Cumin is one of my most-used and favorite spices, right alongside coriander, so we're getting the heavy hitters out of the way first. It can really be thought of as two different spices: the whole seed and the ground seed. We'll discuss taste a little later, but the whole seed might be mistaken for dill seed or caraway, but is quite distinct in flavor.
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| Slightly smaller and pointier than caraway, slightly larger than dill |
Cumin is used in cuisines across the world, from east to west and everything in between. You've most likely run into it in Mexican food, but it pops up in soul food, Cajun and Creole, curry, and is likely in any bean dish you've ever had that had an earthy tone. It's usually not the star of the dish, but you can taste it in the background. It's like the bass player of the spice world.
Taste
Cumin is really three different spices: fresh whole cumin seeds (and to a certain extent very fresh ground cumin, like if you ground it yourself a minute ago, so the flavors haven't had time to diminish), ground, and roasted.
If coriander seed is a pleasant pop of the most intense coriander flavor, cumin seed is an intense burst of almost spicy, slightly anaesthetic notes. It has an earthy aftertaste, but that's largely overridden by brightness, almost bitter in flavor. It's herbal, it's spicy, and really the only way you're going to taste it is if you eat fresh cumin seed without introducing any heat at all. You could make raita (an Indian yogurt condiment) or similar, or a salad dressing, with fresh cumin seeds and get that flavor, but if you cook them at all, you're into the roasted spectrum.
Ground cumin seed almost immediately loses the brightness. This isn't a bad thing because it mellows the bitterness and allows the earthy notes to take much more of a first row in the symphony. If you don't heat it at all, ground cumin is still mildly bitter and still has some of the herbal flavor of the whole seeds.
Roasted is perhaps a misnomer here, because to achieve various levels of the "roasted" flavor you only need to heat the cumin, even as part of a sauce. If you dry roast the whole seeds (don't try this with the powder; it'll just burn) and grind them, you get rich, earthy tones, and depending on how dark you roasted them, more or less smokey flavor to go along with it. Roasted cumin is wonderful.
However, if you temper cumin in oil, both the seeds and the ground develop some of that smokey flavor too, and it's much easier to get that flavor into the dish. That's why cumin is so popular as a tempering.
If you only heat cumin in a wet dish, say a sauce or a pot of beans, you get just the earthy notes. Again, it's the bass player of the spice world. It'll go into the background unless you add an awful lot of it, and you usually want that to happen, so it can serve as that earthy background for complex spice mixes and masalas.
Flavor Pairings
Beans obviously. No surprise there. Black and pinto beans love cumin. Chili loves cumin. Lentils love cumin.
Red meat also likes cumin a lot. Add a little to your burgers or your steak rub. But other meats also like cumin. It adds earthy complexity to smoked meat, particularly if you roast it first. It's the base for a lot of BBQ rubs on pork or chicken. Try cumin on the skin of your Thanksgiving turkey, just a little, to add slow-cooked flavor.
The place where you might not be thinking about cumin is paired with something bright. A lot of times, brighter flavors like citrus or vinegar need to be given a base of something earthy, and cumin is the perfect way to add that. Try a little cumin powder in a lemon vinaigrette to give the lemon notes someplace to take off from, for instance. Or pair cumin and coriander, like a lot of cuisines do, and have the best of both warm, bright, and earthy.
A good way to add cumin flavor to a fancier meat is to make a cream sauce and use a little cumin. Dairy and cumin are something that you often only think of in the context of Tex-Mex and cheese, but while sharp cheese loves cumin (I keep expecting to see sharp cheddar with roasted whole cumin seed as the new pepper jack, so if you make cheese, try that) cumin helps make cheesy flavors stronger, and if it's roasted, it adds a smokiness to cheese and cream sauces which would be hard to get otherwise. Try making mac and cheese with a little cumin. It'll change your cheese world.
The Weird Suggestion at the End
Hear me out: vanilla cumin biscotti.
I'm not a baker, so I can't tell you how to make biscotti, but find yourself a biscotti recipe that looks like it might be in your wheelhouse and add a few tablespoons of whole cumin seed to the batter, then bake as normal.
Or, if that's a bit advanced for your baking skills (it would be for me, no shame) get a vanilla box cake mix and make it, but add a few tablespoons of whole cumin seed (fresh or roasted, either would be interesting) to the batter, then bake as normal for a lemon-poppyseed-type cake. Vanilla has sweet earthiness, cumin has slightly bitter earthiness, it's a match made in heaven.
Give it a try and let me know how to goes. You can do it. This is cookable.
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