Caraway (Carum carvi L.)

Fruits, usually but in­correctly called cara­way seeds

Apiaceae (parsley family).

Strongly aromatic and warm. For an overview about the flavours of several spices from the parsley family, see cicely.

Of some common herbs, caraway-scented varieties or cultivars are available in specialized plant nurseries; examples include mint and thyme. None of these plants, however, reaches caraway in its culinary importance.

Flowering caraway plants

Caraway umbel

Caraway fruits may contain 3% to 7% essential oil. The aroma of the oil is mostly dominated by carvone (50 to 85%) and limonene (20 to 30%); the other components carveol, dihydro­carveol, α- and β-pinene, sabinene and perillyl alcohol are of much minor importance.

Central Europe to Asia; it is not clear, however, whether caraway is truly indigenous to Europe. Today, it is chiefly cultivated in Finland, the Netherlands, Eastern Europe and Germany, furthermore North Africa, particularly Egypt.

The German term for caraway, Kümmel, derives from Latin cuminum for cumin and was misapplied to the plant popular in Germany. Latin cuminum leads, via Greek kyminon [κύμινον], further back to Semitic forms, e. g., Old Hebrew kammon [כמן].

Some names for caraway in tongues of Europe, especially Northern Europe (where caraway is particularly popular), also relate to Latin cuminum, e. g., Danish kommen, Latvian ķimenes, Estonian köömen, Polish kminek and Bulgarian kim [ким]. Some of these names were transmitted via the German name.

Similarly to Latin cuminum, Greek karon [κάρον] means cumin, not caraway. Its origin is not clear; it derives maybe from the name of a region in Asia Minor (Caria), but may well be a variant of Greek kyminon cumin or belong to the kin of coriander. The word was transferred to Latin as carum with the changed meaning caraway and thus gave rise to number of modern names of caraway, e. g., French carvi, Italian caro, Greek karvi [καρβί] and Norwegian karve.

The English term caraway also belongs to that series: It was probably mediated by Arabic (modern form al-karawya [الكراويا]) from Latin carum. Cf. the Iberic names Portuguese alcaravia and Spanish alcaravea and see also capers on the derivation of the prefix al-, which relates to the Arabic article.

Caraway plant in flower

Ripening caraway fruits

Caraway is a spice mostly loved in Northern, Central and Eastern Europe; languages of other regions often lack a specific name for caraway, but use the name of cumin instead, often with a geo­graphic epithet referring to Germany: Turkish frenk kimyonu Frankish cumin, Italian cumino tedesco (Finnish saksan­kumina) German cumin or Hindi vilayati jeera [विलायती जीरा] foreign cumin. Hebrew has taken another course by backloaning the German Kümmel via Yiddish as kimmel [קימל], while the original Semitic word for cumin is preserved as kamoon [כמון].

The French name of caraway is carvi, but is little used; frequently, caraway is termed cumin de prés meadow cumin, especially in the North, where is grows wild abundantly. Some French texts even speak of cumin, which in most cases equals English cumin, when caraway is meant — here the reader is challenged to supply the correct context.

Care is also required concerning the Sanskrit name karavi [कारवी], reported to mean caraway by some sources (and suspiciously similar to some European names of caraway); yet other sources translate that word with cumin, dill, fennel, asafetida or even nigella!

The card game Three Card Monte (also known as Find the Lady) is in German named Kümmelblättchen (literally caraway leaflet, where leaf is taken to mean card); yet this has nothing to do with caraway. Instead, the name derives from the third letter of the Hebrew alphabet, (gimel, ג), in reference to the three cards used for that game (which is more often a fraud to scam those not familiar with it). Hebrew gimel is related to gamma and perhaps also camel.

Indian Spices: Caraway (indianetzone.com) Ilkas und Ullis Kochecke: Kümmel (rezkonv.de via archive.org) A Pinch of Caraway Seeds (www.apinchof.com) Nature One Health: Caraway Pflanzen des Capitulare de Villis: Kümmel (biozac.de) Saskatchewan Herb and Spice Association: Caraway Die ultimative Kümmel-Seite Transport Information Service: Caraway Rezept: Wiener Kartoffelgulasch (ichkoche.at) Rezept: Österreischisches Rindsgulasch (ichkoche.at)