Welcome to the summary page for FabulousFusionFood's Herb guide to Mexican Tarragon along with all the Mexican Tarragon containing recipes presented on this site, with 1 recipes in total.

e 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 Cornish recipes added to this site.

These recipes, all contain Mexican Tarragon as a major herb flavouring.

Mexican Tarragon, Tagetes lucida (also known as Cloud Plant, Coronilla, Pericón, Mexican mint marigold, Winter Tarragon, Sweet Mace, Sweet Marigold, Texan tarragon, Texas Tarragon and Spanish tarragon) isn't a tarragon at all, rather it's a marigold, belonging to the Asteracea (aster/daisy) family. The plant is native to Mexico and the southern USA though it can be obtained as seed from many specialist nurseries. The plant is a half-hardy semi-woody sub-shrub that looks like a spindly marigold (growing to some 50cm) with small brightly-coloured flowers and elongated (often variegated) opposed leaves. The plant is bushy with many smooth, upright, unbranched stems. The shiny, medium-green leaves are linear to oblong, about 8cm long. In late summer Mexican tarragon bears clusters of small yellow flower heads on the ends of the stems. These are about 1.2cm across and typically have three to five golden yellow ray-like florets. The plant often continues to bloom late into autumn.

The leaves are used as an herb, can be used fresh or dried (but most typically are ground into a powder and used as a tarragon substitute for flavouring soups, sauces etc) and have a scent that almost perfectly matches the fragrance of tarragon. Mexican tarragon's leaves have a more intense flavour, with a hint of anise, but make a very acceptable tarragon substitute, but add half the quantity of Mexican tarragon as compared with French or Russian tarragon. This plant is known and has been used since Aztec times and today is commonly used in the southern USA where the more intense flavour of the leaves matches the flavours of spicy foods better than tarragon. Mexican Tarragon makes an excellent addition to bouquet garni and also works well in herbed vinegars. It is a wonderful accompaniment to chicken and can be substituted for Mexican Pepper-leaf in traditional Mole recipes. It is best used fresh and can be picked even late in the year when French tarragon is not available. Though the dried leaves retain some flavour, they are nowhere near as good as the fresh and it is best to blanch and freeze the leaves for later use, or to preserve them in oil or vinegar.

The plant leaves yield variable amounts of essential oil (typically 3%) which has been shown to comtain the following aromatic compounds: Anethole, Chavicol, Coumarin, Estragole, Isorhamnetin, Methyleugenol, Quercitin

As well as the recipes below, specifically designed for Mexican tarragon as an ingredient, you can substitute Mexican tarragon for ordinary (French or Russian) tarragon in any recipe that calls for this herb as an ingredient. Just use half the quantity of Mexican tarragon for the recommended quantity of ordinary tarragon. Here you will find all the recipes incorporating tarragon on this site to help you with some ideas.