26 days ago 2
valhelsingvI recently tested
Rayon Vert which has a pretty strong fresh fennel note, although I don't know how different wild fennel is from the regular fennel 😅
Also, I haven't tested it yet myself but
Cédrat Céruse seems to be all fennel, according to the reviews
They are different both in shape, use and smell. Regular fennel is the one that grows that white bulb underground, it smells green, watery, light, fresh, it is the note you can find in
Seahorse.
The wild fennel has no bulb, it grows tall (up to 3 meters) with a bamboo like trunk, small needle shape leaves and yellow flowers. The leaves smell aromatic, more intense than the regular fennel, have some rosmary like facets, green aromatic facets almost camphorated, very rich and complex smell (used in many italian recipes).
The flowers are another world again, their smell is spicey, clove, pepper and nutmeg nuances and it is crazy strong, once essiccated it is both more defusive and loud that black pepper, it is a super strong smell (used to cook strong flavours, like cow's liver ecc...), I'm very familiar with it because I gather it myself (there is a lot in one of my vegetable garden) and then I dry it to use it for cooking. When I keep it on the trays to let it dry the whole house is infested by its flavour, it is so strong that you can smell it from the street if the windows are open.