Cumin

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cumin (Cuminum cyminum) is a flowering plant in the family Apiaceae, native from the east Mediterranean to East India.

It is a herbaceous annual plant, with a slender branched stem 20-30 cm tall. The leaves are 5-10 cm long, pinnate or bipinnate, with thread-like leaflets. The flowers are small, white or pink, and borne in umbels. The fruit is a laterally compressed fusiform or ovoid achene 4-5 mm long, containing a single seed. Cumin seeds are similar to fennel seeds, but are smaller and darker in colour.

Cultivation and uses

Cumin seeds are used as a spice for their distinctive aroma, popular in North African, Middle Eastern, western Chinese, Indian and Mexican cuisine.

Cumin fruits have a distinctive bitter flavour and strong, warm aroma due to their abundant essential oil content. Its main constituent and important aroma compound is cuminaldehyde (4-isopropylbenzaldehyde). Important aroma compounds of toasted cumin are the substituted pyrazines, 2-ethoxy-3-isopropylpyrazine, 2-methoxy-3-sec-butylpyrazine, and 2-methoxy-3-methylpyrazine.

Today, cumin is identified with Indian cuisine and Mexican cuisine. It is used as an ingredient of curry powder. Cumin can be found in some Dutch cheeses like Leyden cheese, and in some traditional breads from France. In herbal medicine, cumin is classified as stimulant, carminative, and antimicrobial.

Cumin can be used to season many dishes, as it draws out their natural sweetnesses. It is traditionally added to curries, enchiladas, tacos, and other Middle-eastern, Indian, Cuban and Mexican-style foods. It can also be added to salsa to give it extra flavour. Cumin has also been used on meat in addition to other common seasonings. The spice is a familiar taste in Tex-Mex dishes and is the lingua franca of the cuisines of the Indian subcontinent. Cumin was also used heavily in Ancient Roman cuisine.

Cultivation of cumin requires a long, hot summer with 3-4 months with daytime temperatures around 30 °C; it is drought tolerant, and is mostly grown in mediterranean climates. It is grown from seed sown in spring, and needs a fertile, well-drained soil.

Cumin can be boiled in tea to make "Cumin Cider", First made by native Mexicans and spread throughout South America.

Description

Cumin is the dried seed of the herb Cuminum cyminum, a member of the parsley family. The Cumin plant grows to about 1 to 2 feet tall and is harvested by hand. Cumin is a key component in both Chili Powder and Curry Powder.

Uses

The flavor of Cumin plays a major role in Mexican, Thai, Vietnamese, and Indian cuisines. Cumin is a critical ingredient of chili powder, and is found in achiote blends, adobos, garam masala, curry powder, and baharat.

Origins

Historically, Iran has been the principal supplier of Cumin, but currently the major sources are India, Syria, Pakistan, and Turkey.

Folklore

Superstition during the Middle Ages cited that Cumin kept chickens and lovers from wandering. It was also believed that a happy life awaited the bride and groom who carried Cumin Seed throughout the wedding ceremony.

History

Cumin has been grown and used as a spice since ancient times. Originally cultivated in Iran and the 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 during the Middle Ages but is more widely used again today; it was introduced to the Americas by Spanish colonists. It is now mostly grown in Iran, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Morocco, Egypt, India, Syria, Mexico, and Chile.

The name cumin has a long history. Although the English form goes back to Latin cuminum, and Greek κύμινον, the Greek seems to have been borrowed from a Semitic source; forms of this word are attested in several ancient Semitic languages, including Akkadian. The ultimate source seems to be the Sumerian word gamun [1].

A folk etymology connects the word with the Persian city Kerman, where, the story goes, most of ancient Persia's cumin was produced. For the Persians the expression "carrying cumin to Kerman" has the same meaning as the English language phrase "carrying coals to Newcastle". Kerman, locally called Kermun, would have became Kumun and then cumin in the European languages.

In India, cumin is known as jeera or geera; in Pakistan/Iran, cumin is known as zeera; in northwestern mainland China, cumin is known as ziran.

Confusion with other spices

Cumin is hotter to the taste, lighter in colour, and larger than caraway (Carum carvi), another umbelliferous spice that is sometimes confused with it. Some older cookbooks erroneously name ground coriander as the same spice as ground cumin.

The distantly related Bunium persicum and the unrelated Nigella sativa are both sometimes called black cumin (q.v.).

Curcumin is a chemical constituent extracted from turmeric.

Images

 

External links

• Gernot Katzer's Spice Pages: Cumin