the.com/turmeric
the spice that dyes everything it touches and pretends it's just seasoning
means A golden-yellow spice ground from the root of a tropical plant, used to color and flavor food, especially in South Asian cooking.
from From the Old French 'terre mérite,' literally 'deserving earth' or 'meritorious earth' — likely a learned reshaping of the Medieval Latin 'terra merita.' The name probably refers to the spice's appearance as a yellow earthy powder, though the path from Latin to the modern word is tangled, and some suspect the Latin itself was an attempt to make sense of an older, possibly Eastern, word that's now lost to us.
- stain power
- Used as fabric dye long before food coloring
- ginger cousin
- Botanically related to ginger, both underground rhizomes
- active compound
- Curcumin gives the gold and the health hype
- poor absorber
- Black pepper boosts curcumin uptake dramatically
- sacred root
- Used in Hindu weddings and rituals for millennia
telangana turmeric — grown in telangana, india; accounts for ~80% of global production and holds geographical indication status
alleppey turmeric — cultivated in kerala's alleppey district; prized for high curcumin content (5-8%) and export quality
rajendra sonia variety — developed at indian institute of spice research in kozhikode; high-yielding turmeric cultivar released in 1998