Pennyroyal (was Re: [Sca-cooks] Period or no?

[Jennifer / Guenievre]

> > I just tried one of the recipes in Henry Marks' book on Byzantine
> cooking.  Most of them are conjectural, since they are based on
> descriptions of food, and monastery menus, but this one is pretty straight
> forward.
> >
> > To paraphrase, the original description says to cook lentils in water
> with barley, leeks, dill, oil, and vinegar; and if you desire, savory or
> pennyroyal.  (As pennyroyal can be unsafe, Marks substitutes mint, which
> is in the same family.)  Use less barley than lentils, so they don't
> absorb all the liquid.
> >
> Just as a note, pennyroyal, though in the mint family, does not actually
> taste like mint. I used to use pennyroyal tea for migraines (and we can
> argue relative toxicity later) and it tastes more woody and not really
> minty. Kind of like thyme, actually. I want to say it tastes like oregano
> would if you took out all the strong oregano flavor, but that probably
> makes very little sense to most people.
> 
> So one is probably better off leaving it out rather than substituting mint
> for pennyroyal, at least if you're going for something that tastes right.
> 
> Margaret FitzWilliam


So why not just go with savory? Which is available, and safe, and tasty...


Guenievre