IngredientsSpices
Kreuzkümmelcumin
The dried fruit of Cuminum cyminum, comino in Spanish. The German name reads literally as cross caraway.
It misleads: cumin and caraway share a plant family and little else.
Die Verwechslungthe mix-up
Cooking a German recipe in Mexico, the hand goes to the comino by itself. It is on the shelf and the name fits.
What comes out is no longer a German dish. Sauerkraut with cumin tastes Mexican from the first spoonful.
Geschmacktaste
The aroma comes from cuminaldehyde: earthy, warm, resinous, with a smoky floor under it.
That floor is exactly what caraway lacks, and exactly what settles over anything that was meant to taste of aniseed.
Wowhere it does belong
German cooking barely uses it. Mexican cooking runs on it: adobos, caldos and half the taquería.
Keeping both jars is the simple answer: alcaravea for the German pots, comino for everything else.