Cumin

Cumin spice is the dried fruit of the herb Cuminum cyminum. The cumin plant is a small annual ranging up to 50cm in height, with branching stem and long slender deep green leaves and umbels of small white or pink flowers.

The oldest known occurrence of cumin is from the Neolithic of Atlit-Yam in northern Israel, dating from 6900–6300 BCE.¹¹¹ But dietary habits must have changed, as it then disappeared from the area. It may have been native to the Mediterranean region and Middle East. Ancient evidence of cumin has also been found in Mesopotamia from 2100 to 1900 BCE and New Kingdom Egypt from 1543 to 1292 BCE. It was grown at Lagash in the late Early Dynastic period in the same field as onions, flax and vegetables, and was used in the Old Babylonian period at Rimah.¹¹² It was included in the list of spices brought to Nuzi in the middle of the second millennium. A recent study of the bio-archaeology of the Philistine culture in Israel from the twelfth to seventh centuries BCE demonstrates that the invaders didn’t only bring themselves but also their plants, specifically sycamore trees, the opium poppy and (once again) cumin.¹¹³ Cumin was listed, among other spices, in cuneiform writing from the seventh-century BCE great library in the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh.¹¹⁴ From its origin in the Levant, cumin probably moved eastwards to India via Arab spice traders, and westwards via the Phoenicians.

The Romans regarded cumin as an important seasoning. Apicius refers to it frequently (his third most common spice after pepper and lovage) and it appears in many exotic dishes, e.g. as a cumin sauce for lobsters and shellfish and in sauces for various fish, as a spice in forcemeats, sow’s womb sausage, in a laxative broth, in various pumpkin dishes, peeled cucumbers with brains, as an aid to digestion (when mixed with ginger, rue, dates, pepper and honey), as a condiment in a casserole of saltfish, cooked brains, chicken livers, eggs, cheese, herbs, wine and mead, with pears and peaches dishes, fruity ragouts, in a chicken, brain and pea casserole, in sauces for exotic birds such as ostrich, crane and flamingo, in various vegetable dishes and many others. The strong flavour of cumin may have been to counter the tastes and textures of some of the more unusual ingredients; then again, many of these foods would not have been regarded as exotic by the Romans.

Cumin was part of the mid- and late Saxon diets at Hamwic (present-day Southampton) and London.¹¹⁵ Cumin is listed in Leechdoms, a nineteenth-century compilation of Anglo-Saxon texts edited by the wonderfully named Oswald Cockayne, as well as in the early eighth-century Capitulare de villis, which described the management of royal estates in Carolingian France.¹¹⁶ Cumin was also found in the exquisite ninth-century Oseberg Viking ship burial in Norway.

In medieval Europe, cumin was one of the more readily available spices in general use. It may have had some use as a love icon.¹¹⁷ Ahmin also refers to an Arab tradition of a ground cumin, pepper and honey paste which was considered to have aphrodisiac properties.

In 1158, the Winchester Pipe Rolls – the country’s most complete set of manorial accounts – recorded the purchase of cumin (as well as pepper, cinnamon and almonds) specially for the queen.¹¹⁸ Cumin and other spices were listed in the royal accounts from 1205 to 1207 during the reign of King John.

Medicinal properties of cumin: cumin was associated with women’s reproductive health according to the Hippocratic Corpus, a collection of around sixty early ancient Greek medical texts from the fifth century BCE.¹¹⁹ In the gynaecological treatises, remedies were often applied or administered after a bath and/or whilst fasting. A hair treatment involved a poultice of cumin or excrement of pigeons, or some herbs and vegetables. Pliny mentioned that cumin was ‘much employed in medicine, among the stomachic remedies more particularly’ and was usually bruised and taken with bread or drunk in wine and water.¹²⁰ Wild cumin was preferred over cultivars for medical uses in general, but both varieties had the effect of producing paleness. This effect was, according to Pliny, used by the students of Marcus Porcius Latro, an eminent Roman rhetorician (d. 4 BCE), in order to imitate the pale complexion of their master. African cumin had the reputation as a remedy against incontinence. If parched and beaten up in vinegar, it was supposedly good for treating liver problems and vertigo, while in sweet wine it helped with urine acridity and problems of the uterus. Parched and beaten up with honey, it was used as an application for swellings of the testes. Among the many other remedies suggested by Pliny, cumin mixed with oil could counter the effects of stings from scorpions, serpents and centipedes. The Greek pharmacologist, physician and botanist Dioscorides had similar views and remedies to Pliny on the medicinal uses of cumin; they were more or less contemporary, both living in the first century CE. Both Pliny and Dioscorides rated Ethiopian cumin very highly, the latter describing cumin as warming, astringent and drying.¹²¹

One of the less well-known and somewhat gruesome uses of cumin (and certain other spices) was in the preservation of criminals’ severed heads.

A cautionary story from The Arabian Nights, ‘The Reeve’s Tale’, recounts the reluctance of the protagonist to eat a cumin ragout, but if he had to eat it he would need to wash his hands forty times each with soap, potash and galingale.¹²³ So his hosts brought these materials and he cleaned his hands. As he ate, the group then saw that he had no thumbs, and they pressed him to tell the story. He related how he fell in love with a beautiful girl who worked in the palace of the Chief Consort. After being smuggled into the palace in a chest, he was finally presented to the Lady Zubaydah, who gave them her blessing. A cumin ragout wedding feast was prepared and he ate his fill. He wiped his hands but forgot to wash them. When they brought his bride to the bed chamber, she smelled the ragout on his hands and became angry. After many days she returned and cut off his thumbs and big toes to teach him a lesson. And he swore never to eat cumin ragout again without washing his hands as described. A salutary lesson on the importance of hygiene, the pungency of cumin, and the power of women!

Today, the world’s largest cumin producer is India, producing 70 per cent of the world total of 300,000 tons per annum – and it is also the world’s largest consumer, using 63 per cent of global production. It is commonly known as jeera in South Asia. It is also produced in several Middle Eastern countries, especially Turkey, Iran, Syria and China. Cumin is used as ground (normally dry roasted first) or as whole seed varieties. As well as being used as a spice and condiment, it is also commonly blended in garam masala, curry powder and other spice mixes. It is also a common ingredient in confectionary, bread, sausages, pickles, relishes and other foods.

Cumin is commonly confused with caraway, but, although they belong to the same family and the fruits are of a similar size and shape, they are quite different in flavour and do not share the same genus (caraway is Carum carvi). Also, ‘black cumin’ (Nigella sativa) is only a distant relation and not even in the same family.