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In many ways herbs are the poor relation of the spices mostly because so many commonly-used herbs are found growing in all our gardens. Whereas spices were expensive commodities that needed to be imported over long distances from far-away climes herbs (in soome form or other) were commonly available to all. Which is not to say that certain dried herbs aren't expensive (though these, like saffron, tend to be classed as spices). But in the absence of spices herbs are one of the few ways of flavouring food and even today herbs remain the mainstay of many dishes (most notably fish dishes).
Herbs are also interesting in terms of history. Few herbs have a naturally global spread and many have been cultivated and spread to new areas by human activity. An excellent example of this is peppermint.
This is a sterile cross between wild water mint and wild garden mint. Geneticists believe that the hybrid first arose in Britain about 10 000 years ago, near the spread of the last ice age. The plant is now found across Europe and into Asia. However, being sterile it could not spread that far by its own actions and must have been spread by humans.
This both hints at large trading networks of people during the stone age, but also shows just how important herbs were, bot for culinary, medical and ritual uses. To spread a plant that could not spread to its own, it must have been prized and valued by those people who traded it and transported it with them.
It is also believed that the Romans brought sage plants with them from Egypt to Italy, initially as a sacred herb, but then as a culinary flavouring. Sage spread throughout the Roman Empire. In the 9th century Charlemagne passed his edicts, which gave a list of all plants that royal gardens should grow. This became a canonical list of plants that monasteries used to chose what to grow. Because of this sage was spread with the monasteries northwards and westwards throughout Europe. An Egyptian plant, within 1200 years had become Mediterranean and pan-European.
Below is a table that links to all the herbs described in this guide (each herb is accompanied by a selection of recipes showing how the herb is used in cooking). To date, there are currently over 90 herbs listed.
By definition a herb is any herbaceous part of a plant. This means any combination of the stems the leaves and the flowers. Basically those parts of a plant that live above ground (in contrast the roots of a plant if used as a flavouring are generally considered as spices, as are the seeds and fruit of a plant). The list below therefore describes as many parts of a plant as possible if they are used (either fresh or dried) as a food flavouring.
There will be many herbs that you will find familiar here and hopefully there will be a number that you have not heard of before. The aim of this guide is to open your eyes (and your culinary skills) to the wealth of plants and plant parts that can be used to enhance the flavours of many dishes. If you come away from reading this guide with a new appreciation for the herbs that are avialable to your kitchen then I believe that my work in generating this page has, to a great extent, been vindicated.
It should be recalled that the definition of 'herb' is relatively modern and in more ancient times the lines between herbs and spices were often blurred and a 'spice' seems to have been defined mare as anything that bore a strong aroma. Thus herbs, spices and incense could all come under the label 'spice'; mainly because they were not perishable and could be tarnsproted for many months with little loss of pungency. A herb, in contrast was a flavouring that could be picked fresh from the garden and used in a dish.
The glory days of herbs were in the Middle Ages and the Tudor era where herbs were an essential part of any apothecary's garden and both monks and physicians would grow herbs more for their medicinal than their culinary value (though this did not preclude these herbs from being used for the pot!). It was only during the 18th century with the advent of the modern cookery book that herbs came back into vogue for their culinary value and today a well-stocked herb and spice rack is an essential for any serious cook's kitchen.
