Seeds and Herbs

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

But flowers are not alien to the kitchens of Britain. There is a recipe for Saracen sauce which includes roses in the earliest-known English cookbook written in the late fourteenth century by the chefs or Richard II. Salad flowers were popular for centuries and there are old recipes for flowers in soups and sauces, tarts and puddings, and jams and conserves. Pinks in drinks, elderflower champagne and cowslip wine are ancient favorites. Lavender was used to flavor conserves, make lavender vinegar and lavender wine. In 1573, Thomas Tusser in his planting list of ‘Seeds and Herbs for the Kitchen’ included ‘saffron, marigold, primrose and violets of all sorts.