CULINARY HERBS


CONTENTS

 Page
Prefacev
A Dinner of Herbs7
Culinary Herbs Defined11
History12
Production of New Varieties15
Status and Uses19
Notable Instance of Uses21
Methods of Curing22
Drying and Storing25
Herbs as Garnishes30
Propagation, Seeds32
Cuttings34
Layers36
Division37
Transplanting39
Implements 42
Location of Herb Garden44
The Soil and Its Preparation 45
Cultivation47
Double Cropping 48
Herb Relationships 49
The Herb List:
Angelica55
Anise59
Balm63
Basil65
Borage71
Caraway73
Catnip77
Chervil79
Chives80
Clary81
Coriander82
Cumin84
Dill87
Fennel89
Finocchio93
Fennel Flower94
Hoarhound95
Hyssop96
Lavender97
Lovage99
Marigold100
Marjoram101
Mint105
Parsley109
Pennyroyal119
Peppermint119
Rosemary120
Rue122
Sage125
Samphire129
Savory, Summer131
Savory, Winter132
Southernwood133
Tansy134
Tarragon134
Thyme137

ILLUSTRATIONS

Page
Herbs and Children, a Happy HarmonyFrontispiece
Spading Fork1
Barrel Culture of Herbs2
Transplanting Board and Dibble5
Assortment of Favorite Weeders8
Popular Adjustable Row Marker10
Popular Spades13
Lath Screen for Shading Beds16
Harvesting Thyme Grown on a Commercial Scale18
Garden Hoes of Various Styles20
Dried Herbs in Paper and Tin22
Herb Solution Bottle24
Paper Sacks of Dried Herbs for Home Use26
Hand Cultivator and Scarifier27
Flat of Seedlings Ready to Be Transplanted32
Glass Covered Propagating Box34
Flower Pot Propagating Bed35
Holt's Mammoth and Common Sage38
Marker for Hotbeds and Cold Frames39
Leading Forms of Trowels40
Wooden Dibbles43
Combination Hand Plow45
Surface Paring Cultivator47
Thinning Scheme for Harvesting48
Center Row Hand Cultivator50
Hand Plow52
Prophecy of Many Toothsome Dishes56
Anise in Flower and in Fruit60
Sweet Basil66
Borage, Famous for "Cool Tankard"70
Caraway for Comfits and Birthday Cakes74
Catnip, Pussy's Delight78
Coriander, for Old-Fashioned Candies82
Dill, of Pickle Fame86
Sweet Fennel90
Sweet Marjoram102
Mint, Best Friend of Roast Lamb106
Curled Parsley110
Rue, Sour Herb of Grace124
Sage, The Leading Herb for Duck and Goose Dressing126
Holt's Mammoth and Common Sage Leaves129
Dainty Summer Savory130
Tarragon, French Chef's Delight135
Thyme for Sausage137

[Pg 1]


CULINARY HERBS

In these days of jaded appetites, condiments and canned goods, how fondly we turn from the dreary monotony of the "dainty" menu to the memory of the satisfying dishes of our mothers! What made us, like Oliver Twist, ask for more? Were those flavors real, or was it association and natural, youthful hunger that enticed us? Can we ever forget them; or, what is more practical, can we again realize them? We may find the secret and the answer in mother's garden. Let's peep in.

The garden, as in memory we view it, is not remarkable except for its neatness and perhaps the mixing of flowers, fruits and vegetables as we never see them jumbled on the table. Strawberries and onions, carrots and currants, potatoes and poppies, apples and sweet corn and many other as strange comrades, all grow together in mother's garden in the utmost harmony.

Spading Fork
Spading Fork

All these are familiar friends; but what are those plants near the kitchen? They are "mother's sweet herbs." We have never seen them on the table. They never played leading roles such as those of the cabbage and the potato. They are merely members of "the cast" which performed the small but important parts in the production of the pleasing tout ensemble[Pg 2]...soup, stew, sauce, or salad...the remembrance of which, like that of a well-staged and well-acted drama, lingers in the memory long after the actors are forgotten.

Barrel Culture of Herbs
Barrel Culture of Herbs

In the last 50 years probably no culinary plants have been so neglected. Especially during the "ready-to-serve" food campaign of the closed quarter century did they suffer most. But they are again coming into their own. Few plants are so easily cultivated and prepared for use. With the exception of the onion, none may be so effectively employed and none may so completely transform the "left-over" as to tempt an otherwise balky appetite to indulge in a second serving without being urged to perform the homely duty of "eating it to save it." Indeed, sweet herbs are, or should be the boon of the housewife, since they make for both pleasure and economy. The soup may be made of the most wholesome, nutritious and even costly materials; the fish may be boiled or baked to perfection; the joint or the roast and the salad may be otherwise faultless, but if they[Pg 3] lack flavor they will surely fail in their mission, and none of the neighbors will plot to steal the cook, as they otherwise might did she merit the reputation that she otherwise might, by using culinary herbs.

