Rosemary 101- kitchen insights and benefits

Did you know that rosemary has been used to aid individuals in recalling information from the beginning of time?

• Within the realms of literature and culture, it is seen as a representation of remembrance and loyalty. Even before it was first mentioned in a cookbook in the year 500 B.C., the ancient Greeks and Romans exploited rosemary as a culinary and medicinal herb. Rosemary is known for its ability to stimulate, and it was traditionally used as an aromatic ingredient in a variety of traditional medicinal preparations, including liniments and tonics.
• In ancient rites, rosemary wood was burned as incense or used to make an ointment that was used to cleanse the hands of the priests. During the Middle Ages, it was included in the creation of talismans that protected against being poisoned. It was a holy plant that was said to have been used by fairies as a home or a hiding place in different locations of the Mediterranean, according to folklore.
• The name originates from the Latin phrase “ros marinus“, which translates to “dew of the sea”. This is a reference to the crisp aroma of rosemary, which is analogous to the fragrance of an ocean breeze. Because of the extraordinary longevity of its blossoms, the ancient Greeks and Romans associated this plant with the concept of memory.
• Rosemary is historically used in many therapeutic rituals all around the world with the intention of improving one’s memory. Since ancient times, it has been used as a component of scented oils, including those used in aromatherapy, perfumes, and incense. The plant is often used as a flavouring in Mediterranean cuisine, particularly with breads, pastas, and meals that use pasta. It is also possible to use it on its own to enhance the flavour of meat, fish, or poultry meals without adding anything else to the dish that would make it smell or taste overbearing.

Rosemary nutrition values and health benefits

1. Folate, pantothenic acid, pyridoxine, and riboflavin are only some of the B-complex vitamins that are abundant in rosemary. containing around 109 g per 100 g of the plant (about 27 percent of the RDA), it is one of the herbs containing substantial concentrations of folate. Folates are essential for DNA synthesis and may help prevent neural tube defects in preterm infants if given to pregnant women throughout the peri-conceptional period.
2. Vitamin A is abundant in rosemary plants, with 2924 IU per 100 g, or almost 97% of the RDI. The vitamin might be obtained by eating only a couple of leaves every day. Vitamin A’s antioxidant properties are well known, and it’s also required for healthy vision. It’s important for keeping your skin and mucous membranes in good condition, too. Consuming natural foods rich in vitamin A, especially in moderation, has been shown to help the body defend against lung and oral cancers.
3. About 22 milligrammes (mg) per 100 grammes (g), or about 37% of the RDI, may be found in fresh rosemary leaves, making them an excellent source of the antioxidant vitamin C. The human body needs it for a number of reasons, including collagen synthesis. Maintaining healthy blood vessels, skin, organs, and bones relies on collagen, the body’s most critical structural protein. Consuming vitamin C-rich meals on a regular basis may help the body fight off scurvy, improve tolerance to infectious agents (and hence immunity), and rid the body of potentially harmful, pro-inflammatory free radicals.
4. Fresh or dried, rosemary is a great way to get your daily dose of minerals, including potassium, calcium (calcium carbonate), iron (iron oxide), manganese, copper, and magnesium. Potassium serves a function in controlling heart rate and blood pressure, making it a crucial component of cells and body fluids. The antioxidant enzyme superoxide dismutase relies on manganese as a cofactor to prevent free radical damage to cells.
5. While further research is needed to confirm these findings, preliminary research suggests that rosemary may help people deal with stress and anxiety. The results of a randomised controlled trial conducted on college students found that rosemary significantly improved the quality of their sleep and decreased their levels of anxiety compared to a placebo.
6. The phytochemical content of rosemary is quite high. Phytochemicals are not as essential to survival as vitamins and minerals are, but they play a critical role in disease prevention, treatment, and overall health maintenance. Rosemary’s phytochemicals have been linked to a variety of health benefits, including safeguarding against asthma and decreasing the risk of eye disease.
7. There are several volatile essential oils with health-promoting characteristics, including cineol, camphene, bornyl acetate, and pinene, that are concentrated in the herb parts, notably the blossom tops. Among its many beneficial properties are those of being rubefacient (counterirritant), anti-inflammatory, anti-allergic, anti-fungal, and antiseptic.

