It pairs well with garum.
September 24, 2022 9:24 AM Subscribe
This miracle plant was eaten into extinction 2,000 years ago—or was it? is an article in the National Geographic by Taras Grescoe [previously] about the potential rediscovery of the favorite herb of the Romans, silphion, [prev & iously] in Turkey by Prof. Mahmut Miski. Grescoe put a bit more info in a Twitter thread, and if you have access, you can read Miski’s scholarly article here.
Oh! It works for me now. I stopped on a “join for free” page before, but now it sends me onward. Thanks, aniola!
posted by Kattullus at 9:31 AM on September 24, 2022
posted by Kattullus at 9:31 AM on September 24, 2022
Wow, fascinating! I've read shorter articles about silphion before and was always skeptical. How does a popular domesticated herb just got lost? I had no idea there was such detail about its historical use, including images struck in coins.
Also fascinating that it has some similarities to asafoetida (hing), another resin. Asafoetida is basically never used in European cooking but is important in many Indian dishes. I have no idea how to explain what it tastes like other than itself. The common European name with variants of "Devil's dung" is certainly perjorative. Interesting to think that silphion was like a nicer tasting asafoetida.
posted by Nelson at 10:07 AM on September 24, 2022 [1 favorite]
Also fascinating that it has some similarities to asafoetida (hing), another resin. Asafoetida is basically never used in European cooking but is important in many Indian dishes. I have no idea how to explain what it tastes like other than itself. The common European name with variants of "Devil's dung" is certainly perjorative. Interesting to think that silphion was like a nicer tasting asafoetida.
posted by Nelson at 10:07 AM on September 24, 2022 [1 favorite]
I'm not sure anything could taste nicer than asafoetida. Top of its class. <3
posted by aniola at 10:14 AM on September 24, 2022 [7 favorites]
posted by aniola at 10:14 AM on September 24, 2022 [7 favorites]
Only in passing do they mention the use of silphium as a contraceptive, but when I was studying archaeology that was the main emphasis. Silphium may have actually been an effective contraceptive or abortifacient, at least by folk remedy standards, which would explain why it was quite as valuable as it was. Then, too, maybe not. But in these dangerous times, a wild-growing herb with contraceptive properties that won't kill people out of hand -- well, it's not the worst thing to learn about. (Not that it seems like it would take to other climates very well.)
posted by Countess Elena at 10:56 AM on September 24, 2022 [8 favorites]
posted by Countess Elena at 10:56 AM on September 24, 2022 [8 favorites]
In the twitter thread, the author says "As I've mentioned, the current misconception re: love potion/abortifacient qualities come from John Riddle's Viagra-era book Eve's Herbs. The references cited simply don't stand up to examination."
posted by aniola at 11:09 AM on September 24, 2022 [9 favorites]
posted by aniola at 11:09 AM on September 24, 2022 [9 favorites]
I heard that our heart symbol (which looks nothing like a heart) is a silphium seed, is it true?
posted by Meatbomb at 12:03 PM on September 24, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Meatbomb at 12:03 PM on September 24, 2022 [1 favorite]
Maybe? But more likely it's a shapely pair of buttocks. That's sure how it's drawn now!
posted by seanmpuckett at 12:32 PM on September 24, 2022
posted by seanmpuckett at 12:32 PM on September 24, 2022
My thoughts on having smelled Asafoetida are basically "You know when you fart, and it stinks, but somehow, because it's YOUR fart, it actually smells kinda good?"
posted by The otter lady at 3:52 PM on September 24, 2022 [8 favorites]
posted by The otter lady at 3:52 PM on September 24, 2022 [8 favorites]
I've been feeling bad about saying anything critical about asafoetida. I think it's awesome and am a little confounded by exactly what it does to a dish, other than to know that adding it to the Indian dishes I've cooked that use it makes them taste better. The European name for it always made me laugh. Interesting to think it might have been more commonly used in the past, at least by the Roman influence on Europe.
The article says
posted by Nelson at 4:17 PM on September 24, 2022 [1 favorite]
The article says
Apicius makes a clear distinction between the high-class Libyan plant [sylphion] and its more pungent, sulfurous eastern cousin [asafoetida]. ...Oof, there's some classism dating back 1700 years. I only bring it up because I'm trying to imagine what silphium tastes like and "milder / less pungent asafoetida" is the only thing I could understand from the article. Lentils with honey and vinegar is not a flavor combination I've ever had.
