Parsley-sage-rosemary and thyme ?

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Ricard with an H
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I had often wondered if there was any significant success in using this collection or was it just a convenience to whoever wrote those herbs into their work ?

Right now I'm making soup, aren't we all ? The only decent fresh herbs I have are those three plus a bay bush. Silly question, why wouldn't I use bay ?

Sorry if I'm overloading you-lot, I need to make up and I might have milked the bread corner.
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Richard.
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Pawty
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Hi Richard,

We have a large bay and use it regularly. This week it's gone in a slow cooked lamb stew and a cottage pie (and probably other stuff, but Mr Pawty does most of the cooking - I'm forced to when he's working in London). Also added to these were thyme and parsley. We have sage, but out of all herbs, I would say this is the one we use the least - even though delicious ( and still very trendy!).

I can't see why bay wouldn't work well in soup - just remember to take it out before blitzing!

Pawty
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Ricard with an H
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I didn't use bay in the end because I feared going over-herbed. The parsley sage and rosemary worked fine in today's pan of soup. I ditched the thyme for the same reason.

Soup was onion,celery, leak, potato, swede, and lentil. All partially zizzed up to leave a few lumps.

I'm nervous about using herbs though that probably stems from the overuse of dried herbs.
How are you supposed to start and maintain a healthy lifestyle if it completely removes a wine lover’s reason to live?
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Westi
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Hi Richard

I throw a bay leaf into most soups! Fold it over to realise the flavour. I don't find it overpowering at all, it kind of blends those other herbs together. My favourite herb is thyme for soups, parsley doesn't alter flavour much, sage is another favourite but just a wee pinch, but rosemary is a bit of a thug I find so even more caution with that!

Taste is very subjective though so another experiment maybe?
Westi
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Ricard with an H
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Thanks Westi.

I've been meaning to ask for help with herbs in cooking for a couple of years in the hope of attaining some order rather than just bunging stuff in and hoping for best.

Worst case I suppose has been mixed-herbs overuse or misuse, same with thyme and oregano. Today's dinner is a lamb casserole that asks for rosemary and thyme, I added two bay leaves because like you I always add a bay leave and I never managed to overdo it. I suppose bay is like parsley, very subtle. Though is you add chopped parsley to buttered potatoes and let the parsley sit in the warm potato for a while you get (or I do) a significant taste of parsley.

So, for me, lamb Needs garlic and rosemary. Anything else ?

I have to tell you that I don't trust cookbooks, some just fill pages with fabulous photos and the recipes are not well researched. As a result most of my cooking is from many years of practice from raising three daughters that were happy to criticise and a wife that was happy to have a husband that cooked at a time men were girls if they did cooking.

Those many years of practice have in recent years been added to by the excellent interest in good food but I'm still lacking skills.

Tonight I'm doing potato stacks, never done potato stacks.
How are you supposed to start and maintain a healthy lifestyle if it completely removes a wine lover’s reason to live?
Richard.
Westi
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Probably nothing else for lamb - rosemary & garlic is perfect but you can put a bit of anchovy into the slashes as well to get the saltiness, it melts away during cooking but cuts through the fat. You put all 3 into the same slash/stab.

Just use herbs related to the place the dish originated from - Med stuff oregano & rosemary, UK stuff thyme, sage & parsley but feel free to throw in the bay as it binds the flavour in any of them as grows in both places - wonderful but under rated!

Never follow a Jamie is all I can add, but you can pimp them very easily, don't give up on cook books - they are your foundation, now it is down to you to pimp them to make what you & yours like! Taste is very subjective so go with what you like.
Westi
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Ricard with an H
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Ahhh, Westi, such a help.

My potato stacks were better than expected, taste was fabulous from the rosemary and thyme in olive oil (Very fruity and expensive) though I shaved a chunk off the end of my thumb using a mandolin because I didn't the holder. (I found the chunk)

The lamb casserole was also fabulous getting ooos and aahs from herself and she swiped some of my potato stack whilst I was filling my wine glass.

