Asafoetida plant.
Photo via Adobe Stock.
(CNN) --
An appetizer or something abominable?
A medicine or a pesticide?
Asafoetida sounds innocent enough: it's a wild fennel plant native to Afghanistan, Iran, and Uzbekistan.
The resin from its roots is used in Indian cooking, usually after it is ground into a powder and mixed with flour.
To say that it has a strong odor would be an understatement.
In fact, its aroma is so pungent that it might be the most controversial ingredient in the country.
“Asa” means rubber in Persian and “foetida” means stinky in Latin.
But in India, it is simply called hing.
If you accidentally get your hands dirty, it doesn't matter how many times you wash.
Put a pure pinch on your tongue and your mouth will start to burn.
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At the Khari Baoli market in Old Delhi, for example, hing even manages to outshine all other spices.
"Hing is the mother of all base notes in Indian cooking," say Siddharth Talwar and Rhea Rosalind Ramji, co-founders of The School of Showbiz Chefs.
"It closed the gap of onion and garlic flavors that were banned due to religious beliefs in the largely vegetarian Indian communities like Jain, Marwari and Gujarati. Despite India's culinary diversity, hing is a constant."
Jains, for example, avoid onion, garlic, and ginger in addition to not eating meat.
Ramji admits that the smell can be a challenge – it has been compared to rotten cabbage.
He has even been given the nickname "Devil's Dung".
But a small amount goes a long way.
Talwar advises putting a tiny amount of hing in hot oil.
Most people buy a powdered version that is mixed with rice or wheat flour.
However, more adventurous cooks will buy the solid crystal form, which looks like rock salt.
the history of hing
Some scholars credit Alexander the Great with first bringing the hing to India.
"The popular theory is that Alexander's army found asafoetida in the Hindu Kush mountains and mistook it for the rare plant silphium, which has characteristics similar to asafoetida," explains culinary historian Dr. Ashish Chopra.
"They took the plant with them to India with a lot of effort... only to find out later that it was not what they (expected). However, the people of India have had their encounter with something now; it came, it was seen and he stayed".
The professor adds that the hing was used in some Greco-Roman kitchens, but it didn't last long.
It's currently absent from much of Western food, with one notable exception: Worcestershire sauce.
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But as global eating patterns and appetites change, some chefs are trying to redo their recipes by omitting the onion and garlic in favor of asafoetida.
According to Talwar, "hing can enhance the essential umami taste sensation for stews and broths."
"The concept of umami was first introduced by Japanese food experts, but is now the fifth base note in gastronomy after sweet, sour, sour, and salty."
American company Burlap & Barrel even sells a Wild Hing blend made with turmeric, marketed to people with garlic sensitivities or those following a low-FODMAP diet.
But flavor isn't the only reason you find jars of the proverbial genie on many a spice rack around the world.
According to the National Library of Medicine, asafoetida has been used as a cough expectorant, antispasmodic, and to kill parasites or worms.
Some tout it as an effective Ayurvedic remedy for stomach gas.
Also, not everyone buys hing in order to eat it.
Africans and Jamaicans sometimes wore asafoetida amulets, believing that it could repel demons.
In the US in 1918, some people used sachets or bags containing asafoetida to protect themselves from the Spanish flu.
These days, its repulsive properties are best harnessed as a pesticide in organic farming.
Surprisingly, although India is the world's largest consumer of asafoetida, it had never been cultivated in the country until recently.
About two years ago, on the cold desert side of the Himalayan region, farmers announced that they were trying to grow their own hing.
The growth process of asafoetida can be slow.
But if India manages to grow its own, that could mean saving about $100 million a year by importing the product.
And, perhaps most importantly, Indian people might have a favorite flavor that is entirely Indian.