Some facts about Coriander
Archaeological!
Coriander is one of the oldest spices known to have been used by humans – Tansy tells us that six to eight thousand year old coriander seeds have been found in archaeological contexts…
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Knossos
…and the first known written reference to coriander is in the Linear B script, from the Greek mycenaean period – 3500 years ago! This is how see how Coriander is written in Linear B:
first highlight and copy Korijanada
then Click here to get to the transliterator,
paste Korijanada into the Latin to Linear B box.
Push the space bar
Linear B should appear in the adjacent box – how cool is that?!
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King Tutankhamun’s Coriander Seeds
500 ml of Coriander seeds were found in King Tutankhamun’s tomb, recorded and described by Howard Carter! It was a trade item as it did not grow in Ancient Egypt…Coriander has been an important spice for millennia!
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Cilantro
All parts of the coriander plant are edible. The aromatic leaves, known as Cilantro in North America, are a familiar flavour in Mexican cooking. Some people describe the leaves as tasting and smelling lemony and refreshing, but others think the smell is foul and revolting. This depends on inherited genes. The Quimper Hitty human is one of the people who gag at the smell and taste of cilantro, so we don’t have it in the house or garden, though the Hittys don’t mind it and the little flower seems quite pretty!
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Seeds
However the slightly citrusy and nutty seeds don’t have this effect on the QH human and so are very frequently included in our cooking ventures.
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Recipe
Hitty Coriander has such an interesting name! She is keen to try this new recipe for Coriander-citrus Olive Oil Cake that we found on the internet, but it takes at least three weeks to make…
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Salted Orange Wedges
…because it starts out by making brined orange wedges, which have to pickle for three weeks! We’ll let you know how it turns out in a month or so!
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Quimper Hittys 
This is great, and sure so beautiful too. Thank you, Love, nia
We enjoyed our research into the coriander plant, and we are always interested in trying new recipes!!
What a great lesson! Love the Linear B word for coriander!
I am so sorry that the cilantro leaves are not to your liking. The first time I ever had them in a dish was in a hole-in-the-wall Vietnamese restaurant. I was in heaven! Where had cilantro been all my life? I’m obviously one who has the genes for it.
Yes, the cake will be a lovely experiemnt. I’ll look forward to your results. Thanks so much for all this interesting info, Miss Coriander and QH human!
I think I am glad that I don’t like the taste of cilantro. Learning that my reaction has a genetic component may have made me more generous towards other people’s food preferences and challenges. Thank goodness the seeds are different, since I love the flavours of spicy south Asian curries etc. The cake is sure to be interesting, and hopefully delicious!!
Super-cool information from Tansy!
I liked the name Coriander for a doll, but then I fell down the rabbit hole of obscure references to Coriander, and now I like it even more!
well, for goodness sake! You learn something new every day- thank you Tansy, Coriander and the Hitty human. Love the pictures. Will be waiting to hear how the cake turns out.
Isn’t it fun? I love how old the name is, and how it seems to be relatively unchanged after three and a half thousand years! We are looking forward to the cake too!
What a great piece of information and I love the transliterator. Thank you
I love the transliterator too – in fact I thought you would be interested! Wouldn’t it make interesting engravings on jewellery!?
If only I were better with the sharp engravers 😉
Coriander and cilantro are magical to me, I love them. It was wonderful to read some history about this spice and see the awesome photos 🙂
Thanks very much – I love the spice and can’t stand the herb! It is interesting how that works!
fascinating. Coriander Hitty is an excellent guide to this spice. I have never used it, One of the humans who lives here finds cilantro a horrible thing . I guess that discouraged me from experimenting with the spice. Thanks for the information.
You are welcome! It was such an interesting rabbit-hole to fall in to – and little Hitty Coriander is proud of her ancient heritage!
I don’t dislike coriander as a leafy herb but neither do I really enjoy it and as it bolts almost as soon as it is big enough to cut I have stopped growing it. I do like the ground seeds though so maybe I should start to grow it and just let it bolt!
Maybe! I bet fresh seeds taste good!
I find this fascinating, but I can’t bear the actual herb or seed. It’s one of those antipathetic flavours that I just can’t do. I usually substitute either parsley or fennel, depending on the recipe; it seems to work for me!
Leaves are ghastly to my taste, and yes I substitute parsely, or celery leaves if a stronger flavour is required. Seeds have different flavour constituents to leaves fortunately, and I am able to tolerate them!