Sesame seeds — small flat seeds from sesame plant, nutty when toasted. Hulled white, with-hull tan, or black variant. Asian and Middle Eastern foundation.
Where it comes from
One of the oldest oilseed crops, sesame has been cultivated across Africa and Asia for over four thousand years, prized for both its seeds and its oil.
In the kitchen
Toasted to release their nutty aroma, the seeds garnish breads and sweets and are ground into pastes like tahini.
Across cuisines
Shaobing (烧饼) — Beijing's layered flatbread — gets a heavy sesame seed crust pressed into the dough before baking, with the seeds toasting to a deeply aromatic crackle in the oven. Northern Chinese pastry tradition treats sesame as a textural and aromatic crust rather than a garnish.
Lagana (Greek Lenten flatbread) and kaak (Levantine ring bread) both use sesame as the surface coating — pressed into damp dough so the seeds adhere through baking. Mediterranean baking treats sesame as the standard bread surface across Greek, Lebanese, Egyptian, and Turkish kitchens.
Toasted sesame is the textural and aromatic body of mole negro (the most complex of the seven Oaxacan moles) and mole rojo — ground into the paste along with chiles, nuts, and chocolate. Salsa macha from Veracruz uses whole toasted sesame and peanut suspended in chili oil.
Notable varieties
Tan-pale, neutral-nutty after toasting — the bakery standard for breads and the dukkah/halva baseline. Less bitter than black or unhulled varieties.
Whole, unhulled black seeds — denser flavor, slightly bitter, more aromatic when toasted. Used in Chinese tang yuan fillings, Japanese goma-shio, and the black mole pigment system in Oaxaca.
Brown-husk seeds — coarser texture, more rustic and bitter, higher fiber. Indian til ladoo and some halva varieties prefer unhulled for the chew.
Mexican-cultivated sesame — buttery, lower bitterness, prized for mole work. Oaxacan mole paste makers source from Pacific-coast farms when possible.
