Rosemary has a complex mix of flavours; mint, sage, peppery, with a slightly bitter aftertaste and a woodland aroma it is perfect in many Mediterranean dishes and partners well with grilled or roasted meats such as lamb and chicken and roasted vegetables and potatoes. Rosemary is great in herb stuffing with dried apricots and nuts for turkey or pork and makes great skewers for meat or fish on a barbeque imparting a slight mustard flavour. Rosemary has small blue flowers the Virgin Mary is said to have spread her blue cloak over a white-blossomed rosemary bush when she was resting, and the flowers turned blue. The shrub then became known as the “Rose of Mary”.
Rosemary is a perennial herb that grows to roughly a metre and a half in height and thrives in warm, dry environments. Rosemary can be used as a deterrent from insects so you can add it to a fire if you are camping. It includes moths, so you can place some rosemary in your cupboards and drawers as an organic repellent. In ancient Greece, students wore rosemary around their heads to stimulate memory and recent studies have shown that sniffing rosemary can, in fact, help a person improve their ability to remember events and complex tasks. So, Shakespeare was right in Hamlet when he referenced rosemary “There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance: pray you, love, remember.”
A Cook's Compendium 
19 thoughts on “Rosemary”