Anise seed

One US cup of anise seed weighs between 100.8 and 151.2 grams (3.6 to 5.3 ounces), depending on how the cup is filled and which source measured it. Use 107.2 grams (3.8 ounces) as USDA weighs a tablespoon of whole seed. Every figure behind it is below, with the method each source used.

Also called aniseed, anise seeds, anise, whole anise seed, anise seed whole.

Spice seeds compared: cup weights side by side, the source behind each, and why they differ.

A teaspoon of anise seed weighs about 2.2 g by USDA's measure, and a cup between 101 and 151 g (3.6 to 5.3 oz). USDA and the Shamrock Foodservice spice table agree within 6.3%; two bulk sellers count 21 to 41% heavier, so the page shows the range and recommends USDA's figure.

Anise seed, or aniseed, is the dried fruit of the anise plant, Pimpinella anisum, a relative of fennel and dill. The seeds are small, grey-green to brown, ridged and slightly curved, with a sweet, licorice flavour from anethole, the same compound that flavours star anise and fennel. They go into Italian biscotti and pizzelle, German springerle, Mexican and Spanish breads and cookies, rye bread, sausages and anise liqueurs. Star anise, the star-shaped pod of an unrelated Chinese tree, is not covered here.

USDA's record for anise seed weighs a teaspoon of whole seed at 2.1 g and a tablespoon at 6.7 g. The tablespoon, the more precise of the two, is 107.2 g a cup. The Shamrock Foodservice spice table gives 13.5 teaspoons of anise seeds to the ounce of weight, 100.8 g a cup. Herbco and Frontier Co-op, two bulk sellers, both count 3.5 cups of whole anise seed to the pound, 129.6 g a cup, and Frontier's organic anise seed 3 cups, 151.2 g. The spread is 50%, past the 10% this site allows for whole seeds, so the page shows the range and recommends USDA's 2.2 g teaspoon.

A foodservice nutrition sheet gives a tablespoon of whole anise seed as 7 g, which is USDA's 6.7 g rounded to a whole gram; it adds no separate measurement and is listed without a figure.

King Arthur Baking's chart has no anise seed row.

The physical check: anise seed belongs with the other ridged seeds of the parsley family, which weigh 1.9 to 2.3 g a teaspoon on this site: celery, dill, fennel and cumin seed. USDA's and the foodservice table's figures sit right there. The bulk sellers' figures are heavier than any of those, and close to the top of caraway seed's range, 3 g a teaspoon. Anise seed is plumper and rounder than fennel or cumin, and seed lots differ in size and in how much broken seed and stem they carry, which fills gaps. Neither seller says how its count was made, so the range is kept rather than either end.

Grinding changes little. The Shamrock table gives ground anise at 113.4 g a cup, 12.5% more than its whole seed, where ground herbs weigh about twice their leaves.

Practical guidance: use 2.2 g per teaspoon of anise seed, 6.7 g per tablespoon and about 107 g per cup, and weigh anise seed bought in bulk, which may run closer to 3 g a teaspoon. Crush the seeds lightly before adding them to a cookie dough, or toast them briefly for a rounder flavour. Anise seed and star anise can stand in for each other in small amounts, but star anise is stronger.