Asafoetida
Asafoetida is the dried oleogum from the rootstocks of certain species of Ferula. It appears to be in the same genus as the possibly extinct silphium (see below), which was so craved by the Romans.
Ferula asafoetida is an herbaceous perennial plant native to western and central Asia, primarily Iran and Afghanistan. The most characteristic feature of the spice is the appalling smell, as suggested by the name, and also by some of the informal names, e.g. Devil’s Dung, Merde Du Diable, Stinking Gum, etc.Despite the nauseating smell, asafoetida is extremely popular in Indian food and is a standard component of many curries, and is even used as a condiment. The smell tends to dissipate on cooking, which makes the use somewhat easier to understand. It is said to enhance umami flavours of savoury food.
The Ferula plants have massive taproots (like a carrot) which can reach 15cm in diameter at the crown after four to five years. Harvesting takes place in March–April and involves cutting the stem close to the root crown; a milky juice then seeps out of the cut surface. After several days the exudates are scraped off and a fresh slice of the root cut, from which more liquid exudes. This cutting and scraping proceeds for about three months until exudation ceases.
C. K. George lists seventeen commercial species of Ferula (there are about sixty species of Ferula in total) from Iran, Afghanistan, Kashmir, Punjab, Turkey, North Africa, Syria and Tibet in which the gum (primarily) is used for spice or medicinal purposes.39 ‘Hing’ and ‘Hingra’ are common Asian names to describe the two main varieties, Hing being superior in quality and richer in odour. Hing is derived from F. asafoetida, while Hingra is from F. foetida. The armies of Alexander the Great are reputed to have stumbled on asafoetida growing wild, probably during their conquest of Persia, and it was deemed a reasonable substitute for the popular but elusive silphium.
Strabo mentioned that in Afghanistan, Alexander’s army had to eat raw flesh of the beasts of burden due to the lack of firewood, but silphium (most likely asafoetida) grew in abundance and promoted digestion of the raw food.40 Dioscorides described the medicinal uses of Narthex (asafoetida): the pith (and seed) taken in a drink could help stomach complaints, while given with wine it was a treatment for snakebites.41 The gum, called sagapenum, was a painkiller and could also induce miscarriage; it was good to treat venomous bites; if inhaled with vinegar it could treat a blocked womb; and it was also useful as a treatment for cataracts and other eye disorders.The tenth-century Arabic Kitab al-Tabikh contains numerous recipes using asafoetida, with resin, root and leaves all being used.42 While common in the Middle East, asafoetida has generally been scarce in Europe since the fall of the Roman Empire and appears in very few recipes.
It is not clear when asafoetida first appeared in India (though one may speculate that it could have been associated with Alexander’s expedition to the north of the country). Asafoetida is the most common spice referred to in the Manasolassa, a part-culinary text written in the twelfth century; it was often used dissolved in water.43 It has certainly been established in India for a very long time; the sixteenth-century Portuguese naturalist Garcia de Orta said:
The thing most used throughout India, all parts of it, is that Ass-Fetida, as well as for medicine as in cookery. A great quantity is used, for every Gentio [Hindu] who is able to get the means of buying it will buy it to flavour his food.44
Madhur Jaffrey observed that Hindus tend to use asafoetida, while Muslims prefer to use garlic for extra flavouring.45 Asafoetida is particularly popular with Indian vegetarians because when cooked it exudes an onion-like aroma, a vegetable normally prohibited to Hindu Brahmins and Jains.46
Iranians and Afghans eat the stem and leaves as vegetables, and in Iran asafoetida is sometimes rubbed on to warmed plates before putting meat on to them.47