Lebanese Cake Spice: The Secret to Falling in Love with Anise

For many years I simply could not wrap my taste buds around the flavor of anise. As a child I thought it was the Limburger of spices, evil twin of black licorice (a jelly bean buzzkill on Easter). Anise tastes sweet on its own so it would stand to reason that a child should be partial to the flavor. Add the slightly numbing and cooling effects of anise and everything becomes clear; to a kid (and some adults) anise tastes like medicine.

Anise, star anise, black licorice, and fennel have a single flavor molecule in common; anethole. Unlike the gentle warmth of cinnamaldehyde (found in cinnamon) anethole asserts itself like the embrace of an overly perfumed grand dame whose scent haunts your nostrils long after she's hugged the oxygen out of you. When anethole meets taste buds it has a tendency to linger which is why fennel and anise are great breath fresheners; chewed on their own or imbibed in a liqueur (the digestif powers of anise-flavored Arak are renown in the Middle East).

No matter how much you may dislike anise the spice is terrific if it is part of a blend used in conjunction with citrus zest and vanilla. The distinctive perfume of an Italian bakery includes anise along with a mélange of vanilla, lemon, orange and almonds. How did the Italians get sweet on anise? Food history points a delicious finger at the Moors who had an undisputed influence on the cuisine of Sicily.

Ka'ak is a classic Middle Eastern cake spice used to flavor a variety of pastry (most notable Ka'ak il Eid or Ka'ak El Abbas). Hashems Nuts and Coffee Gallery in Dearborn, Michigan sells a proprietary Ka'ak spice blend that was formulated by the owners' 90-year-old grandmother. When asked about the history of the spice blends co-owner Wassam Hashem says, "All the spice blends that we sell in the shop come from my grandmother's recipes. She got them from her mom and her mom got them from her mother which makes our spice recipes easily over 100 years old. We never change our recipes and prefer to keep them as authentic and traditional as we can."

Though Wassam won't disclose all the ingredients in Hashems Ka'ak Spice Blend (it's a family secret) the website shares the main constituents: anise, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, mahlab, sesame seeds and black caraway seed. Glass Petal Smoke's recipe for Lebanese Cake Spice Cookies is a riff on the American icebox cookie with a twist. Expect your house to smell like a bakery when these cookies are in the oven. Don't expect the cookies to last long; they have a tendency to disappear.

Lebanese Cake Spice Cookies
Recipe by Michelle Krell Kydd
Yield: 60 cookies

Ingredients:

1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour (sifted)

¼ teaspoon sea salt

1 ½ teaspoons aluminum-free baking powder

4 ounces (one stick) unsalted butter (softened at room temperature)

1 tablespoon Mexican vanilla extract

¾ cup organic granulated sugar

1 organic egg (room temperature)

2 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon Hashems Ka’ak Spice Blend

Grated zest of one large organic lemon

Directions:

·      Cut a 20 inch piece of wax paper and set aside. This will be used to chill the cookie dough.

·      Sift flour, salt, baking powder and Ka’ak spice in a large bowl. Set aside

·      In a small bowl grate lemon peel using a zester.

·      Add egg to the zest and incorporate.

·      Blend vanilla extract into the egg and zest mixture.

·      In another small glass bowl microwave the butter for 15 seconds (or enough time to liquefy without heating it).

·      Add sugar to butter and incorporate.

·      Mix butter mixture with the egg mixture.

·      Add liquid ingredients to dry ingredients, stirring gently with a silicone spatula.

·      Mix the dough thoroughly with your hands. It will have a soft consistency.

·      Using a tablespoon, spoon out dough onto the middle third of a sheet of wax paper and form a 12 inch oblong roll. The dough should be one inch thick and 2 ½ inches wide.

·      Fold the bottom third of the wax paper over the dough, taking care to keep the shape of the dough to the specified measurements. Use your hands to smooth the paper over the dough.

·      Fold the top third of the wax paper over the dough and seal the dough at the ends.

·      Put the wax paper covered dough in the freezer for 1 ½ to 2 hours (or until it is firm). It should be chilled so you can slice through it (not rock hard).

·      Divide oven rack into thirds.

·      Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

·      Line two cookie trays with parchment paper.

·      Unwrap the dough on a cutting board. Using a sharp knife cut ¼ inch slices of dough and place cookies 1 inch apart on each cookie sheet.

·      Bake for 8-10 minutes, reversing trays from top to bottom and front and back to ensure even baking.

·      These cookies will be a light golden color when they are done. The edges will be a soft nutty brown.

