Welcome to the summary page for FabulousFusionFood's Spice guide to Cassia along with all the Cassia containing recipes presented on this site, with 198 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 Cassia as a major flavouring.

Celery seeds are the fruit of the Celery plant, Apium graveolens, a herbaceous biennial plant in the family Apiaceae (Umbellifarae) a huge family that contains carrots, cumin, caraway and fennel. It is native to the coasts of southern and western Europe and in the wild it is most commonly found in ditches and saltmarshes. It grows to 1 m tall, with pinnate to bipinnate leaves with rhombic leaflets 3–6 cm long and 2–4 cm broad. The flowers are creamy-white, 2–3 mm in diameter that are produced in dense compound umbels. The name Celery derives from the Greek selinon (parsley) via the Latin sedano.

Today, celery is most typically used as a vegetable but celery seed is used as a spice. They add greatly to the flavour of potatoes and are especially potato salad. The seeds can also be used in salad dressings, sauces and gravies. However, celery seeds do have a strong celery-like flavour (and a slightly bitter aftertaste) and should be used sparingly so as not to overwhelm a dish.

Celery has been cultivated in Europe (particularly the Mediterranean) for at least 3000 years. Romans were particularly fond of this spice (it appears frequently in the Apician cookbook). Though the Romans probably used the fruit of wild celery (they used alexanders where we would use celery today) which is much more bitter than modern celery seeds.

The flowers are creamy-white, 2-3 mm in diameter that are produced in dense compound umbels. The name Celery derives from the Greek selinon (parsley). Celery is used as a vegetable but celery seed is used as a spice. They add great flavour to potatoes, especially potato salad. The seeds can also be used in salad dressings, sauces and gravies. However, celery seeds do have a strong celery-like flavour and should be used sparingly so as not to overwhelm a dish.

Celery has been used since ancient times, and it is recorded in Roman literature. However, compared to their ancient antecedents, modern celery cultivars have been bred to significantly reduce their bitter constituents.

Celery oil is domi­nated by terpenes, mostly limonene (70 to 80%) and the sesqui­terpenes β‑selinene (10%) and humulene; but its charac­teristic fra­grance is caused by phthalides (3‑butyl­phthalid and its 5,6‑dihydro derivate sedanen­olid), al­though the latter occur only in traces. Celery also contains the furano‑cou­marin berg­aptene which is a potent photo­sensitizer and may cause photo-dermatitis (skin irri­tation on light exposure) in susceptible individuals.

It should be noted that in most commercial packages, what is sold as 'celery seed' is actually lovage seed, as lovage has a stronger aroma and taste and keeps its flavour for a greater time, meaning it has a longer shelf-life.