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Cardamom was part of the everyday cuisine of the ancient Romans. It has long been used to add flavour and character to mulled wine. Its peppery taste pairs well with fish, rice, eggs, pickles and desserts. In France cardamom has been used since the Crusades, particularly to provide a fresh flavour to pâtés.

Gourmetpedia

India - (elaichi) Because of its unique flavour, it is added to curry, pullaos and biryanis. Lamb and mutton dishes are sprinkled with a little ground cardamom a few minutes before serving and kept covered.

Cardamom is ground when used to flavour desserts, as in shrikand - yogurt - or in refreshing drinks such as almond flavoured thandai.

In southwest Asia, people chew betel leaves flavoured with cardamom, the eastern seeds of Paradise.

Its use differs from one continent to another, but geographically there are two main schools that account for half of the world's cardamom consumption:

In the Near and Middle East, coffee is always combined with cardamom as dictated by legend. They drink it, according to local parlance, hotter than a camel's behind, when the sun is at its zenith, with some finely ground cloves. It is widely used in Saudi Arabia where consumption is 60 times higher than in the United States, Russia and England.

Scandinavians like to sprinkle cardamom into ground meats, sausages and breads, sweet rolls and desserts, particularly in Sweden and Finland where consumption is 25 times higher than in the United States, Russia and England - nor do they neglect to sprinkle it into their mulled wine which is sipped on cold winter days.

In Germany and Russia, cardamom has been used in liqueurs since 1560, when Ambrosien Vermollen, a Dutch Protestant immigrant to Danzig, created a liqueur from the seeds.