Partly this is due to Charlemagne, who effectively made herb gardens commonplace. Indeed, the spread of many herbs from the Mediterranean to Northern and Western Europe was due to the Frankish Empire of the ninth century CE. Indeed, this spread can be traced back to the beginning of the 9th century when Charlemagne wrote and edict called Capitulare de villis vel curtis imperii Caroli Magni. Within he defined a large number of admistrative, legal and agricultural rules for the Frankish empire. In particular, at the end of the document there is a long list of culinary and medicinal herbs that he decreed should be grown in every Imperial garden:
Volumus quod in horto omnes herbas habeant, id est lilium, rosas, fenigrecum, costum, salviam, rutam, abrotanum, cucumeres, pepones, cucurbitas, fasiolum, ciminum, ros marinum, careium, cicerum italicum, squillam, gladiolum, dragantea, anesum, coloquentidas, solsequiam, ameum, silum, lactucas, git, eruca alba, nasturtium, parduna, puledium, olisatum, petresilinum, apium, levisticum, savinam, anetum, fenicolum, intubas, diptamnum, sinape, satureiam, sisimbrium, mentam, mentastrum, tanazitam, neptam, febrefugiam, papaver, betas, vulgigina, mismalvas, id est althaea, malvas, carvitas, pastenacas, adripias, blidas, ravacaulos, caulos, uniones, britlas, porros, radices, ascalonicas, cepas, alia, warentiam, cardones, fabas maiores, pisos mauriscos, coriandrum, cerfolium, lacteridas, sclareiam. Et ille hortulanus habeat super domum suam Iovis barbam.
De arboribus volumus quod habeant pomarios, diversi generis, prunarios, diversi generis, sorbarios, mespilarios, castanearios, persicarios, diversi generis, cotoniarios, avellanarios, amandalarios, morarios, lauros, pinos, ficus, nucarios, ceresarios diversi generis.
Some of the plants described remain uncertain, but the portion of the edict can be translated as:
We want that they should have all herbs in the garden, this is flag (Iris germanica), dog rose, fenugreek, costmary, sage, rue, southernwood, cucumbers, musk melons, bottle gourds, cowpea (Vigna unguiculata or maybe hyacinth bean), cumin, rosemary, caraway, chickpea, squill, gladiolus, bisort (Polygonum bistorta or manyb tarragon), anise, cococynth (Citrullus colocynthis or maybe white briony), heliotrope (Heliotropium europaeum or maybe marigold), baldmoney (Meum athamanticum or maybe ajawin) sermountain, lettuce (or wild lettuce), nigella, rocket, watercress, burdock, pennyroyal, angelica (or manybe alexanders), parsley, celery, lovage, savine, dill, fennel, chicory, burningbush, mustard, savory, water mint, spearmint, horse mint, tansy, catmint, centaury (Centaurium erithrea or maybe feverfew), poppy, Swiss chard, hazelwort, all mallows, that is marsh mallow and common mallow, carrots, parsnips, orache, amaranth, turnip, cabbage, onions (or maybe wild garlic), chives, leeks, radish, shallots, onions, garlic, madder, fuller’s teasel (or maybe cardoon), broad bean, peas, coriander, chervil, caper spurge, clary sage. And each gardener shall have roof houseleek (Jupiter’s beard) growing on the top of his house.
Of the trees, we wish that they should have apples (or maybe bitter oranges) of various kinds, plums of various kinds, sorbs, medlars, chestnuts, peaches of various kinds, quinces, hazelnuts, almonds, mulberries, bay laurel, stone pines, fig, walnuts, sweet cherries (or maybe sour cherries) of various kinds.
For the first time, there was a canonical list of plants that should be planted for food and medicinal purposes. Though the carolingian empire soon fell, this list was adopted by the monasteries of the Middle Ages and as the monasteries spread northwards and westwards they brought these plants, along with the techniques needed to raise them with them. This is why so many of these plants have survived in our gardens even to this day.
To use this guide simply click on the first letter of the herb that you're looking for (above or below). This will take you to a table of all the herbs that begin with that letter where you can chose the herb you want. There are over 50 herbs in his guide so far, including common and rare herbs and herbs used in cuisines from around the world, and you can search by common name and scientific name.
