Anise is an herb that has been associated with celebrations and feasts. Some of the first uses of anise was in cake that was eaten after feasts to aid in indigestion. In Biblical times it was valued so highly that it was accepted for the payment of taxes.
Anise, the liquorice-tasting spice, was cultivated by the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans. In Roman times anise was grown in for culinary and digestive purposes. Because the seeds contain a volatile oil that aids the digestion of rich foods, they were an important ingredient of a spiced cake called "Mustaceum". This dessert was prepared and eaten by the Romans after huge feasts.
Anise was suppose to weild power against evils, Pliny recorded its use as a sedative. You were to hang anise over your bed or put it under you pillow and it kept nightmares away. If you went to bed with anise under your pillow you awoke to a sunny day looking years younger. That is for me I am going to bed with anise tonight.
To make anise tea, which some authors suggest is useful for indigestion, gently crush about 1½ teaspoons of anise seed, then pour one cup of boiling water over the anise, cover for five minutes, then drink. One author notes that for flatulence the tea would be drunk slowly just before a meal. Weddings, being a place where big feasts were as important in ancient Rome as they are now, became the place that the Roman after-dinner cake mustacea simply had to be served. This seems to be where our custom of serving a wedding cake comes from. It is probably through the Roman use of anise in these early wedding cakes, that anise came to be thought of as an herb of love and fertility.
Pimpinella anisum is an annual herb related to the carrot and in the parsley family (Apiaceae, or Umbelliferae), which reaches a height of about 2 feet. Leaves are twice pinnate, looking similar to parsley. Flowers and seeds are produced in large, loose clusters. Flowers are small, yellowish-white. Seeds are oblong, about 0.16 inch long and curved, the flavor of which resembles that of licorice.
Anise seed has a sweet, licorice-like flavor and produces a plant that grows to a height of about three feet. At harvest, the seeds are a light greenish gray color, crescent shaped, and about one-fifth of an inch long. Though the anise seed has the licorice flavor, it is not related to the European plant whose roots are the source of true licorice. The Star Anise (Illicium anisatum) or (Illicium verum) has properties very similar to Anise and the two are virtually interchangeable. About the author Judi Singleton is the webmistress of Jassmine.com She owns six ezines go to http://www.jassmine.com/home.html and join all her ezines now.