A bowl of aliter lenticulum, lentils made with honey, vinegar, coriander, leek, and Ferula drudeana, was deemed complex and delicious, while the same dish made with pungent asafoetida resin provoked grimaces and was left largely untouched.
posted by Nelson at 4:17 PM on September 24, 2022 [1 favorite]
The smell I recall is like when you've eaten a lot of delicious caramelized onions and roasted garlic, and you now have farts that make your partner leave the room but damn it was worth it
posted by The otter lady at 4:51 PM on September 24, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by The otter lady at 4:51 PM on September 24, 2022 [1 favorite]
→
Seconding this. Introduced into gently-heated oil, it gives the most glorious onion flavour to the whole dish. I'm not going to comment on the smell of the uncooked resin because we're better than that.
posted by scruss at 5:08 PM on September 24, 2022 [2 favorites]
I'm not sure anything could taste nicer than asafoetida
Seconding this. Introduced into gently-heated oil, it gives the most glorious onion flavour to the whole dish. I'm not going to comment on the smell of the uncooked resin because we're better than that.
posted by scruss at 5:08 PM on September 24, 2022 [2 favorites]
Someday it would be great to have a conversation about non-Western food that doesn’t denigrate them with how bad they smell. It’s incredibly offensive every single time.
posted by Bottlecap at 5:48 PM on September 24, 2022 [19 favorites]
posted by Bottlecap at 5:48 PM on September 24, 2022 [19 favorites]
Eh, I sometimes sit in on conversations in which my SE Asian colleagues talk about Western foods. They are forthright in expressing their opinions of the smell of parmesan.
posted by tumbling at 6:29 PM on September 24, 2022 [10 favorites]
posted by tumbling at 6:29 PM on September 24, 2022 [10 favorites]
I do not know how to explain to you that reverse racism is not a thing and that it’s not equivalent when a majority culture others minority cultures, but perhaps you should do some reading on it.
posted by Bottlecap at 9:07 PM on September 24, 2022 [10 favorites]
posted by Bottlecap at 9:07 PM on September 24, 2022 [10 favorites]
Tangent.
Cheese is pretty weird if you think about it. Milk taken away from a baby, who, if it's the wrong sex, probably won't get to live. Taken from the land, which may have been stripped to make room for the livestock. Decomposed milk. Taken to an extreme, literally rotten milk, complete with maggots, can be called cheese.
Can you tell I'm trying to quit?
posted by aniola at 9:14 PM on September 24, 2022 [3 favorites]
Cheese is pretty weird if you think about it. Milk taken away from a baby, who, if it's the wrong sex, probably won't get to live. Taken from the land, which may have been stripped to make room for the livestock. Decomposed milk. Taken to an extreme, literally rotten milk, complete with maggots, can be called cheese.
Can you tell I'm trying to quit?
posted by aniola at 9:14 PM on September 24, 2022 [3 favorites]
It's difficult to discuss food without discussing how it smells, given that smell is such an important part of taste. And discussing how something smells is inherently challenging. Of all the senses, trying to relate how something smells to someone who hasn't experienced it, is the most challenging to communicate. (It takes some work to describe how how Roquefort smells to someone who hadn't smelled it before, without mentioning 'feet'.)
But now I feel like I need to find some asafoetida, so I can figure out what it smells like other than "Satan's Butthole", which seems to be roughly the translation of many of its European names. While charming, I feel like the reality must be a bit more nuanced?
There are substances that seem to be universally interpreted as "bad" smelling, though. (E.g. putrescine, or ammonia. Presumably because these are linked to some pretty unhealthy biochemical processes, we have a hardwired aversion.) Interestingly, I can't think of any truly universally good-smelling things, though. (Maybe 'the smell of cooking food' in general? But that's going to smell pretty different if you're an Inuit vs. a Moroccan. 'Fresh air', i.e. the lack of noticeable smell? Hm.)
Apparently the Hare Krishna culinary tradition uses asafoetida where recipes might otherwise use onions and garlic, ingredients it avoids (for reasons that seem theologically complicated but aren't flattering to them as ingredients). So clearly, not everyone thinks it's objectively worse as a flavor.
In discussions of the durian, I've always wondered the explaining you'd have to do if you suddenly invented white onions. "Ah yes, the weird round root thing that stinks so much it burns your eyes, and just one will literally poison the family dog. But you say it's good in soup…?"
posted by Kadin2048 at 10:13 PM on September 24, 2022 [2 favorites]
But now I feel like I need to find some asafoetida, so I can figure out what it smells like other than "Satan's Butthole", which seems to be roughly the translation of many of its European names. While charming, I feel like the reality must be a bit more nuanced?
There are substances that seem to be universally interpreted as "bad" smelling, though. (E.g. putrescine, or ammonia. Presumably because these are linked to some pretty unhealthy biochemical processes, we have a hardwired aversion.) Interestingly, I can't think of any truly universally good-smelling things, though. (Maybe 'the smell of cooking food' in general? But that's going to smell pretty different if you're an Inuit vs. a Moroccan. 'Fresh air', i.e. the lack of noticeable smell? Hm.)
