FOUR flavors make up our sense of taste: sweetness, sourness, bitterness, saltiness. If they occur in nature, in unadulterated foods, that is one thing. If they are added promiscuously and plenteously to whet the appetite to extra eating, it is not so good.
Foods that need high and heavy seasoning before they are considered edible had best be left uneaten. If cooked food tastes flat and insipid without salting and peppering, there obviously is something wrong with the food or the cooking. Salt and pepper are added to bring back to life what has been killed in cooking. The natural untampered-with foods contain all the elements necessary for proper functioning of the body. No food value is added by the use of salt, pepper, mustard or spices, and much can be lost. Spices were originally used as preservatives and have come to be regarded as necessary flavorings.
The need for sharp condiments is a stigma on the cook, who cannot serve up a tasty dish without additives to apparently unpromising material. "Saucing," one nineteenth-century author claims, "is the refuge from bad cookery."1 The competent culinary artist ought to be able to avoid excessive use of all spices and condiments, which often are used to hide defects in food. If a disguise is needed, it is poor food and should be shunned.
A Yorkshire farmer, seeing an overpainted lady from the city, remarked succinctly: "It be poor land as needs all that muckin'." I think it be poor food that needs all the condiment-muckin' that people add. Food should taste like what it is, not something else.
Salting and spicing are to be effected with such caution that the diners may never be inconvenienced by excess.
J.L.W. THUDICUM,
The Spirit of Cookery, 1895
So many foods today have salty and peppery flavors added before they reach the table. Even so, people (like Scott's father) salt food heavily before tasting it. This kind of salt addiction tends "to develop the same contempt for ordinary unspiced food that the alcohol user does for weak tea.... The use of hot spices, of which pepper is the most common, is a habit almost as artificial as alcohol or tobacco."2
This Spice [pepper] being too much eaten, wounds Nature to the very Heart. The truth is, this hot fiery Sawce does powerfully stir up and beget Appetite, and warms the Stomach, which does intice many to eat it with their common food, but they never consider the mischiefs it brings unto Health.... The worst of all is, after our Stomachs are acustom'd to such things, we cannot be well satisfied without them, for they are in some degree like wine, whereof if a man drink frequently he cannot without a great deal of Trouble refrain from it.
THOMAS TRYON,
Friendly Advice to Gentlemen Farmers, 1684
"Don't you think," asked Salinda, "that salt is necessary?" "No more," said Mr. Savery, "than any of the other stimulants. If we eat less salt, we should drink less, and the world would be saved from the disgrace of drunkenness. We are so accustomed to the use of salt that we never stop to inquire whether it is really useful or necessary, or beneficial, or otherwise."
SOLON ROBINSON,
How to Live, 1860
Salt is not a food. It is an anti-biotic (against life). It is an inorganic chemical, a foreign irritant, a pickling agent —hard and sharp of itself, and unpleasant to those who are not addicted to its stringent qualities. The Indians of North America and other primitive peoples did not use salt as seasoning; they found it occurring naturally in the foods they ate. The body needs natural salts, but in organic form, as found in plant life.
Unassimilated and unabsorbed in the body, inorganic salt builds up and lodges in the joints and helps cause arthritis. It robs the body cells of their liquids and results in serious complaints ranging from high blood pressure to bloating edema. Obese people are usually salt-consumers. They are carrying gallons of water to keep the salt they eat in solution—the body's attempt to prevent salt poisoning. Drop the salt habit and eliminate the extra pounds. Go easy with the salt shaker!
In all the cookbooks I am acquainted with, a great or greater dose of salt is a fixture in every receipt; and hardly a dish or preparation is named in which a "pinch" or "teaspoonful" or "tablespoonful" of salt is not prescribed as one of the ingredients.
DR. RUSSELL THACKER TRALL,
The New Hydropathic Cook Book, 1854
The less Salt any shall eat, the less they will covet it; for the mixing of common Salt with sundry sorts of Vegetable Foods does hide or Eclipse the fragrancy and pleasant Taste of the Essential Salt, that it cannot be felt by the Palate.
