Welcome to the summary page for FabulousFusionFood's Spice guide to Asafoetida along with all the Asafoetida containing recipes presented on this site, with 149 recipes in total.

This is a continuation of an entire series of pages that will, I hope, allow my visitors to better navigate this site. As well as displaying recipes by name, country and region of origin I am now planning a whole series of pages where recipes can be located by meal type and main ingredient. This page gives a listing of all the spice-based recipes added to this site.

These recipes, all contain Asafoetida as a major flavouring.

Asafoetida (also known as Asafetida, Stinking Gum, Devil's Dung, Hing) Ferula assafoetida is a member of the Apiaceae family that also includes carrots, parsley, cumin, caraway and fennel. It is a herbaceous perennial plant growing to 2 m tall, with stout, hollow, somewhat succulent stems 5–8 cm diameter at the base of the plant. The leaves are 30–40 cm long usually finely-divided. The flowers are yellow, produced in large compound umbels. The spice asafoetida is actually the resin-like gum which comes from the dried sap extracted from the stem and roots. This is greyish-white when fresh, but dries to a dark amber colour (see left-hand image). Pure asafoetida resin is very hard and difficult to grate. As a result it is traditionally crushed between stones or with a hammer. Today, the most commonly available form is compounded asafoetida, a fine powder containing 30% asafoetida resin, along with rice flour and gum arabic.

The spice has a very strong odour which can be nauseating in large quantities and if not kept in an air-tight container will actually contaminate any nearby spices. Once cooked, however, the smell diminishes and asafoetida develops an oniony taste. The spice's name is derived from the Persian asa (resin) and the Latin foetida (a reference to its strong smell).

In Roman times there was a plant known as Silphium (also silphion and laser). It is generally considered to be a form of 'giant fennel' (Ferula tingaitana) that became extinct in North Africa due to over-harvesting (and was imported instead from Syria, Iraq and Iran) and formed the crux of trade from Cyrene (Libya) to the Roman Empire. The valuable product was the resin (laser, laserpicium, or lasarpicium) of the plant. It was harvested in a manner similar to asafoetida, a plant with similar enough qualities to silphium that Romans, including the geographer Strabo, used the same word to describe both. Silphium became extinct in North Africa during the first century CE, probably due to a combination of over-collection and over-grazing (but has returned in modern times). The Romans substituted asafoetida, though the taste was deemed 'not as good'. The Romans used to make their asafoetida 'everlasting' by mixing the spice with pine nuts so that the pine nuts absorbed the flavour of the spice. These were then ground and used as a seasoning.

Though not used much in European cookery these days, it is an important spice in Indian cookery, where it is known as 'hing' where it is used almost ubiquitously in bean and pulse dishes (particularly in South India). Typically the resin, rather than the dried powder is used and this is first fried in hot fat or oil before use. This both helps dissolve the resin and mellows the flavour, yielding an oniony note.

Asafoetida-infused oil is excellent in enhancing the flavour of mushroom and vegetable dishes. It can also be added to marinades intended for grilled or barbecued meat and yields and interesting and unique flavour.

Dried asafetida consists mostly of a resin (25 to 60% of the total mass, 60% of which are esters of ferula acid) and a complex carbohydrate part (25 to 30%). The essential oil (10%) contains a wealth of sulfur compounds, mainly (R)-2-butyl-1-propenyl disulphide (50%), 1-(1-methylthiopropyl) 1-propenyl disulphide and 2-butyl-3-methylthioallyl disulphide. Furthermore, di-2-butyl trisulphide, 2-butyl methyl trisulphide, di-2-butyl disulphide and even di-2-butyl tetrasulphide have been found.

Various species of genus Ferula grow wild from the Eastern Medi­terranean to Central Asia. Most important as spice is F. assa-foetida, although one reads occasionally about other species (F. persica, F. alliacea, F. foetida and F. narthex) as inferior substitutes or adulterations. All these species are native to Central Asia (Iran to Afghanistan) and are, to my knowledge, not cultivated anywhere else.

The unpleasant smell of raw asafoetida has resulted in the common epithet of 'devil's dung' for the spice.