Caraway

No Czech roast pork, bread or caraway soup is complete without caraway – the most characteristic spice of Czech cooking.

Caraway is a biennial plant of the carrot family, growing to 30–80 cm, with pinnately divided leaves and umbels of tiny white or pinkish flowers. The fruit is a schizocarp that splits into two crescent-shaped, ribbed mericarps – these are the spice, commonly called seeds. They contain an essential oil rich in carvone, which gives them their distinctive aroma and aids digestion. It grows wild in the meadows and roadsides of Europe and Asia.

Significance in the country

Caraway seasons vepřo knedlo zelo – roast pork with dumplings and sauerkraut – as well as rye bread, cheeses and caraway soup (kmínová polévka), once the everyday breakfast of poor families. In Czechia it is also grown as a field crop, and its fruits are used to make liqueurs and herbal spirits.

Where it grows

It grows wild in meadows, pastures and roadsides throughout the country, from the lowlands to the foothills; as a field crop it is grown mainly in the fertile lowlands of Moravia and Bohemia.

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