Anise, aniseed, star anise, aniseed myrtle
I’ve fallen in love with the idea of posts on ingredients. I’ve had to answer so many different questions from so many of the recipe testers for the Regency Gothic Banquet that it struck me that we don’t all have a common cooking vocabulary. Besides, ingredients are FUN. Just for a little, then, I’ll do two or three posts a week on specific ingredients so when I say ‘aniseed myrtle’ and talk about its historic use , you know I’m not talking about aniseed or myrtle or even lemon myrtle. And so I can sneak in bad jokes while you’re not watching.
Speaking of aniseed flavoured spices, I thought a couple of them would be a good thing for today. My useless bit of Medieval trivia for the day is that aniseed was coated in sugar and used to aid digestion after giant meals. If that bit of trivia ever proves useful, let me know and I’ll upgrade it from ‘useless’ to ‘almost handy.’
Anise, aniseed or Sweet Cumin (pimpinella anisum) - in French is anise, in German is anis, in Italian is anice , but in Malaysian is jintan manis. It was originally from the Middle East and was used by the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans.
The name anise refers to the green leaves of the plant and not to the seeds. Oddly enough, the seeds are known as aniseed (sorry, sarcasm mode is now off). Star anise has a flavour that depends on the same essential oil (anethole), that is found in anise, aniseed and cultivated fennel but is a different plant (illicum verum), a small evergreen tree belonging to the Magnolia family. I always think star anise tastes great but looks like big black spiders invading your stew. I use it to terrify small children.
Aniseed myrtle (backhousia anisata) also called aniseed tree or ringwood (if you ringbark it, does that mean you have ringwood ringbarked?) is a native of New South Wales and Queensland. The anise scented leaves does wonders for stews, and is also magic in salad dressing.
February 8th, 2007 at 4:24 pm
Gillian,
Very helpful post. I always wondered the difference between anise and star anise. p.s. Keep scaring the kids, haha.
February 9th, 2007 at 2:45 am
Indian restaurants serve aniseed coated in sugar - often in a bowl at the cashier when you leave. It looks like a bowl of tiny eggs, pink and yellow and white and green.
February 9th, 2007 at 6:17 am
Farley, I’m glad it was useful. Except when you use star anise you will now have nightmares.
Kathleen, mostly it’s fennel they serve - but it’s the same principle and I serve them to my food history students when I teach Medieval stuff. You can buy them from any decent Indian grocer - they’re normally stocked with the pan, though, rather than with food.