Herb oils have many uses. They can be used in salad dressings, and a few drops added to cooking oil when quickly frying vegetables or meat can transform the dish completely. I do not eat sausages, but a friend who does tells me that a few drops of rosemary oil, added when frying them, turns the humble “snag” into a connoisseur’s delight. Here is how to make a herb oil:

Buy some good quality bland oil, like samower or almond (peanut and olive oil are not suitable) and fill a screwtopped jar f full with it. Then pick a good handful of the herb you need, it may be rosemary, thyme, lavender, or peppermint, and bruise it well in the mortar and pestle, adding a little white wine vinegar as you go (about 1 tablespoon). Then add the crushed herb and vinegar to the jar containing the oil, seal tightly, and shake it vigorously. Stand the jar on a hot sunny window-ledge or against a wall where it will get maximum heat. This is best done in the hot summer months, but if you want to do it in winter, stand it in the warm (not hot) zone of a radiator, oil heater or fire. Shake it well every day for about three weeks. Test the oil by rubbing it on your skin. If the fragrance is still there after a few minutes, the oil is “done”. If not, crush some more of the herb and repeat for another couple of weeks. Then strain, and bottle, sealing well.

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Tarragon Sauce

Make a roux of 1 1\2 oz. butter, 1 oz. flour, and add 1\2 pint of milk or stock, 1 shallot, and a handful of chopped tarragon leaves. Simmer for several minutes.

Ravigote Sauce

(for chicken or other poultry)

1 cup brown stock

1 tablespoon each chopped tarragon, chervil, chives 1 crushed garlic clove

Pour all into the roasting pan after removing the fat, but leaving all the juices, and bring just to the boil. Serve with the herbs still in. This can also be used on spaghetti, with grated cheese.

Tongue with Tarragon

2 to 3 lb. sliced tongue (cut thin)

2 tablespoons chopped tarragon 1 tablespoon capers

1 tablespoon cornflour, dissolved in 3 tablespoons water 1\2 cup stock, or bouillon 1\2 cup red wine Crushed anise seed

Butter a shallow* baking-dish, and arrange sliced tongue in several layers, sprinkling capers and tarragon between. Combine the stock and cornflour on the stove, stirring till smooth. Add salt and pepper if necessary. Add crushed anise seed and red wine to mixture, then pour it over the tongue and bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until the sauce catches at the side of the pan.

French Mustard

3 tablespoons dry mustard, mixed to a paste with cold water or white wine. Add 1\2 teaspoon sugar, 1 1\2 teaspoons tarragon vinegar, 1\2 teaspoon salt, 1 1\2\ teaspoons safflower oil, 1\4 teaspoon pepper. Mix all together, in blender if possible, to give it the true creamy texture.

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Some of the many types are listed here:

APPLEMINT. Soft, woolly, downy leaves, with a rounded shape, and a strong apple taste and perfume.

VARIEGATED APPLEMINT. Creamy yellow and light-green patched leaf, a very handsome plant. Not quite as much flavour as above. Will grow in open sunlight better than most.

EAU-DE-COLOGNE MINT. A most exotic perfume when crushed, as its name implies. This is a favourite for a perfumed bath. Dry the mint leaves and store in an airtight jar, or use a handful of the fresh leaves, well-bruised, in hot bath water.

SPEARMINT (Mentha spicata). Smoother sharp-pointed leaves, the best all-purpose flavouring mint. Used by the Romans and taken by them to Britain. Grown in monastery gardens. This variety can be affected badly by a type of rust disease which starts in the roots. The stems and leaves will discolour and the roots when lifted will be pulpy and rotten. Lift the whole mint patch and burn it, dig lime or dolomite well into the soil, and leave it for a season. Do not plant mint there again. A good soil, well fed and well limed in the first place, has less chance of incubating this destructive disease.

Spearmint planted near roses and other plants will deter aphis.

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Anethum graveolens UMBELLIFERAE

The first historfcal references to dill go back to records found in the Egyptian tombs. Physicians used it then in the same manner and for the same purpose as we do now, as a powerful digestive aid.

The herb is an annual, and can be grown easily from seed sown right through from spring to autumn. In warm areas it can be sown all the year round. If you let one plant flower and set seed, you will find a few small seedlings around the area the following season. Like all the Umbelliferae (of which the carrot is a member), dill produces a prodigious quantity of seeds from each plant, and these are the part of the herb most commonly used therapeutically.

Dill-water is just as effective nowadays as it was in grandmother’s day, and is possibly even more useful to us with our richer foods and more artificial diet. Soak 1 oz. of bruised dill seeds in 1 pint of cold water for 6 hours, then sweeten to taste with honey. Give one tablespoon to adults, 1 teaspoon to children, to relieve indigestion.

The plant is very attractive, growing to about 3 feet high, with the typical lacy foliage and umbrella-shaped heads of gold flowers. There is a delicate bluish tint to the mature leaves, and when the seed is ripe, the leaves turn purple. Full sunshine suits it best, with plenty of water and good drainage. Do not grow it too close to fennel or angelica, for these relations will cross-pollinate and may lose their own individual flavours. Gather the seed heads when ripe (the seeds will be darkish mauve-brown, with lighter ribs), and store until needed in sealed glass jars. The usual method of separating the seeds from the stems is to rub the stalks with the hands inside a large plastic bag. Dill seed can keep its germinating power up to ten years, so one original plant can provide seeds to give you a constant supply for many years.

Dill contains potassium, sodium, sulphur and phosphorus, and has a very distinctive slightly metallic taste. The leaves are used, too, by Continental cooks, and are added to goulash and many fish and vegetable dishes, as well as being used to garnish hors-d’oeuvre and smorgasbord delicacies. Crab and lobster meat seem to me natural partners for dill’s astringent flavour, and it helps, of course, in the digestion of the raw vegetables so often found in Scandinavian recipes.

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Try several leaves, chopped, to make tea in the usual manner. Pour a cup of boiling water over, and let stand for 5 minutes, or simmer the leaves in water for 3 or 4 minutes (do not boil), strain, and drink steaming hot with a few drops of lemon juice added. The herb has a great deal of saline mucilage, and its salty taste can be a valuable additive to mineral-salt-free diets. Indeed, it is one of the main ingredients, with kelp, in many vegetable salts. The same natural saline content helps reduce temperatures and fevers when the drink is taken hot, and promotes kidney health and activity when used fresh in salads. Chop the cucumber-flavoured leaves finely after washing well: your family or guests may not enjoy a large lump of hairy borage as much as tiny, more palatable pieces. It is very rich in potassium, needed for healthy tissues, bowels, kidneys and liver, and has large quantities of easily assimilable calcium as well. No wonder it kept those ancient warriors on their toes.

Borage was always classed as a herb of jolly Jupiter, a general blood and body strengthener. Its leaves, placed in a bowl of fruit punch, or liquid of any kind, will not only give that cool cucumber flavour, but will actually reduce its temperature.

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