THOMAS TRYON, The Good House-wife Made a Doctor, 1692
Salt is added to foods to restore the flavor lost in cooking. Eat raw food with the original organic salts intact and you won't need to add salt. By making your foods salty you reduce them all to the same plane and disallow the natural tastes to manifest. The taste buds are wrecked when deadened by omnipresent salt and peppering. Accustomed as we are to what Thoreau calls (in a rare, for him, pun) "that grossest of groceries," it is difficult at first to get along without it. Gulliver, in his travels in the Houhynhnm's country, said: "I was at first at a great loss for salt, but custom soon reconciled the want of it; and I am confident that the frequent use of salt among us is an effect of luxury."3
I have grown up in an age of addiction to salt and occasionally throw it into a soup that seems bland. When I do use salt, it is sea salt. If you are a confirmed salt-person you will use it anyway, but it is not necessary for an unpolluted palate. Season if you like and as you like, but these recipes are healthier unsalted.
There is another seasoning, as strong as salt, from the vegetable kingdom: garlic. Because of its biting taste and overpowering smell, it has been exorcised from polite society. Thomas Hyll, in 1563, urged it "to be discretely eaten." John Evelyn, in 1699, warns "'Tis not for ladies' palats, nor those who court them.'"
Much more of Garlick would be used for its wholesomeness, were it not for the offensive smell it gives to the by-Standers.
JOHN WOOLRIDGE, The Art of Gardening, 1688
A little garlic, judiciously used, won't seriously affect your social life, and will tone up more dull dishes than any commodity discovered to date.
ALEXANDER WRIGHT,
How to Live Without a Woman, 1937
Garlic used as it should be used is the soul, the divine essence, of cookery. The cook who can employ it successfully will be found to possess the delicacy of perception, the accuracy of judgment, and the dexterity of hand which go to the formation of a great artist.
MRS. W.G. WATERS,
The Cook's Decameron, 1920
There seem to be garlic lovers and garlic haters. I use it in salads, and to brighten soups, and in dishes that might be too bland for the ordinary taste. Cooked, it loses much of its power. Raw, it is too fiery for many people. As to overcoming the smell for polite society, chewing raw parsley after consuming garlic will save you from being a social outcast
Ginger, cardamom, nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon added to vegetables make for extra Oriental flavor. Toasted seeds and chopped nuts add variety, if you are not afraid of getting too ornate. If you have lemons or lemon juice around, squirt some on almost any vegetable just before serving, instead of, or along with, butter. Try a little lemon juice with green beans, brussels sprouts, broccoli or asparagus, or even lima beans.
The delicate nonirritating flavors of harmless garden herbs are all that are really necessary if cooked food needs extra savor. The fetish for artificial flavorings can best be allayed by using this mildest of additives—herbs —which the ancients divided into three categories: pot herbs, such as lettuce, chard, spinach, sorrell, whose leaves were used for salads and soups; seasoning herbs, such as tarragon, fennel, thyme, basil, dill, sage; and garnishing herbs, such as parsley, scallions, watercress, chives. The seasoning herbs are those that can take the place of the fiercer flavors of spices and salt and pepper. Their ripened seeds possess an aromatic flavor that can be added to soups, sauces, salads and stews.
A caustic English writer (who does not know that I, for one, wear pants year-round), gives her idea of an herb garden as "a small and somewhat self-conscious plot used doubtfully as flavourings by vegetarian cooks in skirts of hand-woven tweed."4 We have an herb garden (rather large, and I hope conscious of itself), and grow, or have grown, all of the following: peppermint and spearmint, borage, thyme, tarragon, rosemary, marjoram, dill, hyssop, sage, equisetum, lemon balm, lavender, comfrey, camomile, basil, bee-balm, summer and winter savory, tansy, oregano, lovage, coriander, caraway, rue, nettles, mullein, yarrow, catnip, and others I can't remember.
I make use of these herbs all year round: green in the summertime, and during the rest of the year from my store of dried or frozen herbs. "It is especially in winter that the cook should be provided with a plentiful supply of dried herbs."5 If substituting dry for fresh herbs, far less is needed for flavoring: a pinch; whereas with fresh, a handful before chopping might be the rule. (Half a teaspoonful of dry herbs equals one tablespoon of fresh.)
