Welcome to the summary page for FabulousFusionFood's Spice guide to Carob along with all the Carob containing recipes presented on this site, with 3 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 Cornish recipes added to this site.

These recipes, all contain as a major flavouring.

The Carob tree Ceratonia siliqua (also known as St John's Beard) is an evergreen tree, Ceratonia siliqua, a member of the Fabaceae (legume) family, which is native to the Mediterranean and is cultivated for its edible seed pods. The flesh of these pods tastes somewhat similar to sweetened cocoa, but contains no theobromine or other psychoactive substances and is often used as a hypoallergenic, drug-free substitute. The tree itself grows up to 10 m high, bearing a crown that's broad and semi-spherical, supported by a thick trunk, brown rough bark and sturdy branches. Leaves are 10–20 cm long, alternate, pinnate, and may or may not have a terminal leaflet. The flowers are a green-tinted red, small, numerous, and about 6–12 mm long. They are spirally arranged along the inflorescence axis in catkin-like racemes borne on spurs from old wood and even on the trunk (cauliflory). The fruit is a pod which can be elongated, compressed, straight or curved, and thickened at the sutures. Carob is a member of the legume family, and as such its roots host bacteria which convert atmospheric nitrogen into nitrates which can be used by plants to make proteins.

Though no longer a staple food in the Mediterranean, carob pods were the most important source of sugar before sugarcane and sugar beets became widely available. The name itself derives from the Greek keras (horn) and Latin siliqua (alluding to the hardness and shape of the pod). It is this tree that gives us the measurement 'carat' due to the ancient practice of weighing diamonds against the seeds of the carob tree to determine their weight. The system was eventually standardised, with a carat defined as 0.2g.

The use of carob as a sweetener is truly ancient and carob was both eaten and used as a sweetener in Ancient Egypt, where the pod was actually used as the hieroglyphic symbol for 'sweet' (nedjem). In Cyprus, a syrup is still made from carob pods (known colloquially as Cyprus' black gold) and this is widely exported. A similar syrup (ġulepp tal-ħarrub) is also made in Malta. Carob juice or fruit drinks are traditionally consumed during the Islamic moth of Ramadan.

The most common use of carob today is to use the dry, powdered form of the pod mixed with saturated fats like butter fat or palm oil, to make a sweet confection, considered chocolate-like by some, that is usually referred to simply as 'carob'.