[Sca-cooks] Maire's herb blend....(relatively long)

[Sue Clemenger]

Some time ago (beginning of August? Sometime in July?), I posted 
something about my herb garden, and a period recipe for an herb blend 
that I'd hoped to make sometime soon.  Someone (Stefan?) asked for the 
recipe/source if I ever happened to find my copy.  Well, I did, and I 
figured I'd post it this afternoon, since I'm pretty much stuck inside, 
trying to not inhale the smoke out there.....
I do not have the actual book from which I took the recipe and 
redaction, so I can't give the page number, but according to my notes, 
it's from _Savoring the Past_ by Barbara Ketcham Wheaton (sp? my 
handwriting sucks....)  The recipe itself is French.  My notes give the 
original source as "Livre fort excellent de coysine (1555), ff 228r-v." 
  I'll type the original, first, and then give Barbara's redaction.

"Prenes persil effueille deux poignees mariolaine effueillee deux 
pugnees et demje saulge demi poignee ysope autant sariette autant 
sarpollet une poignee soulcye une poigness.  Et quant cest pour faire 
farce aulains y metient soulcye et peude Basilicque.  Elle seruent a 
tous potaigeaet les fault fair seicher enuiron la sainct Jehan baptiste."

Wheaton's redaction:
"1 c. parsley
1/4 c. sage
1/4 c. winter savory
1/4 c. wild thyme
1 and 1/4 c. marjoram
1/4 c. hyssop
1/2 c. pot marigold (calendula) petals
2 T basil (optional)
On or about June 24th, pick the unsprayed herbs and pluck the leaves 
from the stems.  Pluck the outer petals of the pot marigolds.  A soft 
pastry brush is useful in dealing with the flower petals.
Dry the herbs in the sun of indoors fairly near a gentle fan.  Measure, 
mix, and store in a tightly closed container in a cool, dark, dry place.
The 'soulcye' in the original recipe is _Calendula officinalis_, the pot 
marigold.  It served in the Middle Ages and even later as a cheap 
substitute for saffron, since it was (and is) easily grown in the home 
garden.  Our common marigolds, _Tagetes patula_ and _T. erecta_, were 
introduced into European gardens at the end of the sixteenth century 
from Mexico and are known, perversely, as French and African Marigolds."

I should note that those are Ketcham-Wheaton's assertions about pot 
marigolds being used in the Middle Ages as a saffron substitute (not 
something I've personally run across, but then, I'm not the food 
research fiend that some of *you* are).  I don't find it unreasonable, 
though, since Calendula petals make a pretty good natural dye (shades of 
yellow), and are food-safe.  I also did not see anything in her book 
about what recipes this might have been used with, although her original 
source (not one with which I'm familiar, I'm afraid) might give more 
details or references.
I've been able to grow all of the ingredients in my garden and herb 
pots, and I'm in a part of the US that has some pretty severe weather 
(hotter than Hades in the summer, nasty-cold in the winter, and 
respectably low on the humidity scale), so I'd think that most of us 
could probably do the same.  My Calendula, though, didn't start blooming 
until late July.  And I've found that you can't just wait until you need 
to deadhead the buggers (as with, say, the other kinds of marigolds, 
which I also grow, and am saving for a dyeing project), as the petals 
will fall off all on their own.  So next year, I plan to grow a whole 
bunch of them!  And some hyssop and savory!
--Maire