What to use instead of ground cumin
It depends entirely on what it's doing in the dish. Here's the job, what else does it, and what to skip.
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Earthy backbone in a dry rub or spice blend
Cuminaldehyde is heavy and slightly sweaty, and it anchors chilli, coriander and garlic so that a rub tastes like one thing rather than a pile of separate spices.
Whole cumin seed, toasted and groundRan out
1 tsp whole seed yields about 1 1/4 tsp ground
Noticeably stronger and more aromatic. Pre-ground cumin loses most of its top notes within a few months of the jar being opened.
Ground corianderRan out
1:1
Citrusy and sweeter and much lighter. The rub loses its bass, so it wants a little more salt to hold together.
American-style chilli powderRan out
1 1/2 tsp per 1 tsp cumin, and drop any separate chilli from the recipe
The blend is mostly cumin, oregano and garlic already, so it works. Paprika colour and mild heat come with it.
Taco or fajita seasoningRan out
1 1/2 tsp per 1 tsp cumin, and cut 1/4 tsp salt per tsp used
Salted and often cut with cornstarch, so watch both. Fine on carne asada, muddy in anything delicate.
Garam masalaRan out
use 3/4 as much
Cumin is in there, and so are clove, cinnamon and cardamom; a Mexican dish made this way tastes distinctly Indian.
What doesn't work: Caraway seed one for one. The two seeds look nearly identical and get mixed up constantly, but caraway is sharp and anise-like and it dominates everything it touches; a chilli made with caraway tastes of rye bread.
Whole seed bloomed in hot fat at the start of a dish (tadka, sofrito)
Dropping whole seed into hot oil for a few seconds pulls the fat-soluble aroma out into the oil, which then carries it through the whole dish. Ground spice cannot do this because it burns before it blooms.
Whole coriander seed, cracked firstRan out
1:1
Lighter and floral. Crack it or the seed stays hard and gives up almost nothing to the oil.
Whole fennel seedRan out
use 2/3 as much
Sweet and aniseed, which pushes the dish Bengali or Italian depending on what else is in the pan.
Nigella seedRan out
1:1
Oniony and slightly bitter, and it stays visibly black in the finished dish.
Black mustard seedRan out
1:1
Pops audibly and then turns nutty. A genuine substitute for the technique rather than for the flavour.
What doesn't work: Ground cumin thrown into the hot oil where the recipe calls for whole seed. Ground spice has far more surface area, so it goes from raw to burnt in about three seconds and the tadka turns bitter before you have finished pouring it over the dal.