You can also use the search box below to find the herb of your choice. You can use the common name or the scientific name or any text you choose:
Just so you know what to expect, each time you refresh this page you will get a random spice displayed below. This is exactly the same kind of information as displayed on the main spice pages, which you can navigate through using the links above and below:
 Tarragon, Artemisia dracunculus is a perennial herb in the Asteraceae (daisy) family and is closely related to wormwood. It is also sometimes known as 'dragon herb' and is a native of much of the Northern Hemisphere from easternmost Europe across central and eastern Asia to western North America, and south to northern India and Mexico (though populations in the Americas and Europe were probably naturalized by early human settlers and it is now believed that tarragon originally comes from Central Europe). Dependent on the cultivar it grows to about 20–150 cm in height. The plant has slender branched stems bearing lanceolate leaves that are 2ߝ8cm long and 2–10mm broad. The leaves are a glossy green in colour with an entire margin. The flowers tend to be produced in mid summer and are borne in small capitulae 2–4 mm diameter, each capitulum containing up to 40 yellow or greenish-yellow florets. It should be noted, however, that most French tarragon cultivars are sterile and seldom produce flowers. Two main cultivars of tarragon are grown for culinary purposes, French Tarragon and Russian Tarragon. French Tarragon is very aromatic and its flavour is reminiscent of fennel, liquorice and aniseed. To be truthful, Russian Tarragon is not at all fragrant and the taste is rather bitter. Russian tarragon is closer to the wild form of the plant (originating in Central Asia) and though many recipes state that it can be substituted for French tarragon, this is not really true. Russian tarragon is not really culinarily worthwhile. The only reason it is cultivated is that it is frost resistant and can withstand northern European winters to grow the following spring. Unlike French tarragon, Russian tarragon is not typically sterile and can also grown from seed. In the development of French tarragon, though the plant's aromatic qualities were much improved, it also became much less hardy. Anwyere there are low winter temperatures, it can only be grown as an annual (unless it is brought indoors or grown under glass). However, I have found that if you take root cuttings, plant these before the first frosts and bring them into the house, they will give you a supply of new plants to place in your garden for the following spring. French tarragon typically contains up to 3% essential oil, which is dominated by the phenylpropanoids methyl chavicol (estragole) and its isomer anethol. Also present are the terpene components are trans-β-ocimene, cis-β-ocimene and γ-terpineol. Present in lesser quantities are p-methoxy cinnamaldehyde, phellandrene, α- and β-pinene, camphene, limonene and eugenol. Russian tarragon contains much less essential oil (up to 1%), the main components of which being sabinene, methyl eugenol, elemicin, isoelimicin and β-ocimene. As it contains none of the estragole present in French tarragon, Russian Tarragon has none of the sweetness of the other herbs. Indeed, the presence of the flavonoids (quercetin, patuletin) give Russian Tarragon a bitter and astringent flavour. Though it is much easier to grow in cool climates, I would say that Russian tarragon is not worthwhile culinarily. You will either need to perservere with French tarragon, or you can substitute Mexican Tarragon (also known as Winter Tarragon), which is not a true tarragon (being a member of the aster/daisy family) but which has a flavour profile almost identical to French tarragon, if a little stronger. The English name tarragon is derived from the Old French tragonia (compare with the Greek tarchon [ταρχων], which were probably loans from the Arabic (the Modern Arabic name for the plant being at-tarkhun [الطرخون]). Though the origin of the Arabic name is not cleear, it may be a loan from Classical Greek, possibly a word aking to drakon [δράκων] (dragon or snake). Indeed, the species of the name today is still dracunculus (which is the diminutive of Latin draco and means 'little dragon'). The association with dragons comes because the plant has a serpent-shaped rhizome and there used to be a wide-spreade belief (based on sympathetic magic) that tarragon could not only ward off serpents and dragons, but could also heal snake bites. Tarragon is particularly suitable for chicken, fish and egg dishes and is a critical component of Bernaise sauce and it is considered one of the four 'fines herbes' of French cuisine (along with chives, chervil and parsley). In Slovenia, tarragon is used as a spice for a traditional sweet cake called potica. Like many other herbs, tarragon should be used fresh and added to foods towards the end of cooking, as the aroma of tarragon diminishes significantly on drying or if it is over-cooked. |