·      Allow cookies to cool. Transfer to a wire cooling rack when they are no longer hot.

·      Store in an airtight container.

Notes:
Hashems sells their spices online. Glass Petal Smoke highly recommends Hashems coffee. They will be happy to grind it with cardamom for you. Hashems also sells green coffee beans with which you can make Saudi-style coffee.

In Arabic the word ka'ak means cake, but can refer to other types of pastry. Cake spice blends vary by culture and tradition. Jordanian "Sweet Spice" contains a blend of fennel and anise to support warm spices like cinnamon (this blend is available at the Super Green Land Market in Dearborn, Michigan). Penzys Chinese Five Spice Powder, Apple Pie Spice, Pumpkin Pie Spice and Cake Spice are also terrific examples of cake spice blends.

To learn more about the cuisine of Lebanon read Saha: A Chef's Journey through Lebanon and Syria by Greg Malouf and Lucy Malouf.  It is one of the most beautiful and informative books of its kind.

Image Credits:
Hashems Nuts and Coffee Gallery, which opened in Lebanon in 1959, is still serving customers in the southern village of Bint Jbeil. The photo accompanying this story is of Wassam's father (holding the Oud) and his brother Ahmad (holding the tambourine). Ahmad and Wassam run the the family's store in Dearborn, Michigan. Copyright owned by Hashems. Used with permission.

Inside the Olfactory Mind of a Boy Named Julian

I met Julian when I was presenting the second in a series of Smell and Tell workshops at the Ann Arbor District Library in October. He was the only child in a classroom filled with adults, but a child with a mind on fire, especially when it came to olfaction.

Smell is the invisible sense, but Julian's mind is a prism through which the invisible becomes manifest, so olfactory curriculum suits him well (at 11 years of age he is a self proclaimed foodie). Julian has a unique form of color synesthesia and is comfortable with his enriched perspective, something many synesthetes his age are not.

The tween years (11-13) are quite interesting when it comes to the way children relate to their sense of smell. Children ages 8-10 are in the imprinting stage; developing an olfactory palette of memories they will carry with them for life. Tweens are at a stage in life when they begin to self-reflect. They weigh what they are told against what the world presents to their senses. This is evident in Julian's responses, which are highly evolved for a young man his age.

Olfactory curriculum empowers children, allowing them to authenticate and validate their feelings and assessments of an aroma, banishing the inner critic (something we socialize in curriculum focused on getting the best grade or being “right” or “wrong”). This nurtures confidence and imagination; two key ingredients that enrich self expression.
          

1.  What does your sense of smell mean to you?

Scent means life, death and all in-between.  And difference and color. And that’s it. Survival.  Eating. On a scale of 1 to 10: 11.

2.  What are some of your strongest scent memories?

• My mom wore the same perfume for 22 years, especially when I was a baby.  She said it was called “Samsara”. You can’t really buy it any more.* 
• Tomato sauce is home and happiness. 
• I love the smell of oregano.

3.  What are some of your favorite smells (things in nature, cooking &/or your environment)?

• Chlorine smell at a pool makes me excited and deep green.
• Our upstairs carpet is safety.  Raking leaf smell makes me happy. Autumn.
• Moss smell on a tree makes me peaceful.
• I like the smell of a new pack of fresh trading cards.
• I like the smell of my Papa’s skin. It is like fresh-baked bread.
• I like the smell of my Mom’s lotion. She says it is Velvet Tuberose from Bath & Body Works. I like the one called Twilight Woods that she also puts on too.

4.  Do you have any favorite smells that are considered strange?

• I like the smell of a clean diaper the first time it comes out of a package.
• I like the smell of a fresh, unused, clean sponge. Also the smell of laundry detergent.
• I love smelling wood. I love the scent of burnt marshmallows.
• I like the smell of gasoline. I know it’s bad for me.

5.  Describe one or more of your favorite cooking smells.

• Fresh, mozzarella cheese.

6.  What smells do you most dislike?

• Flatulence (the polite word for this).
• Rotting food.
• Rubbing alcohol. Clorox wipes.
• Wet bathing-suit smell.
• I hate the smell of raw or cooked fish, but I like the smell of the ocean.
• I hate the smell of Sharpie markers. They are dark purple.

7.  What smell did you first dislike, but learned to love?

• Steamed vegetables like cauliflower.

8.  What mundane smells inspire you?

• Musty basement smell.
• Tree bark.

9.  What scent never fails to take you back in time and why?

• Baby shampoo smell makes me have bath memory of when I was little.

