Fenugreek seeds have a sweet, strong taste, with hints of caramel, maple syrup, burnt sugar, and coffee. While its musty aroma is not to everyone’s liking, the spice provides a savoury, bittersweet background for many dishes.
Fenugreek’s flavour is dominated by sotolon, a sweet lactone compound with a taste like brown sugar with hints of candy floss. This spice also has woody caryophyllene, with some buttery diacetyl, and mushroom-like vinyl amyl ketone. Pyrazines give toasted seeds roasted, smoky flavours. The sweaty, rancid, musty aromas are produced by a trio of fragrant acids, which some people dislike.
