Caraway is a plant grown for its small, crescent-shaped seeds that add a distinctive warm, slightly sweet flavor to food. If you've ever eaten rye bread with those little brown seeds baked into it, you've tasted caraway. The seeds have a flavor that's hard to describe but easy to recognize: a bit like licorice mixed with pepper and citrus, earthy but bright.

Caraway seeds appear in many traditional recipes around the world. German cooks add them to sauerkraut and pork dishes. Scandinavian bakers use them in rye breads and crackers. In Irish cooking, they flavor soda bread. Some cheeses, like Havarti, contain caraway seeds that give the cheese a subtle spiciness.

The plant itself looks a bit like a carrot plant (they're relatives), with feathery leaves and small white flowers. After the flowers bloom, the seeds form and are harvested. People have been cultivating caraway for thousands of years, making it one of humanity's oldest spices. Today you might find caraway seeds in your kitchen spice rack, though they're less common in American cooking than in European cuisine.