Condiments, Spices and Flavors

by Mary Elizabeth Green

Celery is a veritable plebeian, originally growing wild in the ditches and fens of Europe, a coarse, offensive and poisonous vegetable. Few plants are so susceptible to the influences of cultivation and it is difficult to recognize its unaristocratic prototype in the tender, white and aromatic stalks of the garden product. It belongs to the parsley family and every portion is useful to the cook, from the daintily curled tops which may be used for both flavor and garnish, the stalks which may be eaten plain, dressed raw in salad or cooked, to the seeds, the flavor of which makes even the poorest of soups relishable. The seeds are now commonly ground for the making of “celery salt” or “celery pepper,” as the same product is variously called. A variety of celery, called celeriac, is cultivated in certain European countries, notably Germany, the root only, which is large and fleshy, being eaten. The famous “wild celery” of Chesapeake Bay is simply “eelgrass,” an aquatic plant which bears no relationship whatever to the umbelliferæ, of which order celery is a species.

Fennel is an umbelliferous plant, native to portions of temperate Europe and Asia, especially Portugal. The fruits possess an aromatic flavor while the tender shoots are used for salad. The plant and its culinary value was well known to the Romans, and it is to-day cultivated in both Europe and America. The fruits of the European fennel are used in the making of an aromatic drink, while in America the plant is chiefly cultivated for its leaves. It has been said that fennel is to fish what mint is to lamb, and in certain of the southern states mackerel is considered of too strong a flavor to be eaten unless cooked with fennel. The fennel thus used grows wild, the green leaves being tied in bunches and boiled with the fish.

Bay Leaves.

Bay leaves are the leaves of a shrub belonging to the laurel tribe, which grows wild in the Mediterranean countries. Among the Greeks the bay leaf was consecrated to the uses of poetry, heroism and religion. Not until later times was it used as a flavoring for foods and for the decoration of various dishes. It grows wild in certain of the southern states but the leaves are usually exported from Europe, dried. The leaves are used in soups, stews and pickles and, although the average housewife finds it next to impossible to procure them, scarcely a recipe for these articles of food but includes bay leaves among its flavorings.

Summer savory is a hardy little annual which has long grown wild in southern Europe and is now largely cultivated for culinary use. Both the summer and winter savories are fragrant and are valuable in the seasoning of sausages and gravies.

Parsley is a native of the island of Sardinia and, having been improved in both fragrance and appearance by culture, is more valuable than any other herb for the garnishing of dishes. Its curled, crisp, green leaves give the poorest salad or meat a tempting appearance, well sustained by the fineness of flavor it imparts. Its flavor somewhat resembles that of celery. The little herb may be seen in nearly every garden during the summer months and often in a pot, or kitchen window-box during the winter, from which it may be plucked fresh daily. The experienced cook would part with any other half dozen condiments more willingly than with parsley. The plant belongs to the umbelliferæ, which order includes the carrot, parsnip and celery. It is said to have come originally from Egypt and mythology represents Hercules as adorning his head with its curled leaves.

Thyme, a little under shrub native to the Mediterranean countries, is allied botanically to sage, summer savory and sweet basil. It possesses very small leaves and whorls of tiny, lilac-colored flowers, from which thymol or oil of thyme, a valuable germicide, is distilled. In flavor it is fragrant and aromatic and it may be readily cultivated in gardens. The wild thyme of our banks “where ox-lips and the nodding violet grows,” is a different variety of the same order. Its name is derived from the Greek word thumos, meaning incense or perfume.

Thyme.