Orris root ✦

Iris de Florence

What it is

The violet smell does not exist in the living plant: the rhizome is lifted after three years in the ground, then dried three to five years more while enzymes slowly build the irones that carry it. Moroccan spice merchants grind a pinch into the most elaborate ras el hanout, where it fixes the other forty spices rather than adding a flavour of its own.

In the kitchen

Dose it as a fixative, not a spice: a quarter teaspoon of powder per litre of cream infusion is already the limit, and past that it turns soapy and drying. Steep it off the heat with the pot covered, since real heat drives the irones off.

Goes with

Damask rose petals Cardamom Grains of paradise Honey Almond Lamb

Something wrong here, or missing? Tell us