A friend has a recipe that calls for Fennel. Instead of getting the
seeds, he just got ground instead. Which is better or does it make a
difference? Also, I saw on a cooking show where seeds that were to be
added to a recipe were first placed on the cook's plam and the plam on
his other hand was used to crush them, like a mortar then everything
was added to the recipe. Should seeds be added whole or opened with
the above method?

Thanks,
Mark