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Cumin seeds

Seeds

Cumin seeds

Cuminum cyminum

Whole cumin seeds, crackled in hot oil for tadka or dry-roasted and ground for a toasty flavour.

Also called: whole cumin, jeera seeds, zeera

  • Earthy
  • Warm & sweet
  • Nutty & toasty
  • No heat
Buying & storing70 recipes

Photo: Misterneedlemouse, via Wikimedia Commons (CC0-1.0)

Flavour and aroma

earthy, warm, slightly bitter, nutty when fried. Nutty and earthy when fried; bitter if burnt.

Heat
No heat
Forms
whole, ground

How to use it

  • bloom in fat · Tadka (tempering) technique

    For jeera tadka, heat oil or ghee until a test seed sizzles at once (about 170–180 °C). Add the seeds and stir for 20–40 seconds, until they crackle and turn one shade darker, then add the next ingredient. Black seeds taste bitter.

  • dry roast · Spice roasting (dry-roasting) technique

    For bhuna jeera, shake the seeds in a dry pan over medium-low heat for 1–2 minutes until a shade darker and fragrant. Cool on a plate.

  • grind · Dry grinding technique

    Grind roasted seeds once cool for raita, chaas and chaat; grind small batches, the aroma fades within weeks.

  • Jeera tadka for dal and jeera rice
  • Starting a curry before the onions
  • Dry-roasted and crushed over raita and chaat
  • Breads, pickles and Mexican rubs

Identifying good quality

Slim, ridged, greenish-brown to grey-brown seeds about 5 mm long, often with a tiny stalk. Good cumin smells strong when rubbed between the fingers and has little dust or chaff.

  • Not to be confused with Shahi jeera (black cumin): Shahi jeera is darker, thinner, more curved and sweeter.
  • Not to be confused with Fennel seeds: Fennel is fatter, greener and tastes of anise.
  • Not to be confused with Ajwain: Ajwain is much smaller, rounder and tastes of thyme.
  • Not to be confused with Caraway seeds: Caraway is darker brown, curved and tastes sweeter.

Origin and history

Origin: South-west Asia and the eastern Mediterranean.. Grown and used: India grows and uses most of the world's cumin, mainly in Gujarat and Rajasthan; also grown in Syria, Turkey, Iran and China..

Cumin was used in ancient Egypt and by the Greeks and Romans, and it has been part of Indian cooking for well over two thousand years. It is the most common tempering seed of North and West India and a base spice of garam masala and many curry powders.

Well documented

In masalas, pastes and sauces

Recipes with cumin seeds

32 more