Welcome to the summary page for FabulousFusionFood's Cook's Guide entry for Sweet Herbs along with all the trcipes employing Sweet Herbs presented on this site, with 1901 recipes in total.

This is a continuation of an entire series of pages that will, I hope, allow my visitors to better navigate this site. As well as displaying recipes by name, country and region of origin I am now planning a whole series of pages where recipes can be located by meal type and main ingredient. This page gives a listing of all the Sweet Herbs recipes added to this site.

These recipes, all contain Sweet Herbs as a major wild food ingredient.

Sweet Herbs This is a term used frequently in Georgian and Victorian cookery books, where a bunch or faggot of sweet herbs is frequently called for as an ingredient. This represents typically soft-leaved herbs used in enhancing the flavour of a dish, as opposed to Savoury Herbs (which are strong, penetrating, herbs used to flavour stews). Those herbs deemed 'sweet' tend to be annual in nature (though this is not always the case), are not woody and have aromatic oils that lend them a particular, pleasant, fragrance when crushed. Sweet herbs break down into the stock and do not need to be removed. Quite often, sweet herbs can be eaten raw and are often added to salads to improve the flavour.

In her Book of Household Management, Mrs Beeton defines sweet herbs as:

SWEET HERBS.—Those most usually employed for purposes of cooking, such as the flavouring of soups, sauces, forcemeats, &c., are thyme, sage, mint, marjoram, savory, and basil. Other sweet herbs are cultivated for purposes of medicine and perfumery: they are most grateful both to the organs of taste and smelling; and to the aroma derived from them is due, in a great measure, the sweet and exhilarating fragrance of our "flowery meads." In town, sweet herbs have to be procured at the greengrocers' or herbalists', whilst, in the country, the garden should furnish all that are wanted, the cook taking great care to have some dried in the autumn for her use throughout the winter months.

It is interesting that 'savory' is mentioned in the list above there are two types. Summer savory, an annual, that was a 'sweet' herb and winter savory which is perennial and was classed as a 'savoury' herb. The obvious herb missing from this list is parsley, which was a 'sweet' herb but which was also commonly used in savoury herb bouquets. Today we would also add coriander (cilantro) to this list and I would include oregano, dill, fennel and chervil. Most herbs that are used to flavour fish can be considered 'sweet'.

Originally, however (in Medieval and Tudor times) the term 'sweet' herbs referred to those herbs that could be eaten raw or could be added directly to stews and pottages. All other herbs were 'potherbs' and required blanching before consumption.