Ingredients · Spice

Ajwain

Trachyspermum ammi · Apiaceae (carrot family)

Ajwain
A small, oval, seed-like fruit that looks like caraway or cumin and tastes like neither — bitter and pungent, closer to anise and oregano, and it smells like thyme because it contains thymol. One product carries it. The thing to know before using it is its strength: even a small number of the fruits tends to dominate a dish, so it is measured by the pinch rather than the spoon.

What it’s like, and how to use it

The partSeed
KindSpice
CaffeineCaffeine-free
Where it is fromIndia, Iran, Pakistan
TasteBitter and pungent, like anise and oregano, smelling of thyme from its thymol

How to use it

A pinch, crushed between the fingers, into hot ghee or oil at the start of a dish. In paratha and naan dough. In pakora batter. In Ethiopian berbere. Never by the spoonful.

With food

Flatbread and wheat dough. Potato. Lentils and chickpeas. Fried food. Yogurt. Fish.

With spices

Cumin and coriander. Chile. Turmeric. Fenugreek. Asafoetida.

With tea

Not a tea ingredient.

Its story

Where it comes from

Grows in dry, barren soil in its indigenous regions of India, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan and parts of northern Africa; Gujarat and Rajasthan are particularly known for it. Our lot names no origin.

What happened

Ajwain belongs to the tarka — the chaunk, the tempering of whole spices in hot oil or ghee that opens an Indian dish. It also goes into bread: naans and parathas carry it, and the combination of thymol with wheat is one of those pairings that seems obvious once tasted. Its resemblance to its Apiaceae cousins — caraway, cumin, fennel — is the trap. They look alike; nothing else about them matches.

On the shelf with it

Every product it goes into.

Every ingredient in the shop

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