Hing, also known as asafoetida, is the dried sap of a mountain shrub, and its flavor is incomparable and essential to many South Indian dishes. The aroma is infamously sharp when raw, but after blooming in a little bit of oil at the beginning of the cooking process, it adds a deep, savory, allium flavor — it's a wonderful alternative to those with a sensitivity to onions and garlic. Tasting notes of pear too.
Those who cook with hing know that a little goes a long way - start with 1/8 tsp and bloom it in fat at the beginning of the cooking process.
Most hing is blended with rice or wheat flour in order to prevent caking, but Burlap & Barrel wanted to provide a grain- and gluten-free version, so we blended it with our New Harvest Turmeric, which is often used in combination with hing in cooking.
Ingredients: New Harvest turmeric, 20% (Curcuma longa), 80%; wild hing (Ferula asafoetida), 20%
Weight: 28 g / 1 oz
EQUIVALENCY
COOKING
- Make a tadka by tempering some hing in ghee, then drizzle the flavored oil over a dish right before serving
- Bloom in fat and sauté greens
SOURCING
Grown in the foothills south of Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan, hing is a native plant that grows wild and is harvested by local foragers. The plant resembles anise, but instead of collecting the seeds, foragers cut the plant at its base with a curved knife and collect the gum-like sap that emerges from the exposed cut. The sap is then placed in containers in a dark room to dry. After drying, the hing forms slightly sticky, resinous pebbles that are ground to a fine consistency.