Talk:Tahini

Shelf life
Shelf life? Peanut butter lasts awhile in the closet, what about this? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.227.3.15 (talk • contribs) 12:20, 13 July 2006 (UTC)


 * Many brands have an expiration date (usually 18-24 months after production) but its not generally a hard date. Keep it in the fridge so it doesn't seperate as quickly and keep the lid on tight and it'll keep more or less indefinately. Its not a dangerous thing though, the oil content will start to foul a bit and give it a bad taste long before its hazardous to eat. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.188.36.251 (talk • contribs)

Tahini traditional greek food?????
I deleted the following paragraph:

"In Greece and in Cyprus, Tahini is served with pitta (or traditional Cypriot bread in Cyprus) as an appetizer in tavernas, usually accompanied by Greek village salad, olives and tzatziki, or taramosalata in fish tavernas. Tahini is often used with lemon as a dressing for village salads, and is also used to dress souvlaki in pitta."

I don't know who wrote this nonsense.Tahini is presented like is traditional greek food, instead it was totally unknown until a few years ago when they started selling it to the some food stores, and this only because the vast number of recent muslim emmigrants consume it.I learnt myself tahini in the ...UK.

Antonis Sotiriadis

Δεν ξέρω ποιος έγραψε αυτές τις βλακείες.Το ταχίνι παρουσιάζεται σαν παραδοσιακό ελληνικό φαγητό,αντιθέτως ήταν εντελώς άγνωστο μέχρι πριν από λίγα χρόνια όταν άρχισαν να το πωλούν σε καταστήματα κι αυτό μόνο και μόνο επειδή ο μεγάλος αριθμός των προσφάτως αφιχθέντων μουσουλμάνων μεταναστών το καταναλώνει.Εγώ έμαθα το ταχίνι στο ....Ηνωμένο Βασίλειο.

Αντώνης Σωτηριάδης — Preceding undated comment added 10:10, 22 February 2007 (UTC)


 * Sir, you are correct. I noticed the foolish statements but was too un-motivated at that time to edit it and fill in the gaps myself. Thank you for the cleanup. -Agouri


 * (Ταχίνι στην πίτα με σουβλάκι, τι διάολο...) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.103.244.180 (talk) 09:25, 1 July 2009 (UTC)


 * In Cyprus it is VERY popular. In Greece it is not. In Cyprus it is used for dipping or in pitta souvlaki. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 128.243.253.111 (talk) 01:07, 30 November 2009 (UTC)


 * I have to agree. I've never heard about it until now. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.254.36.68 (talk) 04:17, 9 February 2014 (UTC)

Tahina redirects to this article (Tahini)
I've done some checking, and Tahina does not appear to be the same thing as Tahini. Tahina starts with Tahini, and then adds lemon juice and other spices to it. The two are not interchangable. I don't believe that Tahina should redirect to this article, because it gives the mistaken impression that the two are the same. Which, while similar, are completely different when used in cooking. --Jmccorm 21:38, 24 June 2007 (UTC)
 * Not true. They're the same thing. There might be some recipe also called tahina (though I don't know one), but tahini = tahin = tahine = tahina. Njál (talk) 17:33, 15 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Njál, indeed. One can buy bottles of pure tahina, and one may add anything from lemon juice to motor oil, whatever one desires. Heck, one could add turpentine to peanut butter if one was so inclined. The recipes that call for lemon juice do not affect the fact that supermarket-purchased bottles of tahina contain sesame and nothing but sesame. Sevendust62 (talk) 17:08, 5 October 2009 (UTC)
 * You're all wrong. Tahina and Tahini are not the same thing, nor are they two different things. Tahina (with that classic middle eastern chhhhh and a barely-pronounced a) is the thing described in the article, whether there is lemon juice or not, whether there are spices or not. Tahini is a transliteration devised by a person with a profound mental disability that prevents him from understanding what vowels are, and what sounds they signify. Never, ever, ever, refer to anything as "tahini." Daniel J. Hakimi (talk) 02:25, 6 September 2016 (UTC)
 * Tahini is Greek. Tahina is Arabic and also Hebrew. RPSM (talk) 11:18, 10 July 2017 (UTC)
 * Do you have a source on that? There is no hint of that in the article, which says that the first known use of "tahini" was in 1930. Daniel J. Hakimi (talk) 14:53, 23 September 2018 (UTC)

Hebrew
A recent addition to the article reads:
 * The Hebrew equivalent is "tehina" ... from the root טחן 'to grind'.

Though the Semitic roots are no doubt related (grinding, flour, etc.), I'd think the Hebrew tehina is a recent borrowing from the Arabic in the sense of sesame paste, in which case I see no reason to include it in the article. --macrakis (talk) 22:48, 3 November 2008 (UTC)


 * I agree and have removed this information from the article. I also added a source for the word's relation to the Arabic verb tahana "to grind".  T i a m u t talk 15:51, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

What pastry?
"In Greece and Cyprus, tahini is mixed with a sort of pastry along with sugar making a sweet dessert or breakfast side dish."

