Welcome to the summary page for FabulousFusionFood's Spice guide to Rue Berries along with all the Rue Berries containing recipes presented on this site, with 5 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 Cornish recipes added to this site.

These recipes, all contain as a major flavouring.

Rue Berries, Ruta graveolens (also known as Rue Fruit or Rue Seeds) are the dried fruit of the common rue plant, used as a spice. Common rue, It is probably native to Mediterranean Europe and western Asia though it's culinary usage in Roman and Medieval plant has led to the naturalization of this herb to much of Europe. Though often used as an ornamental plant due to its bluish leaves and tolerance of drought conditions it is not used as an herb today and the use of rue for culinary purposes is seen as 'old fashioned'. Indeed, rue is extremely bitter and thus does not particularly suit modern culinary tastes.

The image on this page shows rue berries (rue fruit), with green berries on the left, dried berries on the right and berries picked from the rue plant inset.

Despite this, rue's scent is aromatic and sweet and it's fruit are slightly hot in taste (rue leaves become even more bitter if dried). Rue leaves are lobate, and generally paired on the stalk. The flowers are small and yellow appearing in clusters of up to half a dozen and it is from these that the fruit develop. The name 'rue' itself derives from the French rue which itself derives from the Latin ruta, a borrowing from the Greek 'ῥυτή', (rhyte). Rue is still occasionally used in Italy where it's bitterness can counteract the 'heaviness' of sauces based on tomato and olive oil. Rue remains popular in the cuisine of Ethiopia, however, where it is often a component in the national spice mix, berbere. Ethiopian cuisine also utilizes rue berries in many sauces and stews.

Rue has a strong, aromatic and sweet fragrance that makes it different from any other herb. However, the taste is very bitter, (this is exacerbated when dried) and it was used as a bittering agent for meads and beers during the Middle Ages. The seeds can also be dried and have sensory qualities that are very similar to the leaves (but even stronger and more bitter). Rue seeds contain about 1% essential oil, the main components of which are 2-hendecanone (2-undecanone, methylnonylketone) and 2-nonanone (methylheptylketone) along with several ketone compounds. The bitterness of rue is due to the presence of rutin, a poly­phenolic flavono­lone glycoside con­taining the di­saccharid rutinose as sugar component.

Though rue seeds are never used these days, it was a commonly-used spice in Roman times and rue berries are called for in a number of recipes from Apicius' De Re Coquinaria.

Despite the absence of rue from the modern culinary repertoire in that meat, eggs and cheese dishes can all benefit from a small dash of ground rue berries (as long as you don't over-do it!).

Rue also makes an interesting addition to pickling vinegars, especially as bitter flavours go well with acids. Also, if you want to reduce the bitterness of rue, salt it liberally before use as this will neutralize much of the bitterness.