On 6/5/2016 10:53 AM, jmcquown wrote:
> On 6/5/2016 11:31 AM, sf wrote:
>> On Sun, 5 Jun 2016 08:57:30 -0500, dejamos >
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Now that I think
>>> about it, some lightly crushed toasted fennel seeds would be a good
>>> addition. Hmmm . . .
>>
>> I whiz mine up in a coffee grinder and powder them. That way, I get
>> all the flavor and nobody complains about seeds. It works
>> particularly well for when I flavor ground pork to make Italian
>> sausage... or want to put more fennel flavor in store bought bulk.
>>

If I am grinding or crushing them I usually toast them first. But the
flavor is different to me between whole seeds, slightly crushed and
ground. I like the little bursts of flavor that the seeds give as
opposed to ground, which spreads the flavor evenly throughout and
muddies the taste, to me.

I have a recipe for a sourdough fennel seed bread that uses lightly
crushed seeds and I really like the flavor they give to the bread. It
has become my weekly bread for the past year or so.

> Fennel doesn't sound right for a salad dressing. Poppy seeds, perhaps.
> Fennel tastes like licorice. YMMV.
>
> Jill

That may be true for some folks, but I think I would like it. Not
having grown up with it I did not at all care for it when I first
started experimenting with it but it has definitely grown on me and now
I love it. I actually no longer associate the flavor of the seeds with
licorice, oddly enough. The fresh bulbs, definitely. The seeds now
taste more like "Italian sausage" to me than anything else, which is why
I think I would like them added to my "Italian" dressing. YMMV.