Guys, you have a lot of fantasy...Can you tell me the name of this pastry? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 91.140.98.25 (talk) 20:56, 23 January 2009 (UTC)


 * Again this is put back...sorry, but nobody answered my question, because there is no such pastry, only in your fantasy... — Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.107.89.74 (talk • contribs) 12:02, 24 January 2009 (UTC)


 * Baklava...Loukamades...DOES THAT ANSWER YOUR QUESTION? Schnitzel MannGreek . [[Image:FlagofAssyria.svg|20px]] 23:57, 20 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Maybe they are referring to HALVA — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.74.124.22 (talk • contribs) 22:44, 22 November 2014 (UTC)

Origin of final i
Quite nice spread on bread but not so good for the really runny ones.

Also iv'e seen it as tahini and tahin, is there a difference caused by the extra 'i'? Alan2here (talk) 17:55, 27 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Does anyone know where the final i in English came from? I live in Egypt where it is the most common of foods and everyone uses the final a. The Arabic spelling uses the final a. In all my Arabic study and travel in Arab countries I've never heard it pronounced with a final ee. I posted a theory of the origin of the i, from Syrian pronunciation of eh. I also will try to put a disambiguation page for Tahina.--Zachbe (talk) 05:57, 8 December 2009 (UTC)


 * I don't understand why the pronounciation "eh" should lead to a transcription with -i.  If an English speaking person hears the pronounciation -eh, he/she will most likely transcribe it as tahinay or tahiney, perhaps tahineh, certainly not tahini. --Austrian (talk) 13:55, 25 April 2012 (UTC)


 * Boy, you do not want to know how "China" and "Japan" are supposed to be pronounced. I'm mostly convinced that the first English-speaking people to travel out of Europe were all too racist to bother learning anything about the sounds they were transliterating. Daniel J. Hakimi (talk) 02:28, 6 September 2016 (UTC)

I have seen "tahini sauce" representing a completely different product, appearing to be a kind of shredded sauteed onion sauce, brown in colour.

Drsruli (talk) 00:21, 14 March 2022 (UTC)

Should there be a recipe in the external links section ?
For now I was WP:bold, and removed it (since I didn't see a recipe link on more high traffic articles)

If it is a valid link, I have more to add... Talgalili (talk) 18:15, 8 October 2010 (UTC)


 * There should only be external links to recipes if they are in some sense definitive. This is rare. There is, for example, a Grande Confrérie du Cassoulet de Castelnaudary which claims to codify the recipe for cassoulet (actually just cassoulet de Castelnaudary).  But then, there is also the Académie Universelle du Cassoulet which is less dogmatic about the ingredients.  In that case, they are probably both worth mentioning, though of course there are many variants of cassoulet.  But usually external links to recipes are a bad idea. --Macrakis (talk) 18:38, 8 October 2010 (UTC)
 * Macrakis, I've learned something new today - thanks :) 109.64.96.9 (talk) 19:03, 8 October 2010 (UTC)

East Asian unhulled sesame paste?????
I will edit the following...

"Because East Asian sesame paste is made from unhulled seeds, it is more bitter than tahini."

This is not true. Chinese and East Asian sesame paste is usually made from black sesame which is toasted seeds not unhulled seeds. The additional flavour comes from the charred seed. This is what I buy in southern China and have seen in nearby countries. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.40.218.20 (talk) 08:11, 23 November 2011 (UTC)

Calcium content
I haven't done much research but have noticed that the calcium content in tahini varies greatly.

After a little research I found: "One ounce of toasted sesame kernels (hulled seeds) contains 37 milligrams of calcium, whereas one ounce of whole, toasted and roasted seeds contains a whopping 281 milligrams of calcium." http://www.vrg.org/journal/vj96jul/vj967hot.htm

I hope someone can include this in the article. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.249.0.238 (talk • contribs) 17:11, 22 June 2012 (UTC)

healthy fatty acids omega-3 and omega-6
the article states " Tahini is an excellent source of copper, manganese and the amino acid methionine.[12] Tahini is a source of the healthy fatty acids omega-3 and omega-6. " however, the article on omega-6 states that omega-6 is harmful and causes cancer. so is it healthy, or harmful? 50.47.115.161 (talk) 04:22, 20 April 2014 (UTC)

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Sarah Valvano. — Preceding undated comment added 00:21, 14 December 2016 (UTC)

Very unbalanced article
No mention of heavy metal content, no mention of Sesamin, Arsenic, Cadmium, Lead, other heavy metals. Sesame seeds at least sometimes contains a lot of one of them!

