Which herb goes with .... ?
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(very) rough guide.
Angelica
The young green stems and leaf stalks are used for the candying of
cakes and dessert decoration, picked mid to late spring. The leaves
are also sometimes used in cooking. The plant is strongly flavoured
in all it's parts, reminiscent of juniper berries.
Bay ( Sweet Bay )
The oval shaped leaves are strongly flavoured and much used in
cooking.
Bergamot
The orange scented leaves are mainly used for making tea. In
europe the leaves are used to make a soporific tisane. The leaves can
also be shredded for salads.
see Herbal
Tea
Borage
It's the young leaves, and flowers that are used. It has a
cucumber-like flavour.
Use:
Eat the leaf raw or in salads, or may be cooked with other leaf vegetables
such as spinach beet or cabbage. The flowers are usually used as an
edible garnish.
An aromatic tea can be brewed from the fresh or dried flowers. Also
used in cake decoration.
Caraway
The small, black, narrow seeds are the seed of the seed cake, or caraway
cake; they are also used in biscuits, bread and cheese, among many other
dishes and recipes. The young roots can be used as a vegetable rather
like parsnip or carrot, and the leaves in salads.
Catmint
Both the toothed, triangular leaves and the scented blue flowers are
highly aromatic. The fresh leaves, which are rich in vitamin C, make
a fresh, healthy tisane, and can be used to flavour meat pâtès
and terrines. The young shoots may be added to a green salad.
Chamomile
Chamomile is mainly used for small lawns; chamomile teas and tisanes
are also popular.
see Herbal
Tea
Chervil
The leaves have a slightly peppery and parsley-like flavour and are
the part used, mainly for cooking, in sauces, soups and salads. A particular
ingredient in omelette fines herbs.
Chives
Used almost exclusively in cooking, for the delicate onion flavour
of the leaves.
Claytonia
An excellent salad herb with it's bright green, generous leaves and
high vitamin C and iron content.
The leaves can also be cooked as with spinach.
Coriander
Seed
It's the seeds that are used most. The flavour is a mixture of
orange and sage. Powder of the seeds is much used in cooking, for instance
in curries, but also in drinks, including liqeurs and in both the meat and
dessert dishes of Spain, Greece, the Middle East, and India.
Dill
Mostly culinary, in the case of the leaves, for salads, fish and
vegetables; the seeds have a bitter taste.
Fennel
The leaves have a strong and unusual flavour, and are used in cooking,
mostly with fish. The basal stems of Florentine fennel are eaten as a vegetable.
Garlic
white or purplish, rather flat,angular dry bulbs with cloves. There
are many different varieties, but it is difficult to tell them apart. Used
primarily, but not exclusivly as a flavouring and has a character all it's
own.
Hyssop
The aromatic leaves have a mint-like odour, and are slightly bitter
and peppery, so use in cooking should be sparing. Hyssop is also used
in the making of Chartreuse liqueur, and for making Hyssop tea.
see Herbal
Tea
Lemon Balm
The strongly lemon scented leaves are much used in drinks and salads,
sauces and omelettes. A plant much favoured for pot pourri.
see Herbal
Tea
Lemon-Scented Verbena
Strong lemon-flavoured leaves both in cooking and for tea, ( much
imbibed in Spain )
see Herbal
Tea
Lovage
Has a strong yeast / celery aroma and flavour from the entire plant,
the whole of which, excluding the roots, is used in cooking, especially in
soups and casseroles.
Marjoram, Sweet or Knotted
Sweet and unusual aroma to the leaves, which are much used, both fresh
and dried, in cooking. Particularly good for the flavouring of
sausages.
Mint
apple mint
common mint ( garden mint )
peppermint
pineapple mint
spearmint
varigated mint
water mint
Numerous varieties having varying fragrences and flavours, much used
in cooking and for the making of teas.
see Herbal
Tea
Myrtle
Sprigs are used to flavour pork and lamb in Tuscan and Cretan cooking.
The fresh berries are added to some Mediterranean dishes and the dried
berries are used as a seasoning for meat in Turkish dishes. Also used
to make a tisane.
see Herbal
Tea
Oregano
Innumerable uses, particularly in Provencal and Italian dishes;
meat casseroles, soups, pizzas, quiches, tomato dishes of all kinds,
egg dishes, mushrooms, sausages, and baked or grilled fish.
Parsley
The leaves have a strong and distictive flavour, widely used in cooking.
It also has an appriciable quantity of vitamin C, so has useful nutritional
qualities.
Rosemary
The leaves are pungently and pleasantly aromatic giving a distictive
flavour in cooking. Much associated with the cooking of lamb and mutton
dishes with rosemary twigs often used to hold together kebabs and rolled
meats.
Sage
The strongly aromatic, slightly bitter leaves are much used in cooking,
particularly with pork and duck, although sage and onion stuffing is also
a classic stuffing for roast chicken, Sage tea is said to be good for
gargling and as a mouth wash.
see Herbal
Tea
Salad Burnet
The cucumber flavoured leaves are used for salads, soups and drinks.
Can also be used as for borage.
Savory
The leaves are strongly aromatic, nearer to a spice than a herb, used
in cooking, mainly to flavour beans, but also in salads, soups and with fish;
The leaves should be harvested before the flowers appear.
Smallage
Smallage is a useful herb, as you can use it to replace the flavour
of celery in a wide range of stocks, soups and savory dishes. The herb
goes well with fish, cheese and poultry and the finely ground seed can be
used instead of salt.
A tisane of smallage has a sedative effect.
Sorrel, French or Buckler-Leaved
Strongly falvoured broad, oblong, green leaves with a rather
acid taste. Used in soups, sauces and salads and for flavouring with boiled
vegetables such as spinach, orache, seakale and spinach beet.
Sweet Basil
The leaves have a strong sweet scent, not unlike cloves. Much
used in Italian and Indian cookery. Generally used sparingly due to
it's strong flavour
Sweet Cicely
The whole plant has a strong aniseed flavour, though the leaves are
sweet tasting. Sweet cicely leaves can be used to replace up to half
the sugar in tart fruit dishes - more will give an overwhelming flavour of
aniseed - and mix with fruit or vegetable salads, or with butter to produce
a herb butter. The roots can be boiled, with a little oil and lemon
added, and served as a side vegetable. The leaves can be useful as
a sugar substitute for slimmers and diabetics.
Tansy
Strongly scented leaves, somewhat like camphor, and can be used in
the same way that mint is with roast lamb; though the leaves also have
many other culinary uses. Also used to make tansy tea.
see
Tea
Tarragon
The leaves have an unusual and very pleasant flavour, somewhat like
cloves, but with delicate overtones. Used to make tarragon vinegar,
in numerous savory dishes, and also in sauce tartare and continental
mustard.
Thyme
The leaves of lemon thyme are broader and have a lemon scent.
There's considerable culinary use for the highly aromatic thyme leaves,
particularly with meat and savory dishes generally, and in Benedictine liqueur,
also lemon thyme in custard.
Wild Marjoram
Native British form of oregano, though not quite so stronly
flavoured.