This doleful condition may be prevented and the cook enjoy an enviable esteem by the judicious use of herbs, singly or in combination. It is greatly to be regretted that the uses of these humble plants, which seem to fall lower than the dignity of the title "vegetable," should be so little understood by intelligent American housewives.

In the flavoring of prepared dishes we Americans...people, as the French say, "of one sauce"...might well learn a lesson from the example of the English matron who usually considers her kitchen incomplete without a dozen or more sweet herbs, either powdered, or in decoction, or preserved in both ways. A glance into a French or a German culinary department would probably show more than a score; but a careful search in an American kitchen would rarely reveal as many as half a dozen, and in the great majority probably only parsley and sage would be brought to light. Yet these humble plants possess the power of rendering even unpalatable and insipid dishes piquant and appetizing, and this, too, at a surprisingly low cost. Indeed, most of them may be grown in an out-of-the-way corner of the garden, or if no garden be available, in a box of soil upon a sunny windowsill—a method adopted by many foreigners living in tenement houses in New York and Jersey City. Certainly they may be made to add to the pleasure of living and, as Solomon declares,[Pg 4] "better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox with contention."

It is to be regretted that the moving picture show and the soda water fountain have such an influence in breaking up old-fashioned family evenings at home when everyone gathered around the evening lamp to enjoy homemade dainties. In those good old days the young man was expected to become acquainted with the young woman in the home. The girl took pride in serving solid and liquid culinary goodies of her own construction. Her mother, her all-sufficient guide, mapped out the sure, safe, and orthodox highway to a man's heart and saw to it that she learned how to play her cards with skill and precision. Those were the days when a larger proportion "lived happy ever after" than in modern times, when recreation and refreshment are sought more frequently outside than inside the walls of home.

But it is not too late to learn the good old ways over again and enjoy the good old culinary dainties. Whoever relishes the summer cups that cheer but do not inebriate may add considerably to his enjoyment by using some of the sweet herbs. Spearmint adds to lemonade the pleasing pungency it as readily imparts to a less harmful but more notorious beverage. The blue or pink flowers of borage have long been famous for the same purpose, though they are perhaps oftener added to a mixture of honey and water, to grape juice, raspberry vinegar or strawberry acid. All that is needed is an awakened desire to re-establish home comforts and customs, then a[Pg 5] little later experimentation will soon fix the herb habit.

Transplanting Board and Dibble
Transplanting Board and Dibble

The list of home confections may be very pleasingly extended by candying the aromatic roots of lovage, and thus raising up a rival to the candied ginger said to be imported from the Orient. If anyone likes coriander and caraway...I confess that I don't...he can sugar the seeds to make those little "comfits," the candies of our childhood which our mothers tried to make us think we liked to crunch either separately or sprinkled on our birthday cakes. Those were before the days when somebody's name was "stamped on every piece" to aid digestion. Can we ever forget the picnic when we had certain kinds of sandwiches? Our mothers minced sweet fennel, the tender leaves of sage, marjoram or several other herbs, mixed them with cream cheese, and spread a layer between two thin slices of bread. Perhaps it[Pg 6] was the swimming, or the three-legged racing, or the swinging, or all put together, that put a razor edge on our appetites and made us relish those sandwiches more than was perhaps polite; but will we not, all of us who ate them, stand ready to dispute with all comers that it was the flavors that made us forget "our manners"?

But sweet herbs may be made to serve another pleasing, an æsthetic purpose. Many of them may be used for ornament. A bouquet of the pale pink blossoms of thyme and the delicate flowers of marjoram, the fragrant sprigs of lemon balm mixed with the bright yellow umbels of sweet fennel, the finely divided leaves of rue and the long glassy ones of bergamot, is not only novel in appearance but in odor. In sweetness it excels even sweet peas and roses. Mixed with the brilliant red berries of barberry and multiflora rose, and the dark-green branches of the hardy thyme, which continues fresh and sweet through the year, a handsome and lasting bouquet may be made for a midwinter table decoration, a fragrant reminder of Shakespeare's lines in "A Winter's Tale":

"Here's flowers for you;
Hot lavender, mints, savory, marjoram;
The marigold, that goes to bed wi' the sun
And with him rises weeping."

The rare aroma of sweet marjoram reminds so many city people of their mother's and their grandmother's country gardens, that countless muslin bags of the dried leaves sent to town ostensibly for stuffing poultry never reach the kitchen at all, but[Pg 7] are accorded more honored places in the living room. They are placed in the sunlight of a bay window where Old Sol may coax forth their prisoned odors and perfume the air with memories of childhood summers on the farm.

Other memories cling to the delicate little lavender, not so much because the owner of a well-filled linen closet perfumed her spotless hoard with its fragrant flowers, but because of more tender remembrances. Would any country wedding chest be complete without its little silk bags filled with dried lavender buds and blooms to add the finishing touch of romance to the dainty trousseau of linen and lace? What can recall the bridal year so surely as this same kindly lavender?

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