“There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance; pray, love, remember;”

William Shakespeare wrote that in “Hamlet.” So well known, even then, was the tales of rosemary’s power to aid memory and love and friendship.

Oddly, my first strong memory of rosemary was when the chef at my first job excoriated his head cook for putting too much dry rosemary in the soup. His complaint was the whole, dried leave would stay as sticks and make an unpleasant eating experience. No doubt he was right and I never thought then to ask why not have the fresh stuff.

First, We Eat

We eat, Rosmarinus officinalis, one of maybe 4 rosemary genus Rosmarinus with the next most recognized rosemary Rosmarinus eriocalyx, mostly of Algeria.[1] More on that rosemary later.

The official officinalis is, as all are, an evergreen perennial (it grows back, or, in some cases never goes dormant) which can bear a resemblance in looks and aroma to a pine tree. Rosemary can bear a similarity to the tree hemlock, not to be confused with the poison drunk by Socrates of the same name. That particular hemlock-the poison one-is in the carrot family, along with fennel and parsnips.

Rosemary is a member of the mint family and that means the leaves grow in pairs opposite each other and that pattern alternates up the stem. The Latin translation for rosemary is “dew of the sea.” It seems interesting that a plant named about a sea has a very strong drought resistance.

There is one saying that suggests a large rosemary bush grows at a home managed well by a woman.  It is an excellent plant for outdoors.  It prefers planted in the ground or in a large pot.  The roots can get too wet and the plant will, as the parrot in the famous sketch, “cease to be.”

Not The Topiary From The Overlook!

As a shrub, rosemary is excellent. It grows well, has pretty blue flowers and can last for years. Landscapers have found a way to select for various other traits, which do include a wide variety of flower colors, 24 to my count.[2] These rosemary plants appear to be excellent for looking at, but I’ve seen nothing to suggest they make good bread. It might be fine, I don’t know.

Culinary rosemary bushes need little attention and seem to have few natural pests. They do have a high level of essential oils and “a number of phytochemicals, including rosmarinic acid, camphor, caffeic acid, ursolic acid, betulinic acid, carnosic acid and carnosol.”[3]

The other rosemary mentioned above, Rosmarinus eriocalyx, was studied to learn more about those phytochemicals and acids and the NIH concluded that, in addition to being a good culinary herb, they are “responsible for the noteworthy antioxidant activity observed in the assays.”[4] All the more reason to find ways to put rosemary into your cooking.

Oh, Myth, Myth!

When something is thousands of years old, stories are ineveitable. So, there are, of course, dozens about rosemary.

An interesting one is the myth that rosemary’s flowers were originally white, but when the Virgin Mary laid her shawl over the rosemary bush, the flowers turned, and remained, blue.

It is not myth that the ancient Greeks, Romans and Egyptians used rosemary. What might be so is the Greeks, students and not, wove rosemary sprigs into their hair as a memory aid.

Rosemary has kept that association with memory up through Shakespeare and to today’s wedding and funeral ceremonies, with sprigs of rosemary in the bride’s bouquet for friendship and romance and sprigs laid on the casket of loved ones to signify a well remembered person.

Burn, baby burn

I can vouch for rosemary possessing oils: I’ve ignited some, accidentally the first time, and the aroma was wonderful. I cannot endorse reckless burning of things, so, don’t be reckless.

Due to the tough, fibrous nature of the rosemary leaf, high heat, sautéing, is one of the best ways to extract all that flavor. But, low and slow works well too.

Add fresh chopped rosemary leaves to the early stages of a pasta sauce or sautéed with root vegetables: carrots and parsnips for example. Also, in a Rösti potato-or a giant pan-sized hash brown-or bread or grits or creamed corn.

Rosemary pairs exceptionally well with lamb and venison and wild boar. As a flavor goes, it’s a bit brutish. It isn’t for every dish the way thyme can be. Rosemary doesn’t play well with everyone. It has an astringency which needs rich or oily or both to cut that. Rosemary tends toward the bitter, which is alkaline, and on a pH scale, that’s 7.1 or higher. For that reason, it pairs very well with acidic tomatoes. The fat from the olive oil with the tomatoes or the fat added to grits helps cut that puckering effect also.

I’m sharing this bread recipe which I like very much. The fat from the egg yolks is doing our science but the bread is worth making because it is worth eating.

 

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosemary

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosemary

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosemary

[4] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27719960