Cumin (Jeera)
Cumin is a plant and a spice of carrot family with a distinctive aroma. Apart from this bring a popular spice in indian cuisine, it is also popular in Mexican, North African, Middle Eastern, and western Chinese cuisines.
| Language | Name |
|---|---|
| Hindi | जीरा |
| Bengali | Jeera |
| Gujarati | Jiru |
| Marathi | जिरे |
| Tamil | ஜீரகம |
| Telugu | జీలకర |
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 in 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. The name cumin is a distortion of the Persian city Kerman, where most of ancient Persia's cumin was produced. It is now mostly grown in India, Iran, Morocco, Egypt, Syria, North America, and Chile.
The
cumin plant is an annual herb. Its stem is slender and branching to about
a foot in height; the leaves are laciniate with filiform segments; Cumin
seeds looks similar to fennel seeds, but are smaller and darker in color.
Cumin seeds have a distinctive bitter flavor and strong, warm aroma due to their abundant essential oil content. Their smell can also be detected in the eater's sweat even after consuming only small amounts. It is used as an ingredient of curry powder. In herbal medicine, cumin is classified as stimulant, carminative, and antimicrobial. This spice is used in indian foods very frequently in vegetables and meat preparations (gravied curries), yoghurt sauces and as standard flavoring agent in almost all the snacks.
Cumin is hotter to the taste, lighter in colour, and larger than caraway (shah jeera), another umbelliferous spice that is sometimes confused with it. Cumin is also not related to nigella (kalonji), which is frequently (and incorrectly) referred to as black cumin (kala jeera).
