Caraway is the dried, crescent-shaped brown "seed" — botanically the fruit — of Carum carvi, a slender biennial of the carrot family. Warm and earthy with a sharp, anise-peppery bite, it owes its signature smell to carvone, the very same molecule that — in its mirror-image form — flavours spearmint and dill. It is the defining note of rye bread, sauerkraut and much of Central and Eastern European cooking, the botanical that makes Scandinavian aquavit, and a quiet component of some North African blends and of harissa. It is often confused with cumin, a carrot-family cousin, but the two taste worlds apart.