What's Star Anise, and How Much Should You Actually Use?

Star anise is a woody, eight-pointed pod so rich in anethole that one star flavors a whole pot of broth or braise for four. It is bought by its species name, Illicium verum, because a poisonous Japanese relative looks almost the same.

What is star anise?

Star anise is the dried fruit of Illicium verum, an evergreen tree grown mainly in southern China and northern Vietnam. Each star is a ring of usually eight woody, boat-shaped carpels, and every carpel holds one glossy brown seed.

The fruit is picked green, before it ripens, and dried in the sun until it turns the rust-brown color sold in jars.

The tree belongs to the Schisandraceae family, an old flowering-plant line with no close tie to the carrot family that gives us anise seed and cumin. Chinese cooks call the spice ba jiao, meaning eight corners, after its shape.

Plant

Illicium verum, an evergreen tree in the Schisandraceae family

Grown in

Mainly southern China and northern Vietnam

Part used

The dried fruit, usually eight woody carpels with one seed each

Harvest

Picked green, then sun-dried to rust brown

Main aroma compound

Anethole, about 72 to 92 percent of the essential oil

Chinese name

Ba jiao, eight corners

Not to confuse with

Japanese star anise, Illicium anisatum, which is poisonous

The last row matters most, because a toxic plant from the same genus looks close enough to pass for the kitchen spice.

What does star anise taste like?

Star anise tastes like a strong, sweet licorice with a warm woody edge and a faint bitterness at the end.

Most of that sweetness is anethole. It makes up most of the pod's essential oil and is the same compound that flavors anise seed and fennel seeds.

The rest of the oil adds a woody, lightly spicy depth that anise seed lacks. A single pod can scent a whole pot of broth, and the aroma keeps building the longer it sits in hot liquid.

In savory cooking the sweetness reads less like candy and more like depth, because soy sauce, salt, fat and browned sugar surround it.

Overdone, star anise turns medicinal and faintly numbing. That note comes from too much pod or too long a simmer, and it is hard to cover once it is there.

Is star anise the same as anise seed?

No. The two come from unrelated plants and share a flavor only because both are rich in anethole.

Anise seed is the small ridged fruit of Pimpinella anisum, an annual herb in the carrot family, while star anise grows on a tree from a far older branch of flowering plants.

Form matters as much as strength, because a pod can go into a broth and come out again while seeds stay in the dish. That is why anise seed suits breads and biscuits, where star anise powder can taste harsh.

• Star anise: A woody fruit with pointed carpels and enclosed seeds.
• Anise seed: A small ridged fruit from the carrot family.
• Shared note: Anethole gives both the sweet licorice-like aroma.
• Cooking difference: Whole stars infuse and leave, while seeds are usually crushed or ground.

A recipe that simply says anise almost always means the seed. Swapping the two one for one is the classic way to overshoot a dish, since star anise is several times stronger.

How is star anise used in cooking?

Star anise does its best work in long-cooked savory food with plenty of salt and fat around it. Chinese and Vietnamese kitchens use it most, and a handful of dishes show why.

What these dishes share is a long, moist cook and a strong frame of salt, sugar or fat that keeps the anise from standing alone.

• Salt: Soy sauce keeps the sweetness tied to savory food.
• Fat: Pork or duck carries the aroma across the sauce.
• Time: Slow cooking draws out the pod before reduction concentrates it.
• Exit: The star comes out before the meat is glazed.

That frame is why star anise feels at home with pork belly, duck and beef shin, and less so with lean steamed fish. Its natural partners are soy sauce, ginger, cinnamon bark, orange peel and brown sugar, and in Vietnamese beef broth it shares the pot with charred aromatics and coriander seed.

The same logic explains Chinese five-spice, where fennel, clove and Sichuan pepper keep the ground star anise from tasting like a single sweet note.

How much star anise should you use, whole or ground?

One whole pod is enough for about four servings of broth, braise or mulled drink, and ground star anise starts at about a quarter teaspoon for the same amount.

Whole pods are the easier form to control because they can come out of the pot. In simmering liquid a pod gives up most of its aroma in roughly twenty minutes, so the pod has done most of its work well before a long braise ends.

Ground star anise cannot be taken back out, so it belongs in rubs, blends and batters where the spice is meant to be eaten. Freshly ground powder is also much stronger than an old jar of it, and a pinch is a safer first measure.

• Broth: A cloth bag or fine strainer catches broken points.
• Braise: Pods come out before the sauce reduces to a glaze.
• Blend: Grinding only what the batch needs keeps the powder strong.
• Rub: Powder mixed through salt and other spices spreads evenly on meat.

