Fenugreek

Fenugreek is an annual of the pea and bean family, Fabaceae, recognised by leaves made of three small leaflets. An old description that Northcote quotes adds white flowers followed by long, curved, pointed pods holding angular yellowish seeds; the pods are strikingly large for so small a plant, and the Greek names for it meant horned, goat's horn and cow's horn. The English name comes through French from the Latin for 'Greek hay'. The plant probably arose in the Near East and is now grown around the world as a crop of semi-arid land, with India the largest producer. Charred seeds have been found at Tell Halal in Iraq, dated to about 4000 BC, and dried ones lay in Tutankhamun's tomb; Cato listed it among the crops grown to feed cattle, and the Romans flavoured wine with it. Egyptians and others ate the seeds as a pulse, and Northcote retells Folkard's account of a festival of the Syrian king Antiochus Epiphanes at which guests were anointed with perfumes that included fenugreek. Today the cube-shaped, yellow to amber seeds are a spice of South Asian cooking, often roasted to soften their bitterness, and a compound called sotolon gives them their maple-syrup smell. Cunningham uses the seeds to draw money: a few go into the mop water, or a jar is half filled, topped up every few days until full, then emptied back onto the earth.