What is Star Anise?

Whenever Barkha Cardoz is making rice, she can always count on a warm, earthy aroma to envelop her when she opens the lid. Cardoz, the founder of Cardoz Legacy, a culinary organization honoring her late husband, chef Floyd Cardoz, looks forward to that aroma every time. She attributes much of it to the star anise in the pot.

The heady, licorice-like spice can be found in many Asian and South Asian cuisines, in everything from garam masala to Sichuan lamb noodle soup. The spice’s strong and notable aroma is what makes it so enticing as an ingredient in cooking, and it can be used both whole and ground. 

To find out more about star anise, including how to shop for it and how it's used, we spoke to Cardoz for some guidance. 

What is Star Anise?

Star anise is a dry fruit that comes from the Illicium verum plant, an evergreen shrub or small tree native to southern Asia. China is the main producer of the spice, but it’s also cultivated in Japan, India, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. The fruit is a reddish brown color that resembles wood once dried and, as noted by its name, is star-shaped, usually with eight points. Each of these points contain a seed. It is harvested before it reaches ripeness and dried before being sold. 

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Star anise is only distantly related to the anise seed. The former is much stronger, with a bitter, herbaceous taste and barely perceptible sweetness, while the latter has a natural, more identifiable sweetness to it. Both spices are known for their licorice flavor. “It's different from cinnamon but it's in that same flavor profile of sweetness,” says Cardoz. Star anise is also an ingredient that’s traditionally found in Chinese five-spice powder, along with cloves, cinnamon, Sichuan peppercorns, and fennel seeds. 

How to Buy and Store Star Anise

When shopping for star anise, Cardoz suggests looking for pods that are whole, with the star shape intact instead of broken into pieces. “You want it to be whole because that shows you it's been cared for, it's not leftover pieces that they put in a bag and are selling to you,” says Cardoz. When stored in a cool, dry, dark place, whole star anise will last about one year, while ground star anise will last about six months before losing its flavor. 

Most spice and international markets carry star anise, usually in both whole and ground form. Ground star anise can be found in the spice aisle of most grocery stores. Given that star anise has a very powerful flavor, it can be much easier to control it by buying the whole pods and grinding them yourself. 

How to Cook With Star Anise

In most Asian and South Asian cuisines, star anise is used to flavor vegetables, meats, and soups like Vietnamese Phở Saigon. The spice also has baking applications, and can be found as an ingredient in pumpkin spice blends. It’s also often used in mulled wines. 

For Cardoz, star anise is very much a part of her usual cooking. “I don't use it ground as much as I use the whole pods,” she says. “I'll normally use it if I'm making a pilau, a biryani, or a rich meat curry. I find the sweet, earthy, musky flavors lend themselves more to heavy sauces, gravies, and curries.” 

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She notes that in Indian cooking, ground star anise is rarely used on its own but instead incorporated into different garam or house masalas, which often include other spices like cinnamon, cloves, and peppercorns. “I'll use it whole, mainly to flavor rice and meats, and then pull it out.” She also mentions it can be steeped as a tea with cinnamon, which is especially pleasant to drink when you’re feeling under the weather. 

“For me, star anise is one of those royal whole spices,” says Cardoz. “It's not something you use in everyday cooking; it's elevated and special.”