Fresh turmeric

Turmeric is often used purely for its color, as it is a powerful coloring agent. Turmeric is especially popular for coloring and flavoring prepared mustard, relish, pickles, chutneys and rice dishes. It has also been used to color and flavor cheese and butter. Turmeric is also commonly used in spice blends, especially those that are used in the Caribbean, in India, in North Africa, in the Middle East and in Indonesia. Notable spice blends that include Turmeric are curry powder and a blend known as rendangs.

The primary exporter for the spice known as Alleppey Turmeric is India, although additional sources where Turmeric can be obtained include Peru and China. Alleppey Turmeric, the form of Turmeric that can be found in India has been highly regarded for its stunning deep yellow or orange-yellow coloring. Chinese Turmeric, which is considered to be of comparable quality to Alleppey Turmeric, tends to be much more brownish in color, in general. Both types of Turmeric have similar uses as far as flavor and aroma go, but when it comes to acting as a coloring agent, obviously Alleppey Turmeric and Chinese Turmeric see very different uses.

The use of Turmeric as a coloring agent both for fabric and food can be dated back as far as 600 B. C. Marco Polo mentioned Turmeric in his notes as early as 1280 when speaking of his travels to China. He referred to Turmeric as a spice that had all of the properties of Saffron, and yet was not actually Saffron. In medieval times in Europe, Turmeric was actually referred to as "Indian Saffron", and ever since that time period, this boldly colored spice has been used to serve as an inexpensive substitute for the more difficult to come by Saffron.

The Turmeric spice has gained serious popularity because of its strong and pungent aroma and flavor and the gorgeous color that it leaves behind, and as a result it has been finding its way into a number of creative dishes all over the globe.