Chilled Chunky Red Tomato and Tarragon Soup
Grated Carrot Salad with Pomegranate and Tarragon
Belgian Eels in Green Sauce
Tarragon Potica
Tarragon and Walnut Vinaigrette
Medieval Green Sauce
Medieval Stewed Pigeons
Medieval Fritter of Herbs
Guineafowl with Grapes
Montpelier Butter
Fines Herbes
Herb Crusted Cod
Braised Chicken with Verjuice
Cock-a-Leekie Soup
Creole Mustard
Spring Vegetable Blanquette
Shallot and Tarragon Soup
Mussel and Rock Samphiire Salad
Bean Soup with Sea Beans and Sorrel
Seared Scallops with Sea Purslane and Grapes
Herb Vinegar
Salmon Fillets with Morels
Morels with Butter Beans, Tomatoes and Herbs
Asparagus and Morel Bread Pudding
Guinea Hen with Chanterelles and Polenta
Tarragon Sauce
Wild Country Mushrooms
Salmon Coulibiac
Sage, Onion and Hot Chilli Stuffing
Garlic Roasted Chicken
Béarnaise Sauce
Pickled Wild Leek Bulbs
Pickled Garlic
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Below you will find links to other pages dealing with the various Herbs described on this site
List of Spices 'A' List of Spices 'B' List of Spices 'C' List of Spices 'D' List of Spices 'E' List of Spices 'F' List of Spices 'G' List of Spices 'H' List of Spices 'I' List of Spices 'J' List of Spices 'K' List of Spices 'L' List of Spices 'M' List of Spices 'N' List of Spices 'O' List of Spices 'P' List of Spices 'Q' List of Spices 'R' List of Spices 'S' List of Spices 'T' List of Spices 'U' List of Spices 'V' List of Spices 'W' List of Spices 'X' List of Spices 'Y' List of Spices 'Z' The Guide to Spices and their Uses eBook — It takes time and money to keep The Celtnet Recipe Site on the world wide web. You can help support this site and its aims to put ancient cookery books on the web by purchasing our Kindle ebook via Amazon: |
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Modern wine coolers come in a range of sized models. Some are small enough to fit on a counter top whilst others are as large as a domestic size fridge. They are intended to ensure that wines are served at the right temperature
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British cookery is often seen as a joke, yet with the range of available fresh ingredients British desserts are some of the most divine and inspiring in the world. Here I present two classic desserts: one modern and one traditional for your enjoyment.
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British cookery is often treated as 'poor relation' in terms of European cuisine. And whilst this may well have been true in the past, there has always been one area of cookery where Britain has always excelled... the production of desserts. Here you will find recipes for two classic British desserts.
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Coffee is one of the most loved beverages worldwide! There are many people who will attest to the fact that coffee is a very important part of their everyday lives.
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Everything you want to know about Mediterranean Food.
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Bread relies on wheat and barley for it's property as a bread for it's the gluten in these grains that allows bread to rise and keep its shape and texture. However, it is possible to add up to 20% other ingredients into a bread dough and if you add pea or bean flour then you can prepare a bread recipe that provide for all the essential amino acids you need. This article tells you about how breads works and gives you a basic recipe for a wheat bread containing maize flour.
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Although most people adore electric stoves as they are fast, gas cookers are a life saver if there is an electric blackout. When storm season comes around then using a gas cooker can be truly helpful.
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Chillies (chili, chil, aj) is an amazing spice that originates in Central and Northern South America. It was unknown in the Old World until the early 1500 but by 1549 had made its way across the world from Europe through Africa, the Near East and had reached China and Japan. Learn about the history of the spread of chillies and why this is such an amazing spice.
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Tea making is complex. Learn more about growing and preparing tea.
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Well you do not have to use a breather, but if you do you'll wonder why you hadn't started making use of one sooner! This may possibly sound overly dramatic plus a little unbelievable, but when you have tried your wine breather for the first time you will see how distinct a specific wine can taste.
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