Coriander Coriandrum sativum
The seed is citrusy and nothing like the leaf. Toast whole in a dry pan until it smells of orange peel, then grind.
Ingredient reference image: AI-generated. Recipe photography is my own.
In the kitchen
Toast and crush, do not powder
A minute in a dry pan, then crack it coarsely in a mortar. Coriander is unusual in that a coarse crush is often better than a fine grind — you get pockets of citrus rather than an even dusting.
It is the balancer
In almost every blend that pairs them, coriander is there to round off cumin's earthiness and chili's heat. Cutting the coriander to save time is why home curry powder blends often taste harsh.
The husk is edible
Unlike many seeds, the whole thing goes in — papery husk included — and it contributes the lighter citrus notes. There is no need to sieve after crushing.
Beyond the kitchen
TUTANKHAMUN'S TOMB
Coriander seeds were found in Tutankhamun's tomb and at other Egyptian sites. The plant does not grow wild in Egypt, which means it was deliberately cultivated there more than three thousand years ago.
GIN
After juniper, coriander seed is the most common botanical in gin and is present in the overwhelming majority of London dry gins, where it supplies the citrus and spice behind the juniper.
WITBIER
Belgian witbier is traditionally brewed with coriander seed and bitter orange peel, a practice dating to the era before hops dominated brewing and preserved in styles such as Hoegaarden.
A LINEAR B WORD
Coriander appears in Mycenaean Greek written in Linear B, making it one of a small number of plants whose names survive from Bronze Age European records. Its name has been traceable for well over three thousand years.
A longer history
Coriandrum sativum is native to the eastern Mediterranean and south-western Asia and is among the very oldest documented cultivated plants. Seeds have been recovered from Neolithic levels in Israel, from Bronze Age Greek contexts, and from Egyptian tombs including Tutankhamun's — a significant detail, because the plant is not native to Egypt and so must have been farmed there deliberately.
It is named in Linear B tablets, in the Hebrew Bible, in Sanskrit texts and throughout classical writing. Roman cooking used it constantly — Apicius calls for it repeatedly — and Roman cultivation spread it across Europe as far as Britain, where it is one of a handful of culinary plants with continuous evidence of use from the Roman period onward.
The plant's dual identity is its most unusual feature. Latin American, South Asian, Southeast Asian and Levantine cooking use the leaf heavily; Indian, North African and European cooking use the seed; and the two rarely appear together outside South Asia. Modern industrial use is heavily weighted toward the seed, much of it going into gin, beer and processed meat rather than into home kitchens.