WRITTEN BY TIM MILHORN
KOO-min or KYOO-men? Picture, if you will, a man in a kitchen—a man about to embark on an adventure into another dimension, a dimension of taste and smell and exotic flavors. The dimension of— The Pantry Zone!
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We’ve all been there. We’ve all seen it. Most of us have it—the spice rack in your cupboard or pantry, if you’re organized, or a jumble of bottles or tins jammed into the back spaces behind familiar condiments (guilty!). It’s a place where, frankly, I’m afraid to blindly root around with bare hands. Why, you might ask? I’m afraid I’ll pull out a spice I used once back in 1999 that is now hopelessly, ridiculously, passed its expiration date. If you take a look, there are plenty of spices that remain a mystery to many of us. Cardamom, coriander, fenugreek, mace, nigella (nigella!?), and sumac. However, I have heard of cumin, even though I’ve never knowingly added it to a dish. So, cumin it is! Kingdom: Plantae. Clade (another word I need to look up): angiosperms. Order: apiales. Family: apiacaea. Cumin has been around for thousands of years. Its seeds were excavated in Syria dating to the second millennium BCE. Cumin
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was used as part of the mummification process in Egypt and was significant in Minoan Crete. Ancient Greeks had it on the dinner table, and it is still on the table in Morocco. It was used in Roman cuisine and has been in India for hundreds of years. Spanish and Portuguese colonists brought it to the Americas, and it is mainly grown in North Africa, Mexico, Chile, and China. The two main exporters are China and Mexico, but South Asia is the biggest consumer. 300,000 tons of cumin is produced annually. Cumin has fat, carbs, and protein. B vitamins dominate, especially niacin and folate. It’s high in magnesium, manganese, and iron. Cumin is one of the most used spices you’ll find in the pantry. It has a warm, peppery flavor, and it has a noticeable aroma which heightens the food experience. It is a popular ingredient in Mexican food such as fajitas and chili, and it’s a key ingredient of Indian curries. While cumin pairs well with meats, it adds a lot of flavor to vegetable dishes such as carrots and sweet potatoes. Oh, yeah. If you’re American you pronounce it KOO-min. If you’re British you pronounce it KYOO-men. So they say, somewhere.
