Star Anise vs. Anise Seed: Same Licorice Compound, Unrelated Plants

Star anise and anise seed taste alike for one reason: the essential oil of each is mostly trans-anethole, the licorice-like compound. Past that, they have nothing in common: star anise is the star-shaped fruit of an Asian tree, and anise seed is the tiny fruit of an annual herb in the parsley family. Star anise is the stronger of the two by volume,¹ it has a toxic look-alike that anise seed doesn’t, and whether one can stand in for the other depends on how much the licorice note matters in your dish.

Side by side

The oil and anethole figures come from separate PROSEA and Britannica entries describing different samples, so the ranges show overlap, not a ranking. PROSEA notes that star anise products compete with anise products precisely because anethole is the main oil component of both.³

Why they taste alike, and why tasters can still tell

America’s Test Kitchen puts it this way: the licorice character of anise seed, fennel seed and star anise comes from high concentrations of trans-anethole, but each comes from a different plant with its own secondary compounds.⁹ Those are what a careful taster picks up. Star anise comes across woodier and a little bitter, anise seed sweeter and more herbal. PROSEA adds a note on the word itself: anise’s flavor is often confused with licorice and wrongly called licorice-like, and anise oil is traditionally paired with licorice root in licorice candy.⁶

What you’re looking at

Star anise. The “star” is a cluster of boat-shaped pods, usually 8 but anywhere from 5 to 13, forming a fruit 2.5 to 4.5 cm across. Each rough, reddish-brown pod holds one smooth, glossy, light-brown seed about 8 to 9 mm long. The fruits are harvested just before they ripen, when their oil content is high. In the kitchen you use the whole star, pods and seeds together.

Anise seed. What’s sold as anise seed is a whole dry fruit, nearly egg-shaped, about 3.5 mm long, with five ridges down its back. The fruits are ready to harvest when they turn grayish-green.

How each is used

Star anise. Star anise generally goes into pork and chicken dishes in China. It’s one of the spices in Chinese five-spice, though not the biggest part: The Woks of Life’s recipe uses 2 parts fennel seed to 1 part star anise.¹⁰ NPR’s one-day pho adds star anise to the broth with cinnamon, cloves and peppercorns.¹¹ Whole stars are usually simmered and lifted out before serving. A star in apple pie filling or poached fruit is a cook’s choice, not a tradition.

Anise seed. Aniseed is widely used to flavor pastries and is the characteristic ingredient of the German bread Anisbrot, and in the Mediterranean and Asia it goes into meat and vegetable dishes. America’s Test Kitchen tested the swap in anise biscotti and in Italian sausage meatballs,⁹ two dishes where anise seed often shows up.

Spirits. The two split the anise-flavored drinks between them. Kew names Galliano, sambuca, pastis and some types of absinthe as made with star anise,² while Britannica names absinthe, anisette and Pernod as flavored with anise oil.⁵ Which one a given brand uses is up to its maker. You’ll often see ouzo listed as flavored with anise seed, but neither source we opened names ouzo.

Can one stand in for the other?

The sources disagree on whether you should, not on how much. America’s Test Kitchen’s tasters “easily picked out differences” in biscotti and quickly noticed when fennel and then anise seed went into pho, though the differences were harder to spot in meatballs crowded with other spices. ATK advises against treating them as interchangeable.⁹ The Spice House calls anise seed “a great substitute for star anise.”¹ Our take: where licorice is the flavor you’d name, expect a noticeable change. In a busy spice mix, it may slip by.

The amounts below come from our star anise substitutes and anise seed substitutes pages and keep their labels: Attributed quotes a named source, and Method marks our own starting point.

Anise seed in place of star anise. The Spice House says star anise is the stronger of the two and that 1/2 teaspoon of anise seed replaces one whole star, and A Couple Cooks gives the same figure.¹¹² Neither says where the number came from. In a broth or braise, tie the seeds in a tea ball or cheesecloth so they come out with the other whole spices.

Star anise in place of anise seed. For a steeped liquid, use one whole star per 1/2 teaspoon of anise seed. For baking, grind it. McCormick puts one whole star at 1/2 teaspoon ground,¹³ so put the two swaps together and you get roughly equal volumes of ground star anise and anise seed. That’s arithmetic across two sources, not a tested ratio, so go a little under it in a delicate cookie and taste.

Safety: Japanese star anise

Japanese star anise, Illicium anisatum, is a separate species in the same genus as star anise.⁸ In September 2003 the FDA advised the public not to drink “teas” brewed from star anise after learning of about 40 illnesses, about 15 of them in infants, with symptoms that included seizures.⁷ Its concern was that Chinese star anise, which it considers generally recognized as safe, may contain Japanese star anise, which “has long been recognized as toxic in many countries.”⁷ PROSEA notes that star anise is sometimes adulterated with similar-looking fruits, including Japanese star anise.³ Buy star anise sold as a food spice, and never cook with stars sold for decoration or potpourri.

Anise seed has no comparable look-alike problem in the sources we reviewed. PROSEA’s adulteration worries for anise are exhausted fruits, dust, and ground fennel mixed into ground anise.⁶ For anise seed’s own safety notes, see anise seed.

What isn’t known

• The 1/2-teaspoon-per-star figure comes from a merchant and a food writer, with no stated basis.
• The oil and anethole ranges come from different references and samples, so they can’t be ranked.
• Kew and Britannica give different native ranges for anise seed.
• Which anise spirits use which spice varies by brand, and no source we opened names the spice in ouzo.
• No dated price comparison.

Related

• Star anise, star anise substitutes, star anise uses, cooking with star anise
• Anise seed, anise seed substitutes
• Fennel seed vs. anise seed, cloves vs. star anise, fennel seed
• Chinese five-spice powder