Too Much Star Anise? How to Fix It

Braise tasting more like licorice than dinner? Too much star anise does that to a broth or mulled wine too, sometimes with a medicinal edge. The good news: it usually goes in whole, and whole stars come straight back out. Ground is trickier, since a teaspoon does the work of two stars. And don’t reach for fennel or anise seed to round it out; they carry the same licorice compound.

Quick answer

What’s wrong	Fastest fix	If that’s not enough
Whole stars still in the pot	Take them out now, or strain	Dilute
Ground star anise in a sauce, soup or braise	Dilute with more of the base	A second, unspiced batch, combined
Bitter or medicinal edge	A pinch of sugar, or a little more salt	A sweet ingredient the dish already uses
Baked goods or a spice rub already cooked	Serve with something plain alongside	Make the next batch with less

Why star anise takes over

Star anise gets its licorice flavor from one compound. America’s Test Kitchen says the licorice character of star anise, anise seed and fennel comes from high concentrations of trans-anethole.¹ With one compound running the show, an overdose doesn’t taste like a richer blend of spices. By our reading, it just tastes like more licorice. We found no measurement of that.

Star anise also adds up fast when ground. McCormick gives 1 whole star as equal to 1/2 teaspoon ground,² so a teaspoon of ground star anise is two whole stars, and a tablespoon is six.

Whole stars: take them out

Whole stars sit in the liquid, so you can fish them out with tongs or a slotted spoon. If the pot’s crowded with other aromatics, pour it through a strainer. Jennifer Segal’s mulled wine on Once Upon a Chef gets strained to remove the spices before serving.³ Once the stars are out, they stop adding flavor. How much they’ve already given up depends on how long they’ve been in, and no source we found measures how fast star anise infuses.

Then taste. If the licorice is still too strong, move on to dilution.

Ground star anise, or too much already infused: dilute

Add more of everything except the star anise. It’s the one fix that lowers the amount in each bite. Add more stock, water or the main ingredients to a braise or soup; more wine and fruit to mulled wine; more broth to pho. If the pot won’t hold more, cook a second batch without star anise and combine the two, the method Tasting Table gives for too much garlic.⁴ Two equal batches halve the star anise per serving.

Lean on the dish’s other flavors. In pho, NPR’s one-day recipe uses star anise as one of several broth spices, alongside cinnamon, cloves and peppercorns.⁵ Turning up the dish’s other seasonings, like more ginger, fish sauce, soy sauce or citrus where they belong, gives you something to taste besides licorice. None of these removes anethole, though, and we found no source showing any of them neutralizes it.

Bitter or medicinal edge

If the dish tastes bitter or harsh as well as licorice-heavy, sweetness and salt are your best bets. In controlled taste tests with pure solutions, both sugar and sodium salts suppressed bitterness, sugar was the dominant suppressor of other tastes, and citric acid was the weakest.⁶ That was a lab study, not a test on food. A pinch of sugar or a spoonful of honey suits a braise, mulled wine or poached fruit. In a savory dish, a little more soy sauce or salt may fit better.

Baked goods and rubs

Once a cake, cookie dough or spice-rubbed roast is cooked, you can’t dilute the star anise in the dish itself. Serve it with something plain: whipped cream or plain yogurt with a spiced cake, unseasoned rice or vegetables with a rubbed roast. For a rub that hasn’t been cooked yet, scrape off the excess. Don’t rinse raw meat or poultry under the tap. The USDA doesn’t recommend washing raw meat or poultry before cooking, because rinsing raises the risk of cross-contamination.⁷

Fixes that don’t hold up

Adding fennel or anise seed to “round it out.” Both carry the same compound: ATK traces the licorice character of all three spices to trans-anethole. Add either and you pile on more of the flavor you’re trying to cut. ATK also warns that swapping one for another can change a recipe’s character.¹

Simmering it longer to cook off the flavor. We found no source that tests whether long cooking reduces star anise flavor. Boiling a liquid down leaves the same star anise in less liquid, which concentrates it.

A potato in the pot. The raw-potato trick comes from oversalted soup, and even there a Tasting Table writer who uses it calls it “more of an aid than a final answer.”⁸ We found no test of a potato against star anise or any other spice. A potato left in and eaten is just more unspiced food, which is dilution.

Safety: the wrong star anise

Too much ordinary star anise in a dish is a flavor problem. We found no regulator figure for a culinary amount that’s unsafe to eat, so we don’t give one.

The real safety issue is the species. 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.⁹ In 2003 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration advised the public not to drink teas brewed from star anise after illnesses in about 40 people, including about 15 infants, with symptoms that included seizures.¹⁰ FDA’s concern was that Chinese star anise may contain Japanese star anise, which it said “has long been recognized as toxic in many countries.”¹⁰ 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.

Preventing it next time

Start with one or two stars. Named recipes use small numbers. The Woks of Life’s red braised pork belly uses 2 star anise,¹¹ and Segal’s mulled wine uses 2 whole stars for a 750 ml bottle of red wine.³ As a starting point, use one or two stars for a pot that serves four to six, and taste toward the end of cooking.

Pull the stars when the flavor’s right. In a long braise, taste after the first hour and take the stars out if the licorice is already where you want it.

Be careful with ground. Remember McCormick’s conversion: half a teaspoon of ground star anise does the work of a whole star.² For blends, Katzer warns that five-spice powder, which contains star anise, is very aromatic and should be used with care.¹² In The Woks of Life’s homemade five-spice, four stars make up just one part of the blend, against two parts fennel.¹³

Keep a gentle heat for drinks. Segal warms mulled wine gently for 15 to 20 minutes without letting it boil.³ That limits both how much the liquid reduces and how long the spices steep.

Andrew Janjigian, Why Anise Seed, Fennel Seed, and Star Anise aren’t Interchangeable, America’s Test Kitchen, 2020. americastestkitchen.com · Publication ↩ ↩²
How to Grind Your Own Spices, Plus Spice Conversions, McCormick, 2025. mccormick.com · Merchant ↩ ↩²
Jennifer Segal, Mulled Wine, Once Upon a Chef. onceuponachef.com · Publication ↩ ↩² ↩³
Harmony Colangelo, Simple Ways To Tone Down The Pungency Of Garlic, Tasting Table, 2023. tastingtable.com · Publication ↩
T. Susan Chang, One-Day Pho, NPR, 2012. npr.org · Publication ↩
Green BG et al., Taste Mixture Interactions: Suppression, Additivity, and the Predominance of Sweetness, Physiology & Behavior, 2010. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov · Peer-reviewed ↩
Washing Food: Does it Promote Food Safety?, USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service. fsis.usda.gov · Regulator ↩
Alison Spiegel, How To Fix An Oversalted Soup, Tasting Table, 2016. tastingtable.com · Publication ↩
Vu Ngoc Lô, Illicium verum, Plant Resources of South-East Asia (PROSEA). uses.plantnet-project.org · Reference work ↩
Teas Made from Star Anise Were Associated With Illnesses Including Seizures, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 2003. fda.gov · Regulator ↩ ↩²
Judy Leung, Chairman Mao’s Red Braised Pork Belly, The Woks of Life, 2018. thewoksoflife.com · Publication ↩
Gernot Katzer, Star Anise, Gernot Katzer’s Spice Pages. gernot-katzers-spice-pages.com · Reference work ↩
Kaitlin, How to Make Five Spice Powder, The Woks of Life, 2020. thewoksoflife.com · Publication ↩

Too Much Star Anise? How to Fix a Dish That Tastes Like Licorice