Rosmarinus officinalis, one of the most prized culinary herbs, is a common wild plant of Mediterranean hillsides, but will also grow as far north as S. England, where the Romans introduced it originally (although it is commonly said that it had to be reintroduced by the Normans after 1066).
There is no doubt about the importance attached to rosemary in classical Greece and Rome, but the situation with regard to ancient Egypt is less clear. An 18th-century archaeologist found and reported a specimen of rosemary in a garland adorning an Egyptian body. However, a later commentator remarked that the leaves were reported to be green, which seemed odd after thousands of years in a tomb, and speculated that the archaeologist might have been fooled by a practical joke carried out by his guides. On the other hand, Dorothy Bovee Jones (in Foley, 1974) records that:
In his ‘Histoire Naturelle’, Valmont Bomare (1731–1807) reported that when coffins were opened after several years, branches of rosemary that had been placed in the hands of the dead were found to have grown so that they covered the corpse.
Thus an element of doubt remains, which is perhaps appropriate for a plant whose ‘Ancient Egyptian name was tentatively said by Loret … to be nkpty.’
In medieval times, and indeed throughout history, people have tended to attach more importance to the medicinal than to the culinary properties of rosemary. However, some of the supposed medicinal properties are important in the context of diet and doctrines such as that of four humours, and deserve mention here. There was a general opinion that rosemary fortified the brain and memory (hence students wearing rosemary wreaths before taking examinations), and Gerard (1633) advised that to remedy weakness and coldness of the brain some rosemary should be boiled in wine and the patient should inhale the fumes through his nose, while Culpeper (1653) recommended it as a remedy for such ‘cold diseases of the head and brain, as the giddiness and swimmings therein’. The list could be prolonged indefinitely, but space must be found for one more recommendation, that of Sir Thomas More, whose garden on the banks of the Thames was but a few hundred yards from where this article is being written; he wrote: ‘I lett it runne all over my garden walls, not onelie because my bees love it, but because it is the herb sacred to remembrance and therefore to friendship.’ He might have added ‘and to love and fidelity’, and that rosemary is unusual in having a traditional use at both weddings and funerals. To go by Dorothy Bovee Jones (again), he could also have referred to it being an ingredient in a famous medieval formula:
In the handwriting of Queen Elizabeth of Hungary, there may be seen today, in a library, formerly the Imperial Library of Vienna, a manuscript dated 1235. It contains the formula for the famous ‘Hungary water,’ a distillation of rosemary, lavender and myrtle. The Queen was paralyzed, and tradition says that this recipe was invented by a hermit especially for her. Rubbed with it every day, it did indeed effect a cure. The preparation became well-known, especially in southern France, in the neighborhood of Montpellier, where it was widely used.
Its distinctive aromatic flavour is especially liked in Italy, for both sweet and savoury dishes (Italian butchers often dress meat with it before selling it, or hand out free bunches of it with the meat); and Provence. Rosemary is often used to good effect with roasts, e.g. roast lamb, or as a stuffing for fish to be barbecued. The use of some rosemary when wood is burned to smoke meat and sausages gives the products a flavour which is especially liked in Spain.
Pamela Michael (1980) describes some interesting sweet confections made with rosemary. These include a rosemary conserve, for which she found recipes from the 16th and 17th centuries and which is described as looking and tasting almost exactly like honey. Another is a kind of compote of oranges flavoured with rosemary. For effects which are both decorative and edible she cites crystallized rosemary flowers (small and fiddly to work with, but very pretty) and also a medieval edible centrepiece called Rosemary Snow: ‘a large branch, or “bush”, of rosemary was decorated with whisked cream, egg white and sugar, usually set in a loaf of bread.’
Alan Davidson was a distinguished author and publisher, and one of the world's best-known writers on fish and fish cookery. In 1975 he retired early from the diplomatic service—after serving in, among other places, Washington, Egypt, Tunisia, and Laos, where he was British Ambassador—to pursue a fruitful second career as a food historian and food writer extraordinaire. Among his popular books are Seafood of South-East Asia, North Atlantic Seafood, and Mediterranean Seafood. In 2003, shortly before his death, he was awarded the Erasmus Prize for his contribution to European culture.
Culpeper, Nicholas (1653), The English Physician, London.
Gerard, John (1633), The Herbal, New York: Dover.
Michael, Pamela (1980), All Good Things around Us, London: Ernest Benn.
