Ingredient

Cumin

Cumin is the spice that most rewards thirty seconds of extra effort. Toasted whole and freshly ground it is warm, nutty and complex; straight from a jar of pre-ground it is dusty and slightly bitter, and those are effectively two different ingredients.

Why toasting matters so much

Cumin's flavour lives in volatile oils held inside the seed. Dry heat drives those oils to the surface and starts browning reactions in the seed itself, generating new nutty, roasted compounds that were not there before. The difference is not subtle — a toasted cumin seed smells like a different spice from a raw one.

Pre-ground cumin has been sitting with all that surface exposed to air, sometimes for a year, and the volatiles have largely gone. What is left is the flat, slightly bitter, sweaty note that people who say they dislike cumin are usually describing.

Buying seeds and grinding what you need is one of the largest improvements available for the smallest effort in a home kitchen.

Toasting and grinding

1. Put the seeds in a dry frying pan over medium heat, in a single layer.
2. Shake the pan constantly. This takes thirty to ninety seconds and there is no stage at which you can walk away.
3. They are ready when they smell strongly nutty and have darkened a shade. Cumin goes from toasted to burnt very quickly, and burnt cumin is acridly bitter.
4. Tip them straight out of the pan onto a cold plate. Left in the hot pan they keep cooking.
5. Grind in a mortar or a spice grinder once cool. Warm seeds go pasty rather than powdery.
6. Use within days for the best of it, or keep the whole toasted seeds and grind as needed.

Whole or ground, and when

Whole, bloomed in hot fat

The Indian tarka. Seeds sizzle in oil or ghee for a few seconds until they pop and darken, then everything else goes in. Where dal, rice and vegetable dishes get their base.

Whole, toasted and left whole

On breads, in a salt mix, over roast vegetables. The texture and the burst are the point.

Freshly ground

Rubs, marinades, chilli, hummus, spice blends. This is where cumin does most of its work.

Pre-ground from a jar

Acceptable if it is fresh. Bloom it in fat rather than adding it to liquid, and buy small jars.

Black cumin (kala jeera)

A different, smaller, sweeter seed. Not a substitute, and not the same thing as nigella seed despite both being sold as black.

Where cumin anchors a cuisine

• Indian and South Asian — in tarkas, garam masala, and in almost every vegetable dish. Usually whole and bloomed.
• Mexican — in chilli, in adobo, with dried chillies and oregano. Usually ground.
• Middle Eastern and North African — in hummus, falafel, ras el hanout and in tagines, often with coriander seed.
• Chinese, in the northwest — cumin lamb skewers, where it is used in a quantity that would look alarming elsewhere and is exactly right.
• Spanish and Portuguese — in chorizo, in bean dishes, and in the Moorish end of the cooking.
• The reliable partner is coriander seed, in roughly equal amounts. Between them they cover warm, earthy and citrus, and the pair is the base of an enormous number of spice mixes.

Common questions