You say kümmel, I saw caraway. Does anyone say alcaravia?

The ingredients I use (or want to use) are often a mystery. The secret ingredient remains elusive. Though I have seen it on tons of labels for products made here in Argentina, it apparently is not sold separately in health food stores. I do have one new tip as to where I might find it, so I need to go searching next week.

I started making rye bread a couple of weeks back, and it was a great success, though for me it was more than a little disappointing because I didn’t use caraway seeds when making it. In my opinion, caraway seeds are the whole point of rye bread.

I had no clue what they were called in Spanish, so I went to the English page in Wikipedia and then clicked on the Spanish link. Supposedly, they are called alcaravea, alcarahueya, carvia, alcaravia, or comino de prado. I consulted with Agus, who had never heard of this mystery seed.

Of course, most food items in this country have names you never learned in high school Spanish, so I figured it was just called something else.

A couple of weeks ago at the grocery store, I read the label on a bag of commercial rye bread, and one of the ingredients is kümmel. Of course! Why use a Spanish word when you can use the German one?

Luckily, I found it on Wednesday evening at a health food store, so I’m making some fresh rye bread with kümmel now. Yum!

I tossed the seeds a little in a pan before adding them to the dough. Then I added some more on top after the dough stopped kneading in the machine. The scent brings me back to salami and mustard sandwiches on rye at Mt. Diablo Elementary.

The recipe is the same as always, except that I substituted rye for soy/corn flour. Enjoy!