You surely find it quite frustrating to try a new recipe, only to find that you don’t know how much of an ingredient you should use or even purchase from the store. You might sometimes be given a weight, like 8 ounces for example, while sometimes you might be required to use a certain volume of fennel, like 2 cups. There are even some recipes that call for the produce description alone (like one or two medium fennels). So what do all of these mean and how much fennel you would find in a bulb? To make cooking a recipe calling for fennel easier, we did the necessary experiments so that you know exactly what you need to buy.
So in our research to find out exactly how many fennels will fit in a cup, we went right for the produce section of the closest local store. A short roam around was enough for us to understand that a pound of fennel bulbs will actually mean 2 small to medium bulbs. You will find around 2 inches of top stock on them. So we did our calculations on one fennel bulb that was medium in size.
While slicing and further preparing our test sample, we noticed that we’d only need about 2/3 of the fennel bulb to fill one cup. The weight of the cup of sliced fennel bulb was about 90 grams or 3 ounces.
You might also like our articles on the weight of onions, green onions, or celery.
Although you will notice that when cooked, the fennel will have a bright and light spring-like flavor, by itself it will be more similar to mild licorice, having a sweet flavor. There are even people that like fennel in cooked dishes, but don’t really enjoy the taste of licorice. If you’re looking for just a pinch of flavor, then you can use some chopped feathery fennel leaves on your soup, salad, or fresh vegetable, or even as a garnish on some recipes. The largest country to produce fennel is actually India.
So by now, you should have a pretty good understanding of how much sliced fennel you would need when a recipe calls for a cup of it. If you’re still struggling to convert between different measurements, then you can always use our fennel convertor to get instant amounts specific to your needs.
General Information on How to Store Fennel
You should try your best to use fresh fennel in your recipes. This is because the anile flavor of the vegetable will actually diminish the longer you store it. You will have a really hard time properly freezing or canning fennel. While storing it for a long period of time, its stalks will turn brown, begin to rot, dry up, or become fibrous. The interior will also get a pulpy texture.
Long-Term Fennel Storage
You can keep fennel for about 2 weeks if you store it in your root cellar.
Short-Term Fennel Storage
You should keep any remaining fennel bulbs in the refrigerator in the crisper section. Doing this will ensure that it keeps for about a week.
You shouldn’t expect fennel leaves to keep fresh for more than 3 to 4 days.