Apparently the Hare Krishna culinary tradition uses asafoetida where recipes might otherwise use onions and garlic, ingredients it avoids (for reasons that seem theologically complicated but aren't flattering to them as ingredients). So clearly, not everyone thinks it's objectively worse as a flavor.
In discussions of the durian, I've always wondered the explaining you'd have to do if you suddenly invented white onions. "Ah yes, the weird round root thing that stinks so much it burns your eyes, and just one will literally poison the family dog. But you say it's good in soup…?"
posted by Kadin2048 at 10:13 PM on September 24, 2022 [2 favorites]
The singular form of Inuit is Inunk. An Inuk, not an Inuit.
posted by Bottlecap at 10:46 PM on September 24, 2022 [5 favorites]
posted by Bottlecap at 10:46 PM on September 24, 2022 [5 favorites]
Fascinating! Thanks for finding and posting. I'm also now looking forward to explore Sally Grainger's YouTube channel, that was linked in the article.
I went to my kitchen to look for asafoetida, because I usually have it, but it must have gone while I was away, the kids eat mostly vegan and it is very useful in a vegan diet. Good reminder to restock. I think most people who have eaten food from the subcontinent have tasted it.
I use cumin a lot more than asafoetida, because it is used in Mediterranean cooking, and it is another spice that has a very pungent smell before use, but is indispensable in recipes. When I started cooking, ages ago, I always giggled a bit when using cumin, but now the smell just triggers the smell of the delicious finished meal in my mind. Maybe I have the same thing with asafoetida, because the reason I went to look for it is that I can remember the finished smell of the tadka, but not the "raw" smell of the spice.
posted by mumimor at 2:31 AM on September 25, 2022 [2 favorites]
I went to my kitchen to look for asafoetida, because I usually have it, but it must have gone while I was away, the kids eat mostly vegan and it is very useful in a vegan diet. Good reminder to restock. I think most people who have eaten food from the subcontinent have tasted it.
I use cumin a lot more than asafoetida, because it is used in Mediterranean cooking, and it is another spice that has a very pungent smell before use, but is indispensable in recipes. When I started cooking, ages ago, I always giggled a bit when using cumin, but now the smell just triggers the smell of the delicious finished meal in my mind. Maybe I have the same thing with asafoetida, because the reason I went to look for it is that I can remember the finished smell of the tadka, but not the "raw" smell of the spice.
posted by mumimor at 2:31 AM on September 25, 2022 [2 favorites]
Meatbomb and seanmpuckett: Wikipedia has a pretty good article on the origin of the heart symbol.
Short answer: the symbol itself has appeared since the Bronze-age Indus Valley Civilization, but it represented the leaves of ivy or the seeds of the silphium rather than the human heart.
In the 1250s, an illustration in an illuminated manuscript shows a young lover offering up his pinecone-shaped heart. Pinecone-shaped hearts appear throughout 14th and 15th century art, becoming more and more stylised. The base changed from round to scalloped, and the shape was inverted. By the 15th century, the current shape had become fixed enough that it appeared on playing cards.
The idea that the heart symbol derives from silphium-as-aphrodesiac or from the shape of female buttocks is apparently one of those just-so stories that were popular with 1960s anthropologists and folklorists.
posted by davidwitteveen at 2:39 AM on September 25, 2022 [4 favorites]
Short answer: the symbol itself has appeared since the Bronze-age Indus Valley Civilization, but it represented the leaves of ivy or the seeds of the silphium rather than the human heart.
In the 1250s, an illustration in an illuminated manuscript shows a young lover offering up his pinecone-shaped heart. Pinecone-shaped hearts appear throughout 14th and 15th century art, becoming more and more stylised. The base changed from round to scalloped, and the shape was inverted. By the 15th century, the current shape had become fixed enough that it appeared on playing cards.
The idea that the heart symbol derives from silphium-as-aphrodesiac or from the shape of female buttocks is apparently one of those just-so stories that were popular with 1960s anthropologists and folklorists.
posted by davidwitteveen at 2:39 AM on September 25, 2022 [4 favorites]
I do not know how to explain to you that reverse racism is not a thing and that it’s not equivalent when a majority culture others minority cultures, but perhaps you should do some reading on it.
Apologies, Bottlecap, I should have clarified that we were in SE Asia at the time. I was clumsily trying to make the point that Kadin2048 made much more eloquently--that food descriptions are difficult across cultures.
