Seeds are structures by which plants create a new generation of their kind. They contain an embryonic plant together with a food supply to fuel its germination and early growth. And they include an outer layer that insulates the embryo from the soil and protects it from physical damage and from attack by microbes or animals.
The most important seeds in the kitchen fall into three groups.
From the book On Food and Cooking (2nd edition) by Harold McGee. © 2004 Harold McGee.
By permission of Scribner, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.