On food and cooking the science and lore of the kitchen ( PDFDrive ) 795

European cooking during the Middle Ages, though the Spanish kept it long enough to help it take root in Mexican cooking The Dutch still make a cumin-flavored cheese, and the Savoie French a cumin bread, but cumin now mainly marks the foods of North Africa, western Asia, India, and Mexico Its distinctive aroma comes from an unusual chemical (cuminaldehyde) that is related to the essence of bitter almond (benzaldehyde) It also has fresh and pine notes The Flavor of Anise The volatile chemical that creates the typical aroma of anise — as well as of fennel, star anise, the Central American pepper relative Piper marginatum, and the herb sweet cicely (Myrrhis odorata) — is called trans anethole It is one of a group of compounds that are not only distinctively aromatic, but also intensely sweet — 13 times sweeter than table sugar, weight for weight Star anise is chewed in China, and fennel seed in India, to “sweeten the breath,” and they are also literally sweet for the person chewing A related sweet aromatic is estragole (methyl chavicol), which is most prominent in sweet basil and tarragon Anethole is unusual among phenolic flavor compounds for remaining pleasant to the taste at high concentrations Its very high concentration in anise-flavored liquors is the reason for the dramatic clouding that results when these liquors are diluted with water: anethole dissolves in alcohol but not in water, so when the added water dilutes the alcohol, the anethole molecules cluster together in bunches big enough to scatter light Black cumin is the seed of a different species (Cuminum nigrum), darker and smaller, with less cuminaldehyde and a more complex aroma It is much used in savory ... which is most prominent in sweet basil and tarragon Anethole is unusual among phenolic flavor compounds for remaining pleasant to the taste at high concentrations Its very high concentration in anise-flavored liquors is the reason... Star anise is chewed in China, and fennel seed in India, to “sweeten the breath,” and they are also literally sweet for the person chewing A related sweet aromatic is estragole (methyl chavicol), which is most prominent in sweet basil and. .. molecules cluster together in bunches big enough to scatter light Black cumin is the seed of a different species (Cuminum nigrum), darker and smaller, with less cuminaldehyde and a more complex aroma