Cumin

Summary

The small, crescent-shaped seeds of a plant called Cuminum cyminum, which are used as a spice. It has a warm flavour and quite a strong, pungent aroma.

Contents

Cumin seeds can be used whole or ground into a powder. They're frequently used in Indian cooking and are a regular component of curry powder, as well as being used in the Indian spice mix garam masala.

Cumin is also used in Mexican cooking; in Europe, it's used to flavour some cheeses and is sometimes used in baking. There's also a smaller, darker variety of cumin, called black cumin, which is usually used whole in dishes, where it adds a smoky note.

Buy fresh cumin seeds and grind them yourself after dry roasting them lightly. Replace your stock frequently - like other dried spices, cumin quickly loses its pungency.

Cumin has been in use since ancient times. Seeds, excavated at the Syrian site Tell ed-Der, have been dated to the second millennium BC. They have also been reported from several New Kingdom levels of ancient Egyptian archaeological sites.[3]

Originally cultivated in Iran and Mediterranean region, cumin is mentioned in the Bible in both the Old Testament (Isaiah 28:27) and the New Testament (Matthew 23:23). It was also known in ancient Greece and Rome. The Greeks kept cumin at the dining table in its own container (much as pepper is frequently kept today), and this practice continues in Morocco. Cumin fell out of favour in Europe except in Spain and Malta during the Middle Ages. It was introduced to the Americas by Spanish colonists. Since returned to favour in parts of Europe, today it is mostly grown in Iran, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Morocco, Egypt, India, Syria, Mexico, and Chile.

1. http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/glossary/c.shtml?cumin
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumin