Quatre épices

Quatre épices is a spice used mainly in France, but also found in the Middle Eastern kitchen. The name literally means "four spices"; the spice mix contains ground pepper (white, black, or both), cloves, nutmeg and ginger. Some variations of the mix use allspice instead of pepper, or cinnamon in place of ginger.

The blend of spices will typically use a larger proportion of pepper (usually white pepper) than the other spices, but some recipes suggest using roughly equal parts of each spice.

In French cooking it is typically used in soups, stews, vegetable preparations and also in sausages and salamis.