[Sca-cooks] grains of paradise

Lilinah lilinah at earthlink.net
Fri Aug 8 09:30:35 PDT 2008


Ian Kusz wrote:
>Okay, dumb question.  What are grains of paradise, where are they from, what
>food do they feature in, what do they taste like (so I can figure out what
>complements them), and how much is necessary for a dish?

My favorite source for spice info is Gernot Katzer's Spice Pages
http://www.uni-graz.at/~katzer/engl/
all sorts of botanical info, names in myriad languages, color photos 
of the plant and the spice, history, and more. Unfortunately, one 
cannot smell or taste spices over the web, or i'm sure Gernot would 
have included those, too.

Here is his page on Grains of Paradise:
http://www.uni-graz.at/~katzer/engl/Afra_mel.html

Grains of Paradise are pungent, and while they may be used where one 
uses black or white pepper, they taste nothing like them. They are an 
ingredient in some actual historical recipes for "Fine Spice", which 
is generally used in "period" savory dishes. Besides using them in 
savory dishes, I think they might be tasty used with fruits like 
cherries or peaches.

I don't know where you live (well, i know you're in Alaska, but 
that's a big place). Whole Foods sells them now - or at least several 
i've been into in California and Pennsylvania - i dunno if you've got 
one near you... otherwise, the internet is your friend, as i'm sure 
you already know.
-- 
Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita

My LibraryThing
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/lilinah



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