samneh or olive oil before being added to dishes, most often stews like mulukhiyah.Indian music band Bloodywood's 2025 single Tadka directly references tadka; the band described the single as a tribute to Indian food.