10.  What scents do you associate with memories of loved ones?

• Laundry soap or fabric softener with Grandma.
• Campfire smoke reminds me of Papa.

11.  What fragrance(s) remind you of growing up?

• Cardboard boxes.

12.  What fragrance(s) remind you of the places you visited on vacation?

• Sand. Ocean-smell.

13.  Describe a piece of sensory literature that is very magical for you.

• Eragon because it was so descriptive.

Notes:
Glass Petal Smoke would like to thank Julian's parents for allowing him to take the Sensory Questionnaire and sit in as a student in the Sacred Scents and Aphrodisiacs "Smell and Tell" workshop. 

Children and adults benefit marvelously from multimodal curriculum designed to accommodate different perceptual learning styles. There are seven types of modalities. The learning styles are characterized as: print, aural, haptic, interactive, kinesthetic, olfactory and visual. 

Julian's type of synesthesia is emotionally mediated which is different from grapheme color synesthesia (feeling numbers, letters, and physical things as colors versus seeing numbers/letters as colors). You can learn about it here: Ward, Jamie (2004). Emotionally Mediated Synesthesia, Cognitive Neuropsychology, 2004, 21 (7), 761–772.

A list of famous people with synesthesia can be found on Wikipedia.

I Have Synesthesia: I'm Not a Freak,  I'm a Synesthete is the gathering place for people with synesthesia on Facebook. The link provided works when you log into the site.

Some synesthetes have interesting jobs. Jaime Smith is a sommelier with synesthesia. P.S. He associates color with smell

Samsara by Guerlain has undergone several reformulations due to over-harvesting of Mysore Sandalwood as well as IFRA regulation. Bois de Jasmin elaborates on the vintage and current formulations here. 

If you want to understand the power of the sense of smell read A Natural History of the Senses by Diane Ackerman.  

Images:
Reslicitando by Remedios Varo; painter extraordinaire.

The Stargazy pie (the fish head graphic) featured in the photo collage of Julian's not so favorite smells comes from a hilarious book called Yuck: Disgusting Things People Eat. Copyright owner is Neil Setchfield. P.S. Setchfield ate the pie and all the other yucky things he photographed for the book.

Image of steamed cauliflower and potatoes from The Scrumptious Pumpkin. Jen's righteous cauliflower recipes defy cruciferous funk. Rights revert back to the author.

Amazon toy robot, inspired by the company's signature cardboard boxes, is available via their Japanese site.

Video of "Virtual Campfire" by Ace Anderson. Can you imagine what it would feel like if there was Smell-O-Vision?

Photo of a beach in Wellfleet by Michelle Krell Kydd. All rights reserved. 

 

Moss Gown by Providence Perfume: The Aura of Story in Perfume Creation

Life inspires stories. The best ones are told with purpose, pattern and conviction. Stories shape the past, our present notion of self, and aspirations for the future (real or imagined). Every story is dependent on imagination, but in order for the story to take hold it must be grounded in something we can relate to. If stories don't resonate with something tangible in our lives our minds can't give them permission to fly.

A well-composed perfume also tells a story and does so with an intriguing beginning (top notes), a compelling middle (heart notes) and an end that anchors the story with purpose (base notes). Natural perfumery is beset with the challenge of telling a good story because more often than not, the narrative ends too quickly due to lack of tenacity. Creations with the best intentions grow flat, quickly silenced by evaporation.

Perfumer Charna Ethier, of the Providence Perfume Company, tackles the tenacity issue in natural perfumery by utilizing a method commonly applied in creating herbal remedies and bitters; that of tincturing:

 "I am a big fan of creating alcohol based tinctures to use as the base alcohol for perfumes. I find one of the biggest complaints I hear regarding natural perfumes is that they don't last long enough. Creating these infusions, oftentimes with freeze-dried fruits and spices, adds a very interesting subtle note to the perfumes. In addition, the natural sugars and starches in ingredients like apricots and basmati rice slow the evaporation rate of the perfume on skin, allowing them to last longer.

Another added bonus is the ability to extend particular notes throughout the entire dry down of the perfume. For example, it's difficult to create a natural citrus perfume that is long lasting as citrus notes are top notes and fleeting in nature. By using a Meyer lemon tincture as the base alcohol, I am able to pull the citrus note throughout the length of the perfume. You are still able to detect the lemon jasmine like note of Meyer lemon in the base notes. I find this incredibly cool!"

