The literal translation of this classic French blend is "four spices," but quatre épices very rarely contains just four spices; it typically has five or six.

This is a blend primarily used for meat preparations such as bacon, ham, sausages, galantines, terrines, pâtés, and confit. It pairs excellently with dishes featuring heartier ingredients like game or beef cooked in red wine-based sauces.

Despite containing peppercorns, this blend can be used in the preparation of various puddings, cakes, or cookies. If you are skeptical, you can prepare your own blend and replace peppercorn with allspice and cinnamon.

It's useful as a glaze for baked ham and for seasoning pork before roasting.

In this blend, sometimes cinnamon replaces ginger, allspice replaces cloves, and mace replaces nutmeg, but the choice is up to you.

GOOD for preparing terrines, galantines, sausages, bacon, ham, pâtés, ragouts, cakes, cookies, puddings.