Black Sesame Seeds

Black sesame carries the lignans sesamin and sesamolin, which are the compounds most of the research attention follows, along with a high concentration of antioxidants in the hull that hulled white sesame largely lacks. Studies have examined sesame lignans in relation to blood lipids and blood pressure, with modest effects reported in small trials.

The seed is also notably high in calcium, though the figure quoted on the internet usually comes from unhulled seed and the calcium is concentrated in the hull, which is precisely the part removed to make white sesame. That distinction is rarely made and it matters when the number is used to argue that sesame is a dairy substitute.

On hair, there is no good human evidence that eating black sesame reverses greying, and it is worth saying so plainly given how confidently the claim circulates. Hair pigmentation loss is largely genetic and age related. What sesame oil does have is a reasonable body of work on scalp application, emollience and hair shaft protection, which is a narrower and more defensible claim than the one usually made.

Sesame is also a significant allergen, and one of the more common ones.

Sesame is among the oldest oilseeds under cultivation, domesticated on the Indian subcontinent and in Africa, and it reached China early enough to be absorbed into the medical canon rather than treated as an import. The black cultivar took a separate path from the white one almost everywhere it went.

In China it became a dessert ingredient in its own right. Zhi ma hu, a thick sweet black sesame soup, is a Cantonese tong sui served warm, and black sesame is the classic filling for tangyuan at the winter solstice and Lantern Festival. In Japan, kuro goma appears in goma-dofu, in ice cream, and ground over rice as gomashio. Korea makes heukimja-juk, a black sesame porridge that is eaten as restorative food rather than breakfast.

In India the seed is til, and its calendar position is fixed: Makar Sankranti in mid January is the til festival, when sesame and jaggery sweets are made and exchanged specifically because the combination is considered warming at the coldest point of the year.

Black sesame is used where you want the seed to carry the dish rather than decorate it. Ground to a paste with sugar it becomes the filling for tangyuan and the base of zhi ma hu; ground with rice it becomes Korean heukimja-juk. Japanese cooking sets it into goma-dofu, a sesame and kudzu block with the texture of a firm custard, and folds it into ice cream, where the bitterness reads as sophistication.

As a finishing seed it behaves differently from white sesame. The colour is the point, so it goes on pale food: white rice, tofu, steamed fish, bread crusts. Gomashio, black sesame crushed with salt, is the standard rice seasoning.

In India the black seed goes into til laddu and chikki with jaggery, and into the tempering for some southern dishes where it adds bitterness rather than aroma.

It is not a substitute for white sesame in a dish that wants a delicate nutty finish. It will dominate.

Toast briefly in a dry pan, shaking constantly, until the seeds smell sweet and start to jump. Black sesame gives you no colour cue because it is already black, so go by smell and sound. Thirty to sixty seconds is usually enough and the margin before bitterness is narrow.

Grind it. This is the step people skip and it is the one that matters. Whole sesame seeds largely survive the digestive tract intact, and more practically, the flavour stays locked inside. A Japanese suribachi, a mortar, or a spice grinder all work. Grind after toasting and while warm.

For a paste, keep grinding past the powder stage and the oil releases on its own, the same way tahini forms. It takes longer than you expect.

Store cold. The oil content is high and black sesame goes rancid, though more slowly than walnuts. Whole seeds keep far longer than ground, so grind in small amounts as needed.