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Comment by jchrisa | Hacker News Reader

Any luck reviving this? Seems like it'd be worth doing if it is possible.

If it is like asafoetida ("devil's dung"), as mentioned on the linked page, I'm out. The only spice I know that can manage to seep out of a closed container in a spice drawer and infest the rest of your spices.

Given the roman taste for garum [0](also notably pungent), I'd have to guess that the similarity is real.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garum

asafoetida is a standard item in most Indian cooking if you have eaten dal you have had asafoetida

Yes I know. I have bought it and used it in cooking. Takes a pretty light touch to not offend many (most?) western palates. Very easy to overdose, but I have loved it in my Indian friend's home cooked food.

Huh. We usually joke that hing (the Hindi name) is like bay leaves - mostly there for tradition but largely tasteless. I couldn't tell you what it tastes like and use the traditional "big pinch" of hing in most of my cooking.

Bay leaves are exquisite with a totally unique fragrance and strong flavor. Tasteless would be the last word that I would use to describe it. Must be used dried and in small amounts.

Bay leaves definitely have a flavor. Adding more than you need can really unbalance a dish.

If you want to learn what they taste like by themselves, you could make a cup of tea by steeping a few dried leaves in boiling water.

The one memory from a short trip to Jamaica years ago is fresh Bay leaves. They're amazing.

Has anyone here tired any culinary experiments with the California Bay leaves that are pervasive in much of California?

Interesting. I agree on the ineffable quality of bay leaves, but asafoetida is exactly on the opposite end of the spectrum. It has a very strong pungent smell and taste. But it does come diluted with gluten (wheat) so maybe your particular brand has more gluten than usual?

Also it's probably worth pointing out that the bay leaves used in Indian cooking is different from bay leaves used in Western cooking, so beware. Indian bay leaves have three veins coming from the central vein on them.

Interesting, mine is specifically gluten free, celiac household.

And that's fascinating, I had no idea! Time to check on the spice packet from my grandmother and compare to the store bought stuff. Thanks!

I haven't heard it put that way about taj, but I can see how compared to so many other comparatively distinct flavors that it doesn't appear to contribute much.

And hing is like the MSG of flavors. You can't put your finger on why exactly, but it makes everything taste better.

Lots of cultures have fish sauce. Its really not that weird. Worcestershire is a fish sauce.

I keep my jar in two zip-lock bags, in the freezer.

it may even be still existing, i.e. it got to the brink of extinction and then by the time it recovered we had already lost the knowledge of it.

There is a ton of wild plants or animals that you can eat and probably normally don't (dandelion, wild fennel, portulaca, nettles, jellyfish etc), I wouldn't focus too much on one that may be extinct.

Taste changed a lot over the centuries, and I wouldn't bet that something highly prized in ancient Rome would still be as appreciated today.

Indeed, Roman banquet food could be flat out crazy by modern standards: sows udders, fried dormice, peacock tongues,...

https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2019/05/20/712772285/th...

Oblig. Monty Python reference: https://youtu.be/H5ofIBw3uMM

Ah, I feel I have to point out that dormouse was still eaten until recent times (i.e. decades ago) in Italy/Slovenia/Croatia.

They are now a protected species, but I would expect they are still eaten from time to time to this day.

Just use Turmeric :)

Asafoetida is probably the closest substitute, as it's made from the same plant genus that silphium belonged to.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asafoetida

Turmeric is purported to have all of the qualities attributed to Silphium where as Asafoetida does not.

"[A]safoetida, was used as a cheaper substitute for silphium [by the Romans], and had similar enough qualities that Romans, including the geographer Strabo, used the same word to describe both." -- the article

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