A is for Anise

Last year I asked you for A-Z suggestions and then I wrote about your topics. It was an interesting way to write and I appreciated both the mandate and the freedom. I am beginning this again except this time I’m picking my own A-Z subjects. 

There are so many writers doing excellent work addressing the important issues in front of us here and now. I’ll be your writer over at the side talking about random stuff that isn’t important until maybe it is. 

FYI, you can read previous A-Z topics by tapping on A-Z in the word cloud at the bottom of my website page. 

A is for Anise

Anise, in case you forgot, is the flavor of black licorice. 

In 1939 England was about to enter war with the Nazis; the British war machine was cranking up. The War Office wanted a mine that a diver could attach to the hulk of a ship and then swim safely way.  Developing this weapon started with metal mixing bowls. Then high powered magnets. More hardware. The next design challenge was to insert a delay timer between the fuse and the ship’s hull that would offer enough time for the diver to escape.

While brainstorming, the kids of one of the designers were sucking aniseed balls. Aniseed balls are small hard candies that are unchewable so one must slowly suck them till they dissolve. Yakes about an hour. They were included in soldier rations in both WWI and WWII because they used very little sweetening plus took enough time to dissolve that they helped slake thirst. 

The weapon designers used aniseed balls as timer delays for limpet mines! Even more curious, to keep the ignition part of the weapon dry until the very last moment, they covered it with a condom.

The English village of Bedford, where limpet mines were invented, was curiously devoid of weird candy and condoms during WWII. 

Read the curious story of inventing limpet mines here. https://www.warhistoryonline.com/instant-articles/creation-of-the-limpet-mine.html

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A is for anise which I’m writing about because I’ve been hankering for black licorice. These days I don’t generally procure licorice of any color; I have old teeth so highly chewy candy is risky. But I have memories.

Len and I honeymooned in Denmark. After several days with friends on their beautiful farm we drove to Copenhagen for two more days. One evening we visited Tivoli; that city’s little amusement park that’s been entertaining Danes since 1843. We were walking and gawking and there, on a little bridge over a little moat, was a peddler’s wagon from which a guy was selling black licorice. I bought some while Len made the face of people who don’t like it. I remember walking around the rest of that romantic evening, young, unwrinkled, laughing, the sharp and delicious taste of anise in my mouth. Len made a joke about not kissing me. I made a joke about not caring. We were both wrong. 

How can an old woman not love anise after a beginning like that?

Anise’s official name is Pimpinella anisum so, now you know that the one true anise is from the pimp family. It’s native to the eastern Mediterranean and southwest Asia although it will grow anywhere that’s warm, dryish, and fertile. 

Anise is a cooking flavor but it’s also a medicinal herb that’s been used for millennia. There’s an Egyptian medical book that advises to use anise for respiratory or digestive issues - and to prevent flatulence. Now you know it isn’t just you who gets a little breezy from time to time.  

There are other plants that people use for the licorice flavor we associated with anise. 

Star anise is dried unripe fruit from a Chinese or Vietnamese evergreen tree. Generally it’s what we can easily buy at a grocery store.

Fennel is closely related to anise. The ‘seeds’ we eat are actually the teeny fruits of the plants.

Actual licorice is from the root of bean plants that grow in west Asia, southern Europe, or north Africa. It contains a compound that can cause hypertension, so you shouldn’t eat a lot of licorice made from actual licorice.

Hyssop is a flowering subshrub (how cute is the word subshrub?). One cuts branches and leaves, lets them dry, a week later you have almost-anise. Recently we visited friends who live along Wisconsin’s Up North Bayfield Peninsula and who just happen to have beautiful subshrubs of hyssop in their huge garden. Yup, it smells like anise.

Anise belongs to the genre of carrots and Queen Anne’s lace. It grows from seeds that send a tap root straight down and lovely lacey loveliness straight up. Apparently the plants deter a fair amount of destructive pests, so clever gardeners plant it in and among various other stuff. Knowing more than this about anise companion gardening is above my paygrade. 

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Anise was used historically to deter intestinal parasites, address vertigo, increase milk supply in nursing mothers, and combat nausea. During the American Civil War it was used both as an antiseptic and to treat lice. We can flavor our foods and drink anise tisanes and teas to help our digestion, too. 

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What I love about anise, and all the other antique herbs and tastes is that what we love now is what humans have been loving for millennia. I have friends (Hi, MK!) who make anise-flavored Italian pizzelle cookies every Christmas. Anise after-dinner treats have been served to guests since before the time of Christ and, in fact, are the root of our tradition of wedding cakes. 

Anise is a strong flavor that reminds us that we didn’t invent ourselves. 

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Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. Matt. 23:23 

One has to read the King James Version for the ANISE version of this verse. The KJV was published in 1611 after gay King James ordered scholars to translate scriptures in a way that wouldn’t irritate the Puritans too much. Also, FYI, King James said he wasn’t gay but no one then and very few now believed him. Anyways, we’re simply mentioning that they used to call the frilly herb anise and now they call it dill and that’s nuts. The two are related in outward appearance but they taste nothing like each other!

The part about hypocrites who insist faith is about obeying arcane rules – while they don’t uphold the law or offer mercy - I will leave that for the evening news.