The lamb casserole had half a pint of red wine and half a pint of water with a lamb stock pot, other than that it was rosemary and thyme plus two bay leaves. Oh, the lamb chunks had been rubbed with paprika.

So, whilst I'm confident with spices herbs have always scared me. Confidence now exudes to the point I'm planning bread with rosemary and thyme though can't yet decide on simple yeast bread or sourdough.
How are you supposed to start and maintain a healthy lifestyle if it completely removes a wine lover’s reason to live?
Richard.
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Motherwoman
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A bay leaf or two in a white sauce never goes amiss. Sage is such a strong flavour it can be difficult to place sometimes other than pork. Like you bay leaves get popped in just about any casserole or soup. Thyme I like a lot but not the soft stuff. I grow mine 'hard' on a dry bit of the allotment and dry it quickly in a dehydrator which keeps the flavour. And parsley does have a flavour as well as looking nice in a soup! But you need to mangle it well and be generous with it. I have a little herb mangler that I brought from Franchi Seeds which really does the business and the resultant chopped herb turns parsley sauce really green!
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Ricard with an H
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I never tried a bay leaf by itself other than I used to put it in when doing plain boiled rice, I read somewhere that a bayleaf helps separate the grains and though I have my own technique i never found the bay helped, nor did it add much or do any harm.

Yes, I'm also scared of sage and just realised after reading your contribution that its likely some herbs are stronger than other. My current batch of dried thyme is as a result of me planting my thyme in lovely moist soil when it fact it like the opposite so I rescued the whole plant and hung it to dry then bagged it and collected the leaves, it is strong.

Yes, I agree, parsley has a lovely flavour though I only get the flavour when I include it in and type of potato though right now I'm bunging parsley in a lot of things. What would garlic bread be without parsley ? I never made parsley sauce but my mother used to make it a lot, probably because its one of the few herbs that survive winter. My parsley is massive and I still have useable coriander in the open.

What about oregano, I have a bright yellow plant that enjoys living in our gravel drive but I always assumed the bright colour suggested it to be decorative rather than culinary.

Does anyone use carrot leaves ?
How are you supposed to start and maintain a healthy lifestyle if it completely removes a wine lover’s reason to live?
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Motherwoman
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Golden oregano, that's proper oregano not golden marjoram, has a better, stronger flavour than the green and dries very well. I have a couple up the allotment which get harvested with shears a couple of times a year and again I use the dehydrator. I've never used carrot leaves.
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Geoff
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My wife uses quite a bit of bay. If you are buying a bay tree sample the leaves first, they vary quite a bit. We have two, one we were given that had been grown in an office that was closing and one from a cutting off an old tree of my wife's great aunt that has a much stronger and nicer smell.
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Ricard with an H
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Thats interesting Geoff, I had often wonder. Our Bay his lived in a pot for fifteen years, even though I re-potted and fed it it remained stunted and often looked sick, then I found it a new home by a fence to protect it from wind. Now it looks healthy and is always brimming with new growth, even this time of year.

I may have irritated people by always relegating the use of containers to those who had absolutely no choice because I proved that in every case where I moved a plant into the garden or even into the banks they started improving.

I think this calls for a trip to the garden centre though from memory they only had expensive standards.
How are you supposed to start and maintain a healthy lifestyle if it completely removes a wine lover’s reason to live?
Richard.
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Motherwoman
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I have a rosemary plant that came from a cutting of my mother's plant who in turn got a cutting from a chap along the lane back in 1955. It is a tatty looking thing with thin, almost greyish leaves but it has a much better flavour than the lush green rosemary plants you can buy.
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KG Tony
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We like to roast our potatoes with cloves of garlic and sprigs of thyme; rosemary over the roasted carrots :)
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Ricard with an H
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Im struggling with garlic on roasted spuds Tony, the garlic always gets cremated so how do you do it ?
How are you supposed to start and maintain a healthy lifestyle if it completely removes a wine lover’s reason to live?
Richard.
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