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Stinky Spice used in Middle Eastern Food?

post #1 of 21
3/7/12 at 9:10am
Thread Starter 
Hello. Altough many perfume fans are also cooks and one is connected with eachother somehow i found no cooking board here so iam posting it in the offtopic section.

Being in Egypt some time ago me and my family were served some food with unbearably strong spice that was reminescent to strongest BO with a bit of Goat Hair. It was in the hotel restaurant. The local speciality had it's name but it was too general (like: Beans with vegetable sauce".

The same spice was used in some dishes in Turkey making them totally uneatable for us.

Does anybody know what this spice could be?
Some of the basenoters say that Cumin has strong BO smell however , if by Cumin you mean (Cuminum cyminum) and it's seeds i don't find it there.
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post #2 of 21
3/7/12 at 10:54am
I'll bet you are thinking of sumac, but since I find the taste of sumac pleasant, I can't be certain.
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post #3 of 21
3/7/12 at 11:13am
Asafoetida is another spice often associated with body odor. In India, I think it's called hing.

cacio
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post #4 of 21
3/7/12 at 11:13am
No can't be summak. That's fragrant and pleasant in the same way rosemary or thyme is pleasant.

Talked to wifey about it just now. She chuckled and said it could be cumin "Egyptians love it and use too much of it". Lol

Sugandaraja would know. He was just there.
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post #5 of 21
3/7/12 at 1:07pm
All I know is definitely not sumac.
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post #6 of 21
3/7/12 at 1:13pm
Cardamom seed? I find it pretty pungent and can be found on loads of "dry" aromatic middle eastern dishes. I could also see cumin there too.
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post #7 of 21
3/7/12 at 2:27pm
Definitely sounds like cumin. I love it.
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post #8 of 21
3/7/12 at 3:26pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by hedonist222 View Post

Sugandaraja would know. He was just there.



I'm really going to say it's like an overdose of cumin combined with the other flavors in the dish. Egyptians use a lot, sometime too much, I'd say, nearly always in combination with coriander.

There is an off-chance it might be two other things though.

The first is mastic a.k.a. mastika, used in a variety of dishes ( though typically meat, rather than "fool" - the dish you were eating ). I doubt this though, as it's kind of a pleasant resinous-pine-y-citrus scent, albeit one that would clash a bit with cumin. It does taste a little odd, though, so the taste and smell combination might have gone awry.

The second is caraway. This is rarer in Egyptian cooking, but is often the flavor that puts me off some mashi ( meat-stuffed veggies ). I don't like the smell or the taste, kind of dark, musty, dank wood-like, like eating old attic floorboards.

The third is a host of majoram species and ( sometimes thyme ) that come under the heading "zaatar". It's a weak-spot in Arabic slang as it can mean different things in different places. Suffice to say oregano has a certain funkiness at times and majoram, oregano, and other relatives are often included in different dishes. More so in Levantine cookery, but often enough in Egypt.

Still, my biggest bet is cumin and coriander mixed with boiled onions, and often garlic, giving you the trouble. Egyptians often boil their onions, often leading to a weird sulfury smell absent from recipes that saute them first.
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post #9 of 21
3/7/12 at 3:30pm
I feel kind of bad looking at that post - I actually LOVE Egyptian food. I'm just trying to guess the origin of the funk.
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post #10 of 21
3/7/12 at 3:49pm
Your post is making me hungry, Suga.

I made supper, but no one is ready to eat it yet and my stomach is growling!
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post #11 of 21
3/7/12 at 7:22pm
Did you chef on the side sugandaraja? lol
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post #12 of 21
3/8/12 at 9:19am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sugandaraja View Post

I feel kind of bad looking at that post - I actually LOVE Egyptian food. I'm just trying to guess the origin of the funk.

Wow , thanks for all the replies. And specially Sugandaraja's. I have most of these spices in my home so i guess i'll start mixing them to find what i am looking for just to know what i don't like :-P
I still can't belive it's CUMIN - dry cumin spice made out of cumin seeds smells nothing like BO , but maybe when mixed with Coriander and onions it becomes nasty. If i would know this smell comes 100% from plant ingredients maybe i would even like it knowing it's not what it smells like.

PS: Sugandaraja - weren't you afraid going to Egypt because of the revolution?
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post #13 of 21
3/8/12 at 10:45am
Quote:
Originally Posted by GuerlainJedi View Post


PS: Sugandaraja - weren't you afraid going to Egypt because of the revolution?

sugandaraja is a boss.
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post #14 of 21
3/8/12 at 11:31am
I immediately thought of cumin and coriander... together.