A pod toasted for a minute in a dry pan smells stronger in the pot, but a blackened point tastes bitter and no amount of simmering fixes it.

Grinding takes a blade or burr grinder, since the hard pod defeats most mortars. Sieving the powder removes woody fibers before it goes into a smooth sauce or batter.

When a dish has gone too far, the only real repair is to lift out every piece and dilute the dish with more of its unspiced base.

What can you use instead of star anise?

Ground anise seed is the closest match, at about 1 teaspoon for every 1/4 teaspoon of ground star anise, since the seed is much milder. Ground fennel seed works at the same rate and brings a greener, softer sweetness.

Chinese five-spice can stand in within a braise or a rub because star anise is already its largest part, though it also brings cinnamon, clove and Sichuan pepper.

None of these gives you a whole pod to lift out, so a clear broth or syrup needs the seeds tied in cloth. Cinnamon and clove add warmth without any anethole, which suits a dish that needs the weight of star anise more than its licorice note.

Is star anise safe to eat?

Culinary Chinese star anise, Illicium verum, is treated by the US Food and Drug Administration as a safe food spice. The danger is a different plant, Japanese star anise, Illicium anisatum, which contains the nerve toxin anisatin and can pass for the real thing.

Japanese star anise is grown in Japan as an ornamental and a temple plant, and it is not a food in any form.

Mixing of the two has been documented more than once.

In September 2003 the FDA advised the public not to drink tea brewed from star anise. About 40 people who drank such teas had fallen ill, roughly 15 of them infants, with symptoms from vomiting and jitteriness to seizures.

A year later, doctors in Miami described seven infants aged 2 to 12 weeks who developed seizures, jitteriness or vomiting after being given star anise tea for colic. Tests on one family's supply pointed to Japanese star anise mixed in, and all seven babies recovered within 48 hours.

The same report noted that culinary star anise carries weaker related compounds called veranisatins. The home teas used up to six stars for a baby a few weeks old, so an overdose of the ordinary spice may have played a part alongside contamination.

Europe saw the same problem.

In the Netherlands, 63 adults fell ill after drinking one herbal tea that contained star anise, and 16 of them had seizures. In 2002 the European Commission began requiring imported star anise to arrive with laboratory results showing it was free of the Japanese species.

Shape alone will not tell the two species apart. Japanese pods tend to be smaller and more irregular, with thinner tips and a smell often compared to cardamom rather than licorice, but the Miami researchers found those features varied too much to settle a sample.

That is why the species name on a food label counts for more than the look of the pod, and why wild or decorative pods never belong in food.

Vomiting, unusual eye movements, jittery limbs or a seizure after someone, especially a baby, has had star anise tea calls for urgent medical care. In the US, Poison Help at 1-800-222-1222 can advise on what to do.

Does star anise really go into Tamiflu?

Yes, in a limited sense. Star anise is a rich source of shikimic acid, the starting material Roche used to make oseltamivir, the flu drug sold as Tamiflu.

The acid takes its name from shikimi, the Japanese name for the poisonous Japanese star anise, because it was first isolated from that plant in 1885.

When bird flu spread in 2005, the supply of star anise became the main bottleneck in making Tamiflu. Engineered E. coli bacteria can now make shikimic acid by fermentation, although star anise was still the main source in 2010.

None of this makes star anise tea a flu remedy. Oseltamivir is built from the acid through a long chemical synthesis, and eating the spice has no shown effect on the flu virus.

How do you buy and store star anise?

The safest pods come from a food seller, in a package that names the contents as Chinese star anise or Illicium verum.

Broken pods cook just as well when the species is on the label. A perfect eight-pointed star shows careful handling and says nothing about the species.

• LabelChinese star anise or Illicium verum, sold as food rather than as decoration or potpourri
• ColorRust brown to reddish brown, with shiny seeds inside the carpels
• SmellA snapped point should smell strongly of sweet licorice within seconds
• ConditionDry and brittle, with no damp softness, mold or musty smell
• AmountA small bag, since one pod goes a long way

• Name: Chinese star anise or Illicium verum on the pack.
• Source: A food retailer with traceable packaging.
• Condition: Intact, rust-brown stars without moisture or mold.
• Aroma: A broken point smells strongly sweet within seconds.

Whole pods hold their aroma for a long time in an airtight jar away from the stove and sunlight, and published guidance gives whole spices three to four years. Ground star anise fades much sooner once opened, which is one more reason to grind small amounts as needed.

A pod that smells faint when snapped is stale, and adding more of it brings woodiness without the sweetness.