I wrote a little about this onsite, actually: Saturation, Distillation, Improvisation: A Story About Procedural Knowledge And Cookies

(Regarding "curry" and cumin, curry powder isn't actually a spice. It's a spice blend, which usually contains cumin - so things that call for curry powder will taste fine if you put in cumin, since you were already going to put in cumin, but putting curry powder into something that calls for cumin entails putting in a bunch of extra stuff like turmeric that may not work.)