Coriander Seed

Coriander is a delicate annual herb with lacy leaves and umbels of tiny white or pink flowers. Its fruit, usually called the seed, is a small, round, tan to light-brown globe about three to five millimetres across, with fine vertical ridges. It can split into two halves when ripe.

The leaves, called cilantro in North America, taste fresh and sharp and are disliked by some for a soapy flavour, but the dried seeds are very different: mild, warm, lemony and slightly sweet, with hints of sage and orange peel. They are sold whole and ground, and their flavour is boosted by dry-toasting before use.

Coriander is native to a broad region from southern Europe and North Africa to southwestern Asia. Seeds have been found in Neolithic sites in the Near East and in the tomb of Tutankhamun, and the plant has been used for several thousand years.

The word coriander comes through Latin and French from the Greek koriandron, linked to the older Greek word koris, meaning bedbug, because the green plant was thought to smell like the insect. Mycenaean Greek tablets already mention a form of the word, making it one of the oldest recorded spice names.

Coriander is among the oldest known spices. Egyptian tombs, Sanskrit texts and the Hebrew Bible refer to it, the latter comparing manna to coriander seed. Greeks and Romans used the seeds to flavour wine and meat, and Romans carried them across the empire, including to Britain.

In medieval Europe coriander seeds were used both in cooking and as sugar-coated comfits. The spice travelled to India, where it became one of the cornerstones of curry blends, and to China, where it was used in cooking and medicine. Spanish colonists took the plant to Mexico and Latin America, where the leaves became a prominent herb.

Today India is the world's largest producer and consumer of coriander seed, with large amounts also coming from Russia, Morocco, Bulgaria, Canada and elsewhere. The seeds remain a component of garam masala and curry powders, of pickling spice mixtures, of the Egyptian blend dukkah and of the flavourings in some Belgian wheat beers and Russian Borodinsky rye bread.

Coriander seeds are used whole in pickling brines, sausages and breads, and ground in curries, garam masala, rubs, dukkah and many Middle Eastern and North African spice mixes. They are a primary flavour in Indian curries and chutneys, often dry-roasted with cumin before grinding.

Belgian witbier and some gins are flavoured with crushed coriander seed. Traditionally, coriander has been used as a digestive, and the seed oil is used in flavourings and perfumes. Freshly ground seed is much more aromatic than pre-ground powder, which loses flavour in storage.

Coriander seed has a long history in traditional medicine for digestion and blood sugar, and laboratory and animal studies suggest some effects on glucose and lipid metabolism. Human clinical evidence is limited and mixed, so it is best regarded as a flavourful spice rather than a treatment.

In ordinary culinary amounts, it contributes fibre, small amounts of minerals and aromatic compounds such as linalool. The seeds supply a modest amount of nutrition in practice because so little is eaten per serving.