What is in Chinese 5 spice?

Question

What is in Chinese 5 spice?

Answer 1

stuff

Answer 2

5 spices in chinese cooking

Answer 3

I had it in my cupboard, and just used it all up last week. If I can recall, it had cinnamon, anise, cloves, ginger, and fennel.

Answer 4

Ancient chinese secret

Answer 5

Salt, MSG, ground giblets of cat, ginger

Answer 6

this one time, at band camp...............

Answer 7

It depends on the region of asia you are eating at, but usually a combination of 5 different spices which are spicy, pungent, salty, aromatic and bitter.

Answer 8

powder of cinnamon, star anise, anise seed, cloves and ginger

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Answer 9

LOL, LOL

Answer 10

Stuff that tastes good

Answer 11

In a perfect world, I'd just be able to list five ingredients and we'd be done with it. However, the answer to your question is "it varies." Five spice is sort of a catch-all for any of a family of spice mixtures that address all five of the classical Chinese tastes: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and pungent/savory.

Most have at least cinnamon, ginger, and anise. Most have cloves, some have fennel, and the last one I bought had licorice root (but that changes the overall effect considerably).

I'm by no means certain, but my intuition tells me it may have evolved from Traditional Chinese Medicine practices, since each taste helps keep certain parts of the body healthy. Having a spice that activates all five tastes would keep the whole body healthy.