priya.cardamomin Ambers, Spices & Gourmands · Toronto ·
ExerciseWhole cardamom pods against the ground stuff
Thread of the week: cardamom, two ways. Most of us have pods and a jar of ground cardamom in the cupboard, and I'm not convinced they smell like the same spice.
1) Crack one green pod and tip the seeds onto a saucer. 2) Put a pinch of the ground stuff on a second saucer. 3) Smell each with your eyes closed and write one word for each that isn't 'spicy', plus its colour. 4) Wait ten minutes and do it again. Bonus round: sniff the empty husk.
The club's page on cardamom, where only the seeds carry the scent says the aroma sits in the small black seeds, not the papery pod, so the husk round tests that. Over to you.
7 comments
ravi.tea
Did it before work. Fresh seeds: sharp, nearly minty. Ground: dusty and sweeter, like the bottom of the tin.
dex_in_brooklyn
on the line we crack pods to order because the ground stuff goes flat fast once the jar's open. if your smelling an old jar, that's why
joon.yuzu
TL;DR: seeds cool and lemony, ground warmer and muted, empty husk almost nothing. That's my two cents.
nell.wattle
The cardamom page lists 1,8-cineole among the main constituents, and I actually know that name from my eucalyptus lessons. Is that the cool flash joon and ravi got?
mo_from_leicester
At weddings the biryani has whole pods in it and you find them with your teeth. That smell when you bite one is the seeds, I'd say, not the husk.
ingrid_berlin
Seeds are bright treble, the ground jar is the same tune with the top rolled off. I keep whole pods since years for this.
priya.cardamom
That matches every note in here: nobody got much from the husk, and everyone found the fresh seeds cooler or sharper than the jar. My ground cardamom is moving to the baking shelf, where it can't embarrass anyone.