If you've ever made own vanilla extract or macerated spices and fruit for use in pastry then you've already dabbled in the art of tincturing. Creating tinctures for base alcohols in perfumery requires more control of the materials (some ingredients, like flowers, must be replenished daily) and is not a process that can be hurried. The perfumer's ability to shape the signature of their olfactory work via tincturing requires faith in the alchemy of combination. One of the reasons for Moss Gown’s elegant bouquet is the presence of lilac tincture in the formula.

A well made botanical perfume creates a distinctive sense of place when the olfactory theme is built around the setting in a children's book. Moss Gown by Providence Perfume is inspired by the William H. Hooks book of the same name. Themes of courage, love and magic infuse the text which is based on a southern folk tale.

The main character in the book is a child named Candace, but she is not the olfactory protagonist in Moss Gown perfume. Instead it is a witch of the bayou and the magic with which she creates an enchanted gown for the young girl. The meeting takes place where beds of moss abound.
 

The aesthetic appeal of a purely botanical perfume is its ability to capture the essence of nature. Glass Petal Smoke suggests anointing oneself with Moss Gown before a walk in the woods. You can feel the ingredients come to life as the smell of dirt paths rise to greet your nose, infused with the aroma of broken twigs, late blooming greenery and the honey-like scent of autumn leaves.

If a chimney in the distance sends a gentle waft of wood smoke your way the synergistic aspects of the perfume's composition become more evident, rising from skin like a fragrant plume of incense smoke. It's not about the individual ingredients (exotic coffee flower, precious boronia and intoxicating narcissus among others); it's about the statement they make in unison when the perfume mingles in a setting much like the one imagined by the perfumer.

Moss Gown by Providence Perfume is a fine example of an artisanal green chypre. If you long for the aroma of moss (an ingredient in limited use in the fragrance industry) Glass Petal Smoke suggests that you reacquaint yourself with an historical fragrance family sacred to the art of perfumery.

Notes:
Moss Gown Eau de Parfum is available in a 1oz. atomizer ($140) or a 6ml atomizer ($36.00).
 
Providence Perfume Company sells a variety of products for the natural perfumer, including seven types of tinctures. You can find them here.

Image Credits:
Living Moss Collar by Tara Baoth Mooney, graduate of the London College of Fashion’s Centre for Sustainable Fashion.

The Fragrant Trail of Story and Autumn Stream by Michelle Krell Kydd. All rights reserved.

Inside the Olfactory Mind of Serge Lutens

When you ask Serge Lutens a question don't expect an answer that panders or intimates; his lines are clear and sharp, but highly unpredictable. Known for his steady talent as a designer (fragrance, fashion, beauty and a few other domains) he thrives on the subtle trace of chaos latent in a fleeting moment. Lutens creates in the present, detached from influences that tempt many to drop anchor in the past or project wildly into the future. Living in the fulcrum of creation he will happily sacrifice socially accepted notions of balance, even his own preconceived notions, if the end result forges a new way of seeing.

Perfume lovers adore his fragrances because when Serge Lutens makes something he means it. His vision is not predicated on the evaporation rates of base, middle and top notes. Each fragrance he designs (in collaboration with perfumer Christopher Sheldrake) follows an olfactory narrative arc subject to the moment's choosing. For Lutens "Perfume is a form of writing, an ink, a choice made in the first person, the dot on the i, a weapon, a courteous gesture, part of the instant, a consequence." 

When reading Lutens' responses to the Glass Petal Smoke "Sensory Questionnaire" it's evident that this artist doesn't clutch his olfactory passport like a tourist enamored with nostalgia and vogue. Forthrightness, ambiguity and collision are his ports of call, qualities you will find in every bottle of perfume with his name on it.

1. What does your sense of smell mean to you?

My sense of smell is connected to others. If it were detachable, it would be anomalous. Smell is an important sense because the nose is primarily an evaluator. Originally, it allows one to be on guard, to hate or to love. It is not used to buy perfumes! It permits an evaluation relative to a given sensitivity. It is also interesting to note that from birth to death the olfactory cells are the only cells in the human body to be renewed approximately every 30 days; the only ones to do so!*

2. What are some of your strongest scent memories?

The strongest is primarily related to a situation, not the olfactory memory itself. A smell cannot be isolated from its context, but it’s often the odor that we thought we had forgotten that comes back violently, like a poison or a paradise. Vanilla can be a delight for some and hell for others. For my part, I remember the smell of the earth’s burning breath after rain or recall the warmth of my scarf on winter days when I would bury my nose in it.

3. What are some of your favorite smells (things in nature, cooking & / or your environment)?

Whatever instantly affects me. If I'm hungry, it may be the smell of something cooking. Contrarily, after eating, odors of this type disgust me.

