Five Spice Powder

Spice mix

Five Spice Powder
China

This mix is used throughout China and considered a blend of the "five flavors" (sweet, sour, bitter, pungent and salty). There are other "Five Spices" formulas, some including ginger and some with more than five spices, but this is the primary formula.
Important: For a few years recently importing Sichuan peppercorns into the U.S. was illegal and a lot of formulas were published using black peppercorns instead. Discard those recipes - it's not the same.

2
2
2
2
2

T
T
T
T
T

(See Note-1)
Sichuan peppercorns
Fennel seed
Star Anise, whole
Cloves, whole
Cinnamon, whole

This recipe is sufficient to nearly fill a 4 ounce spice jar

Break up Star Anise stars. Discard shiny seeds if easy, otherwise ignore them.
Separately dry roast Star Anise, Sichuan Pepper and Fennel Seed until they are fragrant but not much darkened. Cool.
Grind ALL Ingredients into a fine powder.
package in an airtight jar.

NOTES:

Amounts: are all measured as ground, but all spices should be freshly ground from whole, not pre-ground. One of those little rotating blade coffee grinders does an excellent job. For Star Anise about 11 full size stars, for Sichuan Pepercorns, nearly 3 T to make 2T ground.

Sichuan Pepper: This is nothing like regular pepper. Recipes call for the peppercorns to be dry roasted but they are already lightly roasted to make them legal for import into the US, and I consider that sufficient. See my Sichuan Peppercorn page for more information.
U.S. measure: t=teaspoon, T=Tablespoon, c=cup, qt=quart, oz=ounce, #=pound, cl=clove ",in=inch