If You Don’t Use Enough, You Didn’t Caraway
For the most part, sources have concurred that the spices and herbs in this series do come mostly from where they think they do. That’s a good thing. There have been a few quibbles, but generally it can be considered a consistently agreed upon lineage.
Caraway defies such precision, with origins being suggested Western Asia, Europe, North Africa, and ancient traces found in Switzerland as well as Ancient Rome.
Adding to the vastness of its reputation are various cultures differing identifications, “with names deriving from the Latin cuminum (cumin), the Greek karon (again, cumin), which was adapted into Latin as carum (now meaning caraway), and the Sanskrit karavi, sometimes translated as ‘caraway’” and sometimes called fennel. As if that wasn’t more than enough of an identity crisis, some think the name came from Arabic.[1]