[Sca-cooks] Bergamot (was Quail Eggs, etc)

[Laura C. Minnick]

At 08:26 PM 3/12/03 -0800, you wrote:
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>
>>Ever had Earl Grey tea? The better ones use real bergamot, cheap ones
>>susbstitue lavender. They taste the same to me. I can't have either one,
>>which is odd, becasue they aren't related- lavender is, well, lavender.
>>Bergamot is a citrus plant. Gotta wonder if they have some compound in
>common.
>
>Bergamot is a citrus plant???  I thought it was an herb commonly called bee
>balm.
>I grow it and it seems to be more related to mints and catmints.  Perhaps you
>are thinking of the many kinds of citrus flavoured mints?

No. The herb also known as 'bee balm' is not the same thing.

What I found about Wild Bergamot (Monarda fistulosa):

"Wild bergamot occurs from Ontario
and British Columbia to Georgia and Mexico, at elevations up to 9,000 ft.
Plants are also known as
"horsemints" and "beebalms."

Wild bergamot is a native perennial from slender creeping rhizomes and thus
commonly occurs in large clumps. Two varieties are found in North Dakota,
the most common being a smaller flowered plant with dark lavender to rose
purple flowers. Plants are up to 3 feet tall with a few erect branches.
Leaves are 2-3
inches long, lance-shaped, and toothed. Flower clusters are solitary at the
ends of branches. Each cluster is about 1 1/2 inches long and contains
about 20-50 flowers.

Look for wild bergamot in rich soils at the bases of prairie hills and in
coulees. The plant is noted for its fragrance, and is a source of oil of
thyme. One authority states that Amerindians recognized four varieties that
had different odors. Leaves were eaten boiled with meat, and a decoction of
the plant was made into hair pomade. The herb is considered an active
diaphoretic (sweat inducer). The species does best where grazing is light
or moderate.

Wild bergamot is a member of the mint family (Lamiaceae) that contains at
least 3500 species worldwide. Lamium is an old Latin name of a nettle-like
plant mentioned by Pliny. The family is noted for its fragrant oils
(lavender, rosemary, mint, horehound, thyme etc). Monarda is a North
American genus of about 15-20 species of which only one occurs in North
Dakota. The genus was dedicated by Linnaeus to Nicolas Monardes
(1493-1588), Spanish physician-botanist and author of many tracts about
useful New World plants. The specific name fistulosa means "tubular" in
botanical Latin, in reference to the flowers.
The species was named by the famous Swedish botanist Carl von Linne
(Linnaeus) in his monumental Species Plantarum of 1753, the earliest
accepted work on modern plant taxonomy."
http://www.holoweb.com/cannon/wild1.htm

Bergamot *oil*, which is used in Earl Grey tea comes from the Bergamot
tree, or Citrus aurantium- and here's some info on it:

"BERGAMOT ORANGE

The Bergamot Orange is a small citrus fruit (Citrus aurantium subsp.
bergamia). It is cultivated mostly in southern Italy, and is the flavoring
used in Earl Grey Tea. This is NOT Bergamot or Bergamot mint; they are
different plants in the mint family, also called bee balm or Oswego tea.
Oil of bergamot is extracted from the peel of the bergamot orange
(Citrus bergamia or Citrus aurantium bergamia), a small pear shaped
 sour orange which is cultivated today mostly in southern Italy.

Latest genetic research indicates that the Bergamot orange is most
likely a cross (natural??) between the sweet or pear lemon (Citrus
limetta) and the Seville or sour orange (Citrus aurantium) [First
International Citrus Biotechnology Symposium, August 2000)] The sour
orange is native to southern Vietnam."
http://www.foodreference.com/html/fbergamotorange.html

I wonder if the teas I react to are using the Wild bergamot instead of the
citrus- it would make sense, since I'm allergic to lavender and it is
related to the wild bergamot...

Bother. You made me do some real work! :-P (Which is ok, since I spent the
afternoon on hold with the Social Security Administration...)

'Lainie



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