                                   

4. Do you have any favorite smells that are regarded as strange?

I'm not sure. I love the smell of rubber when it's hot, or even that of olive oil, but it can also make me sick. In my home, like in every man’s home, nothing is fixed. If we are fixed, we become stupid!

5. Describe one or more of your favorite cooking smells.

I eat very little. I like cumin as its smell can touch me, that of clean skin slightly warmed by life. For the rest, I am led to a kind of asceticism, the only condition for ultimate creation.

6. What smells do you dislike most?

Those that immediately do not please me. You know, you can hate the best perfume worn by someone you dislike and instead, appreciate ordinary scents on loved ones. This is an ensemble linked to a sensibility, a context, which is judged. The nose alone, without sensibility, remains a nose!

7. What did you smell first dislike, but learned to love?

I never "learned” to love a smell. However, I allowed myself to be “invaded”; childhood prefers to be lulled rather than to discover. Thereafter, an odor that seemed pungent at first, like civet, musk, castoreum, once settled on the skin, becomes a true paradise!

8. What mundane smells inspire you?

If they do I am not aware of them as they are common and affect me without my knowledge. Water has a smell. Earth and skins also have a smell. It is there! This reassures us as a presence but fails to get through to our conscious, like a child who sees his mother around him. This is unconsciously recorded in us. 

9. What scent never fails to take you back in time and why?

All odors, not one particularly! As you know, everything is recorded in us by age seven - the age of reason - once done, we do not discover anything; we rediscover!

10. What scents do you associate with memories of loved ones?

None. I cannot define the smell of love. It’s variable.

11. What fragrance(s) remind you of growing up?

I am not a criminal returning permanently to the place of his assassination to smell the blood. As for the stories of grandmothers, jam ... not for me! I still prefer the criminal; it distracts! 

12. What fragrance(s) remind you of places you visited on vacation?

I'm never on vacation. I am always doing something with my head or my hands. To answer your question, however, even if you've never been to Morocco or Japan, you will be amazed, because the smell from the origins of the earth has been moved by winds, rivers, bees, etc., you will find them in their original form or another. As you can guess, the scent of tourism is not my thing at all!

13. Describe a piece of sensory literature that is very magical for you?

There are numerous pieces of literature, but they are more about how to convey emotion rather than a simple olfactory evocation. Actually, it is almost in the entire masterpiece that we find a perfume. As we say in French, the scent of a novel, the scent of a film, the scent of a person. What remains! I find this fragrance in the works of all authors that I love: Proust (of course), Baudelaire, Mallarme, Genet, etc. Like incense they are burned into memory! 

Notes:

The perfumes of Serge Lutens are naturally drawn to the landscape of skin, inspiring an addictive derangement of the senses wherever they dress the air. If you have never owned a Serge Lutens fragrance you may want to prime your nose with Féminité du Bois, Ambre Sultan, and Fleurs D'Oranger. Glass Petal Smoke's favorites are always changing. These are currently at the front of the fragrance wardrobe: Vitriol d'Oeilette, A La Nuit, L'Eau Froide, and Un Lys.

*Smell sensory neurons in the nose live for approximately 30 days after which they are replaced by new cells. New cells are generated by adult stem cells located in the olfactory epithelium.

Thanks to perfumer Christophe Laudamiel of DreamAir who assisted with the French to English translation of Msr. Lutens' Sensory Questionnaire.

Image Credits:
Micrograph of human smell receptor by Professor P. Motta, Department of Anatomy, University of La Sapienza, Rome, from the Science Photo Library. Rights revert to owner

Photo of Cumin by Rebecca Siegel via Creative Commons limited license.

Photo of steaming pot on a stove by J. Cliss via Creative Commons license.

Photo of "The Unsubmissive Plant," by Remedios Varo.

Photo of antique pharmacy perfume bottle by Michelle Krell Kydd. All rights reserved. 

Ottoman miniature of doctors instructing a pharmacist from the University of Istanbul.

Micrograph photo of aspirin crystal by Annie Cavanaugh via Wellcome Images. Rights revert back to the owner.

Photograph of woman with lace veiled face from Serge Lutens. 

Photo of text from Edgar Allen Poe's "Mask of the Red Death" on the window of Antoinette's Patisserie in Hastings on Hudson. Created by Clem Paulsen. Rights revert back to the owner.

Photo interpretation of distraction through trees by Michelle Krell Kydd. All rights reserved.

Photo of Atlas Mountains in Morocco by French Self Catering. Licensed under Creative Commons.