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THE CHEF ENCYCLOPEDIA:
Culinary Herb & Spice Reference Guide
Asafoetida
[also Asafetida, Devil's Dung, or Food of the Gods]
(Ferula assafoetida)
Family: Umbelliferae
Native to and grown chiefly in Iran, Turkestan and Afghanistan from
where it is exported to the rest of the world. In India, Asafoetida
is cultivated in Kashmir, where it has been used in Indian medicine
and cookery for ages. Asafoetida is a hard resinous gum, grayish-white
when fresh. It darkens with age to yellow, red and eventually brown.
The gummy dried juice of four-year roots is the spice. Only the roots
of plants that have not been allowed to flower are used. It is sold
both in blocks or pieces as a gum and more frequently as a fine yellow
powder, sometimes crystalline or granulated. Asafoetida on its own is
extremely unpleasant, with a pungent smell of rotting garlic, onions
or sulfur. It is foul-smelling in raw or dried form but absolutely sublime
in Persian and Indian cooking. The smell dissipates with cooking, when
it adds an onion-like flavor. A member of the carrot family.
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