Cooking With Star Anise: Braises, Broths, Five-Spice and Mulled Wine

One little star can flavor a whole pot. Star anise, the dried, star-shaped fruit of Illicium verum, tastes strongly of licorice, and it’s the backbone of Chinese red braising, a fixture in five-spice powder and a classic in Vietnamese beef broth and mulled wine. A pot usually needs only one or two, and the whole stars go into the liquid and come out before serving. Below: how much recipes call for, whole vs. ground, and the one safety issue every cook should know: its toxic look-alike.

Where star anise does its best work

Chinese braises. Star anise is indispensable for red braising, a technique tied to Shanghai-style cooking. In China it generally goes into pork and chicken dishes. The Woks of Life’s red braised pork belly uses 2 star anise.¹

Five-spice powder. Star anise is one of the five in Chinese five-spice powder. The Woks of Life’s recipe counts 4 star anise as one part, alongside 2 parts fennel seed, 1 part cassia, 1 part Sichuan peppercorns and 1/3 part cloves.² The same site says five-spice is at its best on meat, especially fatty meat.³

Chili oil. The Woks of Life’s Sichuan-style chili oil infuses 5 star anise in the oil.⁴

Vietnamese beef broth. Star anise is popular in beef soups in northern Vietnam. NPR’s one-day pho recipe adds whole star anise to the broth with cinnamon, cloves and peppercorns.⁵

South Asia. You’ll find star anise in Kerala’s garam masala, and as star-shaped fragments in local versions of the Mughal rice dish.⁶

Drinks. Star anise is among the flavorings of Galliano, sambuca, pastis and some absinthes. Thai iced tea is black tea flavored with star anise powder, and Katzer says that in the West, star anise is mostly a cheaper stand-in for anise in mulled wine, desserts and liqueurs.⁶ Jennifer Segal’s mulled wine on Once Upon a Chef uses 2 whole star anise to a 750 ml bottle of red wine, with 2 cinnamon sticks and 6 whole cloves.⁷

Baking and processed foods. Some baked goods, puddings, gelatins, drinks and meat products are flavored with star anise fruit and oil. Home cooks often use it in spiced cakes and poached fruit, but we found no reference work that names specific Western desserts.

How much to use

Here’s the range named recipes cover:

A good starting point is one or two whole stars for a pot of braise or broth that serves four to six. Taste toward the end. Katzer warns that five-spice is very aromatic and should be used with care,⁶ and the same goes for the ground spice on its own.

Whole or ground

Whole stars go into liquids: braises, broths, syrups and mulled drinks. Fish them out before serving, or strain, as Segal’s mulled wine does.⁷ They stay hard after cooking, so you’ll want them out.

Ground star anise goes into spice blends, rubs and batters. McCormick puts 1 whole star at 1/2 teaspoon ground.⁸ For five-spice, Katzer advises keeping the spices whole and grinding them just before use,⁶ and The Woks of Life toasts the whole spices in a dry pan over low heat until fragrant before grinding.²

Not interchangeable with anise or fennel. All three get their licorice note from trans-anethole, but America’s Test Kitchen found tasters could tell when one replaced another, and warns that swapping risks changing a recipe’s character.⁹ See star anise vs. anise seed and star anise substitutes.

Timing

In a long braise, try adding whole stars at the start and tasting after the first hour. If the licorice is already where you want it, pull them early instead of letting them run the full cook. Segal keeps mulled wine below a boil, warming it gently for 15 to 20 minutes.⁷

Storage

None of these figures is specific to star anise. The UC extension names air, light, moisture and heat as what speeds flavor and color loss,¹¹ so keep it sealed in a cool, dark cupboard. A fresh star should smell strongly of licorice when you snap off a point.

Safety: buy food-grade star anise

Japanese star anise (Illicium anisatum) is a toxic relative, and PROSEA warns that star anise is sometimes adulterated with similar-looking fruits, including that species.¹² In 2003 the FDA advised the public not to drink “teas” brewed from star anise after illnesses in about 40 people, including about 15 infants. The FDA described Japanese star anise as long recognized as toxic in many countries.¹³ Buy star anise sold as a food spice from a reputable supplier, and never cook with stars sold for decoration or potpourri. More on the star anise profile.

Related

• Star anise
• Star anise uses
• Star anise substitutes
• Star anise vs. anise seed
• Cloves vs. star anise
• Chinese five-spice powder