Anise
"All About Anise"
by Sandra
Bowens
"Next time you are casting about
for a dessert to serve after a heavy meal, consider
mustaceum. This anise laced cake baked in a wrapping
of bay leaves often followed major feasts given by
the early Romans. The cake served the dual purposes
of a toothsome sweet treat and as an aide in digestion.
Mustaceum may well have begun the tradition
of wedding cakes as we know it today.
Anise seeds are tiny and crescent
shaped with a strong taste of licorice. The plant,
Pimpinella anisum, is a slow-growing annual native
to Egypt and the Mediterranean. Today it is produced
for export in Mexico, Spain, Germany, Turkey and Italy
although it is easily cultivated wherever 120 frost-free
days can be found. This member of the parsley family
should be sown where it is intended to grow as its
long taproot does not take well to transplanting.
The frilly, delicate leaves add flavor
to salads. Pale yellow flower clusters develop into
the fruit that we think of as the seed. The flowers
appear about three months after planting. To harvest,
the entire umbrella-shaped seed head is snipped off
after ripening but before it opens. The seeds are
then threshed and dried.
Anise is one of the oldest known
seeds. Hippocrates suggested using anise to control
coughing and it is referred to in the New Testament.
King Edward I allowed it to be used as a way to pay
taxes and King Edward IV slept on linen perfumed with
anise. Ancient herbals list anise as a good mousetrap
bait.
Humans all over the world enjoy the
flavor of anise, particularly in liqueurs. Anisette
and ouzo are perhaps the most famous but the Latin
American aguardiente and the Turkish raki are sure
to be familiar too.
The oil of anise used to impart the
important licorice flavor in these beverages is frequently
used for medicinal purposes. It is common to cough
remedies, dental products and helps to mask the bitterness
of other medicines.
For culinary purposes, anise seed
has wide ranging applications. It is popular in many
European confections. The French like it with carrots.
Anise is frequently used in Scandinavian breads, East
Indian curries, and Hispanic stews. The seed enhances
cooked fruit dishes, eggs and cheese, spinach and
many baked goods. Cinnamon and bay leaves complement
the taste of anise.
Although anise seed is available
in whole or ground form, for the best flavor buy whole
seeds and crush them just before using. If you don't
have a spice grinder this can be accomplished with
a mortar and pestle or you might break them with a
rolling pin.
Anise seed, or aniseed or anis, has
the potential to be confused with other spices and
herbs, i.e. star anise, licorice, anise-hyssop and
fennel."
More about anise
"All About Anise" from
A
Pinch of....by Sandra Bowens
Rodale's
Encyclopedia of Herbs
Anise
from Wikipedia
Image souces: upper
left, upper
right, lower
center.
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