Dryed Herbs, Seeds, Grains and the like, when committed to any proper Liquor, do more freely give forth their good Virtues, than the Green.
THOMAS TRYON,
The Way to Health, Long Life & Happiness, 1683
Always gather herbs when in bud, before flowering or seeded. Cut off the tender last few inches of short herbs like thyme and lemon balm and marjoram or summer savory, and dry quickly on trays in a warm room or lukewarm oven. Taller herbs, like mint or basil or sage, can be cut off near the ground and hung up to dry. Then strip from their stems and store in airtight, lightproof containers and put in a cool place. Crumble in your hands when adding to food, not before. Breaking into small pieces before using causes herbs to lose flavor. If herbs are overcooked their flavor will be lost, so add to soups or other dishes only toward the end of the cooking process.
If gathering herbs for freezing, snip sprigs just before flowering, wash and shake dry and seal in plastic bags or containers and put in freezer. Dill seeds, for instance, can be cut off before ripening, while still green, and frozen for use all winter. I have also frozen fresh parsley (not so successfully) for use in winter soups.
One can make little "faggots" or bunches of varied herbs: parsley, thyme, tarragon and chervil, using them fresh in soups or juices. The American Indians collected the small twigs of chokeberry and wild cherry, tied them in little bundles with strips of bark and dropped them into their boiling kettles. There are so many growing things in field and forest to use. "Oh, we can make liquor to sweeten our lips, of pumpkins, of parsnips, of walnut-tree chips," runs an old song.
Our home tea may differ daily; sometimes it is plain mint leaves or camomile flowers from the herb garden, or clover blossoms from the meadow, or raspberry, strawberry or blueberry leaves from the berry patch. But I usually start with a dried rose hip base. The ingredients vary with the season, or with the crop, or with what is hanging drying on the kitchen timbers, or what my hand goes to in the drawer of herbs in tins.
I make a tea of a dozen or more different herbs, which I have marketed as Dozen Herb Tea. The contents ranged from shredded equisetum, thyme, various mints, camomile, catnip, comfrey, basil, lavender blossoms, summer savory, lemon balm, marjoram to rose hips. I have made other combinations, such as dried leaves of strawberry, blueberry, raspberry, rose petals, clover blossoms, with ground-up orange and lemon peel and cloves for added flavor, which I call Meadowsweet Tea. A good friend of mine, Juliette de Bairacli Levy, gathers many aromatic herbs from the hills of Galilee; to this connoisseur's tea she adds powdered spices (which gave me the idea for the clove).
Delicious dips can be made of dried and chopped garlic, onion, parsley, oregano, dill and celery seed stirred into sour cream. Or this combination may be judiciously scattered into a salad or onto a steaming hot, newly opened baked potato.
Here are some of my herb kitchen-uses in cooking. They are only suggestions, as, generally, any herb is good with any vegetable, but try which combinations you prefer.
Summer Savory can be added to any soup, or to green beans. Simmer the savory with a minced garlic clove and a chopped onion in olive oil, and pour over the beans. It is good with cabbage, sauerkraut, peas, lentils, potatoes, and also green salads.
Parsley contains as much vitamin A as cod-liver oil and three times as much vitamin C as oranges, but it is used mostly just for a garnish, tossed aside on the dish and back it goes to the kitchen, to be thrown away with the garbage. We use it, dry or fresh, in nearly all soups, or chopped green in salads. It can be stirred into mayonnaise, and is good with butter on baked potatoes. We cut the stalks in the garden and hang them to dry on our kitchen timbers. I also freeze the small sprigs. When I have a great batch of parsley (Scott sometimes goes over the plants in the garden and brings a whole pailful into the kitchen) I sauté them for not more than a minute in a hot pan. While still green, before browning, I take them out and serve at once.
Parsley is the most universally used in the Kitchin of all Garden Herbs. It is an excellent Ingredient in most Pottages, Sawces, and Sallads.
