Spices – Pure Asafoetida : The Mysterious Spice

Asafoetida Seeds

asafoetida-seeds

Scientific name: Ferula assa-foetida

Cultivation details

Succeeds in most soils. Prefers a deep fertile soil in a sunny position. This species is not hardy in the colder areas of the country, it tolerates temperatures down to between -5 and -10°c. Plants have a long taproot and are intolerant of root disturbance. They should be planted into their final positions as soon as possible. Monocarpic, the plant takes some years before it flowers and dies after flowering. The plants usually flower afterabout 5 years. The whole plant, especially when bruised, has an unpleasant smell like stale fish.

Propagation

Seed – best sown as soon as the seed is ripe in a greenhouse in autumn. Otherwise sow in April in a greenhouse. Prick out the seedlings into individual pots as soon as they are large enough to handle. Plant them out into their permanent positions whilst still small because the plants dislike root disturbance. Give the plants a protective mulch for at least their first winter outdoors. Division in autumn. This may be inadvisable due to the plants dislike of root disturbance.

Kokh asafoetida: Kokh Hing : The Tears of the Sun

The Bitter Asafoetida Plan is usually found ,in the southern part of Iran , grown and harvested in different areas. The first tears ( Sap) from the plant is called Kokh, much in demand for traditional healing medicine and connoisseur, its a highly prized commodity for two reasons. Its hard to get as very little is produced and the second being that its extremely pungent .

After the Kokh tears then the plant produces the regular sap which is thick viscous liquid.Which is used to manufacture Compounded Asafoetida , Bandhani Hing and the like.

Since pure asafoetida is extremely expensive and pungent . Most manufacturers blend it with various other ingredients to make it easy to use for cooking .

To source this raw material do drop in a mail .

Asafoetida the spice trail

The Mountains bordering Afghanistan in Iran during winter

What is asafoetida, is a gum , is it a sap , what is it….., here began the mystery of our venture to Asafoetida.

Research on the internet shows up a rhizome from which Asafoetida is extracted , and used for food in India and neighbouring countries, for medicines in the middle east and the like. But the look at any Asafoetida spice container , you would see , wheat flour , gum arabic , what are these doing in a spice container .

Asafoetida comes in a myraid variety of types

Afghani, Irani, Tajaki, Kazakhaki…. the works. Exotic names like Pinakshir, Sarkash , Hadda, Watani, Dana, RZ quality, XL are a bunch of trade names denoting various types of Asafoetida harvested worldwide. Temperature , altitude, types , rainfall , each factor in a different type and taste of Asafoetida.

It was familiar in the early Mediterranean, having come by land across Iran. Though it is generally forgotten now in Europe, it is still widely used in India. It emerged into Europe from a conquering expedition of Alexander the Great, who, after returning from a trip to northeastern ancient Persia, thought they had found a plant almost identical to the famed silphium of Cyrene in North Africa—though less tasty. Dioscorides, in the first century, wrote, “the Cyrenaic kind, even if one just tastes it, at once arouses a humour throughout the body and has a very healthy aroma, so that it is not noticed on the breath, or only a little; but the Median [Iranian] is weaker in power and has a nastier smell.” Nevertheless, it could be substituted for silphium in cooking, which was fortunate, because a few decades after Dioscorides’ time, the true silphium of Cyrene became extinct, and asafoetida became more popular amongst physicians, as well as cooks.