Historic Cookery

I was asked recently about the spice cardamom. Now I’ve not
used it often, if at all. I haven’t really noticed it in too many
historic receipts, either, although I’m sure there are a few.

Cardamom, native to India and China, belongs to the ginger
family. It was imported into Europe sometime during the 11th
or 12th century. Today it’s cultivated around the world. It’s
the seeds of the plant that are used in cooking and medicine.
Enclosed in small pods, they’re first removed, then ground.
It’s primarily used today in Indian and Scandinavian cuisines.
Other spellings include cardamon, cardumom, cardamony,
cardemon, and so on.

Wanting to investigate further, I went to a local market that
sells whole spices and herbs, purchased about an ounce or
so of whole cardamom, and went to work.

Whole dried cardamom pods:

Remove the outer shell and TA-DA! seeds:

Ready for grinding:

After a few minutes with the mortar and pestle:

Three stages of cardamom grinding…whole seeds, partially ground,
and finely ground (counter-clockwise, starting at the left):

Smashing the pods and removing the seeds was fairly easy, but
it was tedious work separating all the accompanying itty-bitty
pieces of chaff. And the seeds are SO teeny-tiny, you almost
need a magnifying glass to see them. Then they have a highly
annoying tendency (aaauuuggghhh) to shoot out across the
counter when the shell is removed. Seemed I was constantly
corralling errant seeds! However, the aroma that was released
at that first shattering of a pod’s shell was wonderful. Pounding
the seeds in my mortar and pestle was even better. I’d describe
it as lemony, maybe with a hint of licorice, particularly at first
whiff. Overall, it was an enjoyable and informative “experiment.”