[Sca-cooks] black cardamom vs. green cardamom vs. something else

[Darren Gasser]

jenne at fiedlerfamily.net wrote:
> Was discussing spices this weekend with someone and he said he was
> making an Indian dish that called for black cardamom. (I thought
> black cardamom was fully ripened cardamom, while green were the
> slightly immature cardamom pods, but he thought not.) Anyway, he
> bought something in the grocery which had a similar name to black
> cardamom, but stank awfully (it was black seeds of some kind.)
>
> Can anyone shed some light on this linguistic tangle?

They are from different plant species.

Everything you ever wanted to know about green and black cardamom but were
afraid to ask:

http://www-ang.kfunigraz.ac.at/~katzer/engl/generic_frame.html?Amom_sub.html

http://www.agriculture-industry-india.com/spices/cardamom-large.html

-Lorenz