"Tahini is an excellent source of calcium, manganese and the amino acid methionine.[12] Tahini is a source of healthy omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids.[13] Tahini in a jar with natural oil separation visible at the top
 * Wikipedia now only advertises the positive things:

Tahini made from raw sesame seeds is lower in fat than tahini made from roasted seeds.[14][15]

Tahini's relatively high levels of calcium and protein make it a useful addition to vegetarian and vegan diets, as well as to raw food diets when eaten in its unroasted form. Compared to peanut butter, tahini has higher levels of fiber and calcium and lower levels of sugar and saturated fats.[16]"

"Sesamin is a lignan derived from sesame seeds (Sesamum indicum) that appears to inhibit vitamin E metabolism, which causes a relative increase in circulating levels of γ-tocopherol and γ-tocotrienol; it shows most promise in augmenting the efficacy of vitamin E supplements". 91.155.24.127 (talk) 11:47, 15 April 2017 (UTC)
 * And no mention of this mostly positive thing, that is bad if eaten too much (like any other natural medicine is bad if overdosed): https://examine.com/supplements/sesamin/

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Foreign-language equivalents in lead sentence
According to MOS:FORLANG: If the subject of the article is closely associated with a non-English language, a single foreign language equivalent name can be included in the lead sentence, and Do not include foreign equivalents in the lead sentence just to show etymology.

Since the article describes Tahini as being an ancient and widespread dish, known for millennia in Africa, Iran, India, China, etc., I don't see that it is primarily associated with Arabic or belongs only to Arab culture. The etymological origin of the English name is not the same as the history of the food itself - an Arabic-derived name doesn't make it exclusively an Arab food. It has other names in other languages. Therefore I removed the Arabic equivalent, along with all other foreign-language equivalents, from the lead sentence.

An IP editor has been repeatedly re-adding it without explanation. I would ask that they stop that, and discuss it here if desired. Otherwise the page will need to be protected from IP edits. --IamNotU (talk) 14:04, 21 June 2019 (UTC)

A series of IPs starting with "79.", that geolocate to Tel Aviv on the "Bezeq International" ISP, appear to be the same person who has been carrying on a long-term WP:EDITWAR against multiple editors regarding foreign-language equivalents in the lead sentence. See these edits:, , , , , , , , , , etc. Therefore I have requested page protection for the article. --IamNotU (talk) 01:23, 29 September 2019 (UTC)

So what is non-raw tahini?
The article states that “plain unprocessed sesame paste with no added ingredients” is sometimes called raw tahini, but it doesn’t say anything about how this differs from regular tahini.

Is the difference that regular tahini has additional ingredients (if so, which ones are commonly used? The article mentions only sesame seeds as an ingredient), or perhaps that it is made with toasted sesame seeds (in which case the sentence is misleading – the paste can be unprocessed regardless of whether the seeds are toasted or not). Kokoshneta (talk) 12:26, 28 December 2019 (UTC)


 * , in relation to food products, "raw" typically means "uncooked", and according to most of the information I could find, it refers to tahini made with seeds that are not toasted, which arguably could be described as a form of processsing. I did find a couple of sources that used the phrase "raw tahini" to describe regular toasted-seed tahini, i.e., before being mixed with lemon juice, water, garlic, etc. to make a sauce,, but it seemed to be an exception. Commercial "raw tahini" products are generally also made with organic seeds, without any preservatives etc., and often sold as "health food", though that can also be true of toasted-seed tahini.


 * I decided to change the sentence a bit to clarify it, and move it to the "preparation and storage" section. I think that "raw tahini" is relatively uncommon, and doesn't require mention in the lead section. For example, there are about twenty million Google search results for "tahini", but less than sixty thousand for "raw tahini". I also removed the citation, since it didn't actually say anything about it, only mentioning a "teaspoon of raw tahini" as an ingredient in a smoothie. I had trouble finding a good reliable source that describes it, so I just used the existing one that was tagged as self-published. If someone else can find a better one, please do. --IamNotU (talk) 13:48, 28 December 2019 (UTC)

Analogous to the difference between tomato sauce sold in cans, which is not usually considered a ready-to-eat product, and tomato sauce as sold in jars, which is. This "raw tahina" (plain sesame paste) is not particularly difficult to source where I live; I would recognize the Joyva cans easily. Ready-prepared tahina in plastic containers found in the refrigerated section is common. The canned "unprepared" tahina may be less common (in USA), in a different part of the supermarket, or perhaps in another market entirely (an ethnic market). Lately, I see that it is also available in smaller tubes.

Drsruli (talk) 07:01, 20 April 2022 (UTC)

How much of which sugars?
Could anyone clarify how much of which sugars (maltose, sucrose, free fructose, free glucose etc.) tahini contains? Thanks! 130.239.42.220 (talk) 16:26, 22 October 2023 (UTC)