In Mexican cooking, we use a lot of cumin, so I am used to it, obviously.
But I remember discovering the spice coriander for the first time in an Indian dish. It was not a good discovery.
I was really shocked I was so grossed out; I love Indian food!

For me, smell of corriander seed powder is really
disturbing; it's the most verdant, mossy, bitter kind-of stink. It smells how I imagine a magick elfin brew might smell... one that was intended for something nefarious and grim.

When I first 'discovered' it, my father translated it to Spanish for me, telling me it was the same thing as "cilantro". Cilantro is a fresh herb we use in just about everything fresh, as well as to freshen cooked food. It's green and minty and refreshing. And I love it!! It did not compute, at all., this association. I was sure he was confused.

What I learned later was that 'cilantro' typically describes the leaves, while coriander describes the seeds only. It still seems weird to me, but I know that often the gentleness of the fruits and leaves of many plants belie the pungency of their seeds, e.g. carrots.
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post #15 of 21
3/8/12 at 11:33am
Quote:
Originally Posted by hedonist222 View Post

sugandaraja is a boss.

That's right. He's one bad mutha.
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post #16 of 21
3/8/12 at 11:46am
GeurlainJedi: I moved to Egypt before the revolution. Literally, just one week before. When the revolution broke out I was already there, already settling in, had all my stuff there, so... I decided to weather it. I have no regrets. It was an incredible time to be there.

I spent a year there, and that year just may have been the best year of my life.

By the way, perhaps the best way to see if Egyptian fool is the culprit is to make some? There are lots of online recipes, and the beans can be found at any middle eastern food store. If you like, I can get you several different recipes from different housewives there, as fool has a million little variations ( my favorite is a Ramadan kind topped with flax-seed oil ). Most of the time it's pretty simple, though, in fact among ordinary people, the only spice present might be cumin.
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post #17 of 21
3/8/12 at 11:49am
LOL, thanks Hillaire and Hedonist.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Hillaire View Post

I immediately thought of cumin and coriander... together.

In Mexican cooking, we use a lot of cumin, so I am used to it, obviously.
But I remember discovering the spice coriander for the first time in an Indian dish. It was not a good discovery.
I was really shocked I was so grossed out; I love Indian food!

For me, smell of corriander seed powder is really
disturbing; it's the most verdant, mossy, bitter kind-of stink. It smells how I imagine a magick elfin brew might smell... one that was intended for something nefarious and grim.

When I first 'discovered' it, my father translated it to Spanish for me, telling me it was the same thing as "cilantro". Cilantro is a fresh herb we use in just about everything fresh, as well as to freshen cooked food. It's green and minty and refreshing. And I love it!! It did not compute, at all., this association. I was sure he was confused.

What I learned later was that 'cilantro' typically describes the leaves, while coriander describes the seeds only. It still seems weird to me, but I know that often the gentleness of the fruits and leaves of many plants belie the pungency of their seeds, e.g. carrots.


I find this interesting, as the exact opposite happened with my mother. She studiously avoided coriander for years thinking it was the green leaves ( which she hates ), but she found she actually loves the seeds and has no problem using them in food. Which makes sense, given she's iffy on Mexican but loves Indian...
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post #18 of 21
3/8/12 at 12:03pm
Yes,i believe it is cumin ...it is used in Greek Cuisine for making a lot of dishes best known the soutzoukakia!Minced lamp meat served with hot sauce of cumin with rice!
It could be Turmeric also....it is used in Southern Asia and Middle East cuisine.This is the most stinky spice i am aware ....
More info http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turmeric
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post #19 of 21
3/8/12 at 12:52pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sugandaraja View Post

LOL, thanks Hillaire and Hedonist.




I find this interesting, as the exact opposite happened with my mother. She studiously avoided coriander for years thinking it was the green leaves ( which she hates ), but she found she actually loves the seeds and has no problem using them in food. Which makes sense, given she's iffy on Mexican but loves Indian...

Hmmmm... interesting. Spice-appreciation is so relative, at least among those of us exploring new cuisines. But I'd argue that when we grow up with certain spices, considering them fundamental, we are much more 'accepting'.


I still think it's cumin and coriander. Crotch and nervous sweat.
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post #20 of 21
3/8/12 at 12:59pm
I want to add the OP mentioned the dish was a bean dish. My family jokes that cumin in beans, specifically, is really 'skanky'; something about the 'creaminess' of beans plays up that aspect of cumin. (It's hard to call it cumin and not 'comino'. I keep backspacing.)
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post #21 of 21
3/8/12 at 3:25pm
I love the taste and smell of cumin! So savory!

I grew up with a Spanish speaking mother, and she always called it comino. I was a teen before I realized not everyone called it by this name.
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