Also known as sweet anise, Fennel is an early spring vegetable in the carrot family native to the Mediterranean region. You can use the entire plant for its aromatic, black licorice-like flavor profile. A common ingredient in Italian and French cooking, fennel has a licorice scent that pairs well with seafood and pork.
What fennel smells like?
Close your eyes and think of aniseed… Or maybe tarragon… Licorice, even… The herb fennel can be used to add a herbaceous, soft, aromatic spiciness to fragrances.
How would you describe the taste of fennel?
Fennel has a very mild anise or licorice flavor that can be enhanced or sweetened depending on how it is cooked (or not cooked). When diced and sauteed with onions as one of the first steps when making a soup or stew, fennel becomes very sweet.
Does fennel have a smell?
Fennel has a definite licorice scent but no purple spots on the stalks; poison hemlock does not smell of licorice and does have purple blotches.
Does fennel taste like licorice to everyone?
What Does Fennel Taste Like? “Anise-flavored” is the term used most often to describe fennel’s flavor—but that doesn’t mean it tastes like a licorice stick! In fact, fresh fennel’s anise factor is delicate and mild; many self-proclaimed licorice-haters find that they actually like it.
What foods go well with fennel?
Apples, beetroot, Brussels sprouts, celeriac, corn, cucumber, garlic, grape, grapefruit, green bean, guava, kohlrabi, lemon, mushroom, olive, orange, peach, pear, pomegranate, potatoes, tomatoes, watercress, watermelon. Dill, elderflower, thyme, chickpea, cumin, chervil. Chicken, fish, mussels, sausage.
Does fennel taste like onion?
The fennel plant sort of resembles onions and other bulbs, but the taste is much closer to anise or licorice. Fennel tastes “anise-like” and is often described as a less intense licorice taste. After you cook a fennel bulb, it becomes even more mild.
Does fennel taste like sausage?
Fennel gives sausage an anise-like flavor, that some liken to a mild version of black licorice.
What is fennel used for?
Fennel has been used to flavor candies, liqueurs, medicines, and food, and it is especially favored for pastries, sweet pickles, and fish. The oil can be used to protect stored fruits and vegetables against growth of toxic fungi. Beekeepers have grown it as a honey plant.
What is fennel good for?
Adding them to your diet may improve heart health, reduce inflammation, suppress appetite, and even provide anticancer effects. To reap the benefits of fennel and its seeds, try incorporating raw fennel bulb into your salads or using the seeds to flavor soups, broths, baked goods, and fish dishes.
What is another name for fennel?
Fresh fennel, also known as Sweet Anise, Finnochio, Florentine Fennel, and Florence Fennel is an aromatic vegetable, garnish, and flavoring.
Does fennel make you smell good?
9 Fennel Seeds
That’s because chewing fennel seeds keep your bad breath at bay. Chewing these seeds increases the saliva which washes away bacteria from your mouth and neutralizes offensive odors and aids digestion. Also, fennel oils have antibacterial properties that fight germs that cause bad breath.
Is fennel related to celery?
Fennel is related to parsley, dill, celery, celeriac and carrots. Dill and Fennel can even cross-pollinate, if they are planted too closely together.
Does fennel raise blood pressure?
Blood pressure
Dietary nitrates in fennel and other foods have vasodilatory and vasoprotective properties. Because of this, they can help lower blood pressure and protect the heart.
Is anise the same as fennel?
Particular flavor: Fennel and anise share the black licorice flavor of anethole, but they do have slightly different profiles. Fennel seeds are less sweet than anise, with a milder flavor; anise seeds have a much sweeter, more powerful black licorice flavor.
Can you eat fennel raw?
The fennel bulb is enjoyed raw, where its anise flavor is most pronounced, and cooked for a sweeter, mellower version of itself. But don’t pitch the rest! The entire fennel plant is not only edible but delicious.
Which meat goes with fennel?
Cooks love pairing fennel with pork, chicken, and sausage, and the more daring will even add it to lamb dishes. The herb in all of its forms is also a popular choice for almost every type of fish, including shellfish.
What seasoning goes with fennel?
“I really like raw fennel in salads, but I also enjoy it braised in a very aromatic vegetable stock of onions, celery, coriander seed, star anise, thyme, and bay leaves with olive oil and sliced lemon, paired with a branzino or orata.”
What part of fennel do you eat?
Technically speaking, all parts of the plant are edible, but most people will find the stalks too tough and fibrous to eat. The leaves can be chopped and used to flavor salads, dressings, marinades and sauces. They tend to have a slightly more citrusy flavor than the base. The base (or bulb) is delicious raw or cooked.
Is fennel a herb or spice?
Fennel is a perennial herb belonging to the carrot family – which also includes coriander, cumin, and dill. The word fennel traces its roots to the Latin word feniculum, the diminutive of fenum, meaning “hay” – thought to be a description of the seed’s aroma.
Why does fennel taste like licorice?
Fennel tastes like black licorice because of the fact that they both share very similar chemical structures. In particular, there is one compound that both fennel and black licorice have that is identical. This is the compound called anethole and it is what gives these products their recognizable flavor profile.