Cumin seeds and ground cumin powder, https://www.thekitchn.com/what-is-cumin-23682467; photo credit – Alex Lepe.
In Spanish, you might hear someone say me importa un comino. It’s like saying “I couldn’t care less.” Literally, it translates to “it’s as important to me as one cumin seed.” Cumin seeds are small. But as a spice, it’s very important with a very old past. In 2014, Gary Paul Nabhan wrote about cumin, explaining that it “is so demonstrative of culinary globalization.”1
Cumin seeds are added to Gouda cheese (Komijnekaas), giving the creamy cheese hints of chili. In our kitchen, we have both cumin seeds and ground cumin powder. The McCormick container states that “it brings earthy warmth and subtle citrus flavor to foods.” The bottle of organic cumin seeds, also from McCormick, declares that it adds “distinctive aroma and taste to Indian, Mexican and Middle Eastern dishes.” That’s right – chili, curry, ras al hanout, hummus, vegetarian black-bean burgers, red lentil soup – all have cumin included.
Ingredients for Chili seasoning, https://freshsimplehome.com/best-chili-seasoning-recipe/
Enchiladas, chili con carne, taco filling has cumin and chili peppers, along with other spices. The mix shows the history of the world’s hemispheres coming together. Cumin is an old spice, most likely from Central Asia. The Harappan society along the ancient Indus River Valley had cumin, along with turmeric, coriander, garlic, ginger and cinnamon. We know from recipe tablets in cuneiform that the peoples of the Tigris and Euphrates river valleys used cumin in their cooking. The Akkadian word kamûnu is a long line to our English cumin.
Robert Bentley and Henry Trimen. Medicinal Plants; being descriptions with original figures of the principal plants employed in medicine and an account of the characters, properties, and uses of their parts and products of medicinal value. London: Churchill, 1880. Wikimedia Commons
When I next have a good meal, I will notice if it has cumin in it and thank the unnamed gatherers who so long ago noticed its aroma and flavor, adding it to their food.
Gary Paul Nabhan, Cumin, Camels, and Caravans: A Spice Odyssey (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2014) 234.