Holiday Cooking – Sage

Back to the kitchen for more holiday cooking, this time using savory herbs from the Mediterranean. Our guide for this culinary adventure continues to be The Lore of Spices, by Jan-Öjvind Swahn. Today’s herb is sage, which provides a rich and potent flavoring for chicken and pork, wild game, rice dishes, and bread stuffing. The leaves can be used fresh, dried, or ground to a powder.

Salvia officinalis is in the Lamiaceae family (mint family). Sage has long been used as a healing herb (per Swahn, sage and salvia are both derived from the Latin word for saving, and the species name officinalis indicates a healing plant). Sage was used in ancient times for snakebites, female fertility, wisdom, and warding off evil. In Medieval times, it was used to promote general good health, ward off plague, and superstitiously to influence romance. Sage was grown in monasteries, and was included in Charlemagne’s list of medicinal plants to be grown on all estates.

Botanical illustration of Salvia officinalis from Koehler's Medicinal Plants.
Published before 1923 and in public domain in the United States.

Sage grows as a low bush approximately 2 feet (.6 meter) high. Stems are white and wooly. Leaves are oblong, 1-2 ½ inches long, entire or crenulate, with wrinkled edges (rugose). Flowers grow in a cluster consisting of two crowded clusters (verticillasters), with each cyme (cluster) arising opposite each other and with a central stem bearing 5-10 flowers (a formation typical for mint). Calyx is 3/8 – ½ inches long, pubescent, corolla is 1 3/8 inches long, in white, pink, or violet blue.