Apparently the Hare Krishna culinary tradition uses asafoetida where recipes might otherwise use onions and garlic,
Kadin2048, thank you for clearing up a niggling mystery for me! I recall a cooking show from ages ago where a woman presented various recipes from the Indian subcontinent but always specified that 'sweet asafoetida' should be used in place of onions and/or garlic. It must have been a Hare Krishna recipe show! Now onto the next mystery: is there a 'non sweet asafoetida' or is 'sweet asafoetida' an English Hare Krishna term?
posted by tumbling at 3:00 AM on September 25, 2022 [3 favorites]
Apologies, Bottlecap, I should have clarified that we were in SE Asia at the time. I was clumsily trying to make the point that Kadin2048 made much more eloquently--that food descriptions are difficult across cultures.
Apparently the Hare Krishna culinary tradition uses asafoetida where recipes might otherwise use onions and garlic,
Kadin2048, thank you for clearing up a niggling mystery for me! I recall a cooking show from ages ago where a woman presented various recipes from the Indian subcontinent but always specified that 'sweet asafoetida' should be used in place of onions and/or garlic. It must have been a Hare Krishna recipe show! Now onto the next mystery: is there a 'non sweet asafoetida' or is 'sweet asafoetida' an English Hare Krishna term?
posted by tumbling at 3:00 AM on September 25, 2022 [3 favorites]
In Jainism, you also don't eat onions and garlic (among other things).
posted by aniola at 8:28 AM on September 25, 2022 [5 favorites]
posted by aniola at 8:28 AM on September 25, 2022 [5 favorites]
I didn't know about the sweet asafoetida so I went looking. I found: "Bitter (Ferula pseudalliacea) and sweet (Ferula assa-foetida) asafetida (Apiaceae family) are well-known economic and medicinal herbs owing to their gum." My food co-op switched from one kind of asafoetida to another, and I assumed that one must have had unlabeled additives and the other didn't, but now I suppose it could also be that they switched types of asafoetida.
Now I wonder if there are bitter onions, not just sweet onions.
posted by aniola at 8:32 AM on September 25, 2022 [2 favorites]
Now I wonder if there are bitter onions, not just sweet onions.
posted by aniola at 8:32 AM on September 25, 2022 [2 favorites]
There are many bitter alliums, including a lot of the 'chives' you'll find as a weed in much of the east coast. Most aren't particularly bitter but people will tell you confidently that they're 'inedible,' when to the best of my knowledge they're just feral garlic and perfectly usable as long as you offset the bitter.
posted by aspersioncast at 8:54 AM on September 25, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by aspersioncast at 8:54 AM on September 25, 2022 [2 favorites]
Seconding aniola; there are many, many cultures and religions and food practices in India. Jainism is a big group of people who don't eat onions or garlic but do use asafoetida. Several articles talk about asafoetida being used as a direct substitute for onion and garlic flavor.
But we're pretty far afield of silphion now. I don't think the Roman sources talk about it as an alternative to alliums. I'm really curious what comes of this discovery. Maybe in 50 years we'll all be using it regularly!
posted by Nelson at 9:07 AM on September 25, 2022 [3 favorites]
But we're pretty far afield of silphion now. I don't think the Roman sources talk about it as an alternative to alliums. I'm really curious what comes of this discovery. Maybe in 50 years we'll all be using it regularly!
posted by Nelson at 9:07 AM on September 25, 2022 [3 favorites]
Oop sorry I meant feral *onion* not feral garlic
posted by aspersioncast at 1:06 PM on September 25, 2022
posted by aspersioncast at 1:06 PM on September 25, 2022
I was really excited about the possibility of feral garlic. I tried pretty hard to establish feral garlic the last place I lived. Had a beautiful dream of a garlic lawn.
Anyway, right. Silphion!
posted by aniola at 3:15 PM on September 25, 2022 [1 favorite]
Anyway, right. Silphion!
posted by aniola at 3:15 PM on September 25, 2022 [1 favorite]
West of the Mississippi you do have to worry about death camas when foraging - looks a bit like, but doesn’t smell like, wild onions. Not sure it’s an issue out East; I’ve certainly never seen it.
Asafoetida is terrific if you eat legumes.
posted by aspersioncast at 4:48 PM on September 25, 2022
Asafoetida is terrific if you eat legumes.
posted by aspersioncast at 4:48 PM on September 25, 2022
Back to Sylphion indeed.Thank you for the update. I am also very excited by the possibilities and hope we get to find out.
posted by blue shadows at 9:13 AM on September 26, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by blue shadows at 9:13 AM on September 26, 2022 [1 favorite]
« Older "Isn’t Star Trek: The Next Generation just a... | ¡No Controles! Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by aniola at 9:29 AM on September 24, 2022 [1 favorite]