JOHN WOOLRIDGE,
The Art of Gardening, 1688
Basil is traditionally used with tomatoes, either when cooked or eaten raw in salads. I always add basil to my tomato soups and juices, as well as an occasional pinch in green salads.
Hyssop is a hardy herb we grow in abundance in our herb garden. I have used it only in teas.
Hyssop is an hearbe to purge and dense raw flegmes, and hurtful humors from the Brest. The same unto the lungs great comfort lends, with hony boyl'd: but farre above the rest it gives good colour, and complexion mends, and is therefore with women in request.
SIR JOHN HARYNGTON,
The Schoole of Salerne, 1607
Marjoram is very pungent. It is good with string beans if used with discretion, also with mushrooms, lentils and with cottage cheese. To make a special vinegar, fill a glass jar with marjoram leaves. Pour vinegar into the jar to fill. Cover and leave on a sunny shelf for two weeks. Strain and use.
Lavender can be treated the same way to make a vinegar. I add lavender to teas, or combined with lemon balm and sage it makes a special tea.
Dill is usually known as a flavoring for dill pickles, but is also good in salads, green or dried, or sprinkled over boiled potatoes. Both seeds and leaves have strong flavor.
Chives come early in the season and are at their best before the bloom appears. Chop up fine for their delicate flavor in salads, soups and cottage cheese, and over cooked carrots.
Rosemary is a stringent herb. Use sparingly in soups or fruit salads. Added to rose hip tea (which is fairly tasteless) it gives a gingery flavor.
Sage is another strong-tasting herb. It is good for stuffings and soups, particularly tomato soup. Try a small amount in baked beans, or a few finely crushed leaves in cottage cheese.
Caraway seeds can be added to applesauce. Beets are good with caraway seeds sprinkled over a yogurt or sour cream dressing.
Tarragon is much used by the French, mostly to flavor vinegar. I put it judiciously into sour cream for salad dressing.
Celery leaves, green or dried, give the flavor of the plant to soups. The seed can be put in stews.
Lovage imparts a racier celery flavor and should be used sparingly in all but soups. Try rubbing a salad bowl with the crushed green leaves. It can also be cooked as a vegetable green, when fresh.
Mint is a much-used herb. Mostly put in teas, it is also pleasant in tossed salads; mixed with cottage cheese, or stirred up with vinegar and honey for a light sauce. It adds a fresh flavor to cooked peas or carrots.
All Mints are good for the Stomach, and fortify it much; they create an Appetite, revive the Heart and Brain; they resist the Malignity of Poison, kill the Worms, help Women's Terms and hard Labour, are of a dissolving and detersive Nature.
DR. M.L. LEMERY,
A Treatise of All Sorts of Foods, 1745
Comfrey leaves, when young, can be cooked, or eaten in salad. We dry the leaves and add them to our herb teas.
Thyme is one of my favorites. It goes mainly into soups and stir-fried dishes.
Fenugreek is grown for its seeds. With lemon juice and honey it makes a good tea.
The Herb Fenugreek with Pickles, Oyl and Wine was a Roman Dainty. It is plainly a Physical Dyet that will give a Stool, and mix'd with Oats, it's the best Purge for Horses. An excellent Invention for Frugality, that nothing might be lost, for what the Lord did not eat he might send to his Stable.
WILLIAM KING,
The Art of Cookery, 1709
Final advice on the judicious and optional use of flavorings is in a story Scott has told me of a woman he knew in the 1890s, the wife of a judge in Blossberg, Pennsylvania. Mrs. O.F. Taylor was an exceptionally good cook and was often asked for recipes after folk had sampled her excellent meals. She would obligingly write them out in delicate longhand, invariably adding at the end of her detailed description of how she made her dishes: "And season with a little gumption."
Now set for thy pot Best herbs to be got. For flowers go set All sorts ye can get.
THOMAS TUSSER,
Five Hundreth Pointes
of Good Husbandrie, 1557
1 E.S. Dallas, Kettner's Book of the Table, 1877
2 Bernarr Macfadden, Physical Culture Cook Book, 1924
3 Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels, 1727
4 "Nan Fairbrother, Men and Gardens, 1956
5 An English Physician, French Domestic Cookery, 1825