100g of rosemary has 131 calories (548kj), 3.3g protein, 5.9g fat, and 21g carbs, including 14g fibre.

How to store rosemary and how to buy them

• Rosemary, like the vast majority of other types of herbs, grows best at cool temperatures (between 0 and 5 degrees Celsius) and high levels of relative humidity. Because of this, we put them in the refrigerator and wrap them in damp paper towels to keep them fresh. Because the paper towel acts as a source of moisture for the herb, rosemary may keep its acceptable quality for a far longer period of time than it would if the paper towel were not there.
• If you put fresh rosemary in the refrigerator after wrapping it in a damp paper towel and placing it in a freezer bag, it will stay fresh for up to two weeks. If you don’t use the paper towel, you’ll have twice as much space for storage. If you leave the fresh herb out at room temperature for a few days, you will notice that it wilts and loses some of its flavour.
• If storing the herb in the refrigerator for two weeks isn’t long enough for your requirements and you don’t want to go to the trouble of drying it, you may always choose to freeze it instead. The following is the quickest and easiest approach to accomplishing that goal:
  1. Wash and dry it. After giving the sprigs a quick rinse, lay them out to dry on a dish towel. After that, gently pat them dry.
  2. Optional: The leaves should be removed from the sprigs. There is no need to do that if you use the sprigs in their entirety in your meals. If, on the other hand, you are just interested in utilising the leaves, separate them from the sprigs and freeze them separately. In this manner, the herb may be used immediately after being removed from the freezer.
  3. Place it in the bag designated for the freezer. Place the sprigs or leaves in the freezer bag, deflate it by squeezing out as much air as possible, and then close it. If you like, you may put a label on it with the name and the date.
  4. Freeze. When you freeze the sprigs (or leaves), they do not freeze together since the sprigs or leaves are already dry. As a result, you are free to extract from the bag as much as you need, whenever you want it. There is no need to pre-freeze the food or do anything else of the kind.
• If fresh rosemary is kept in storage for too long or in circumstances that are not ideal, it can become mushy and lose its vibrant green colour. It is necessary to get rid of your sprigs if they are withering, have a brownish appearance, or give off an unpleasant odour. It is up to you to determine whether or not an old bouquet of rosemary sprigs may still be used successfully in the kitchen, just as it is with other fresh herbs. A useful hint is that they are most likely not fresh if they have been stored in the refrigerator for more than two weeks.
• The quality of dried rosemary may be maintained for up to three years, or for about one year beyond the “best if used by” date that is printed on the label. It doesn’t spoil in the sense that it becomes hazardous to use or anything like that, but the flavour will gradually go away with time. And at a certain point, dried rosemary will no longer perform what it is intended to do, which is provide flavour to the food you prepare. Try rubbing a little amount of your dried rosemary between your fingers, then smelling and tasting it to determine whether or not it is of any use.

Cooking techniques, secrets, and tips from the kitchen

1. It’s a smart move to have a bottle of rosemary oil in your kitchen’s cabinet at all times. In addition to the culinary possibilities that are most readily obvious, such as roasted chicken or root vegetables like potatoes, it is also an excellent complement to popcorn and other snack items. Select a bottle of extra virgin olive oil from the store that has a flavour that appeals to you, since the rosemary will bring out more of the oil’s natural flavour. In order to make the oil, use fresh rosemary. When it comes to enriching the experience, infusing the oil with the fresh leaves, utilising the infused oil, and enjoying the aroma and flavour of the fresh leaves are unrivalled.
2. As an excellent method to give recipes or finished dishes an extra boost without adding any more calories or fat to the dish, flavoured salts may be used in place of regular table salt. If you haven’t tried this before, it is fairly easy and a good way to use up any leftover herbs from a large crop in your garden. If you’ve never prepared something similar before with fresh herbs, you may be surprised at how fragrant the combination turns out to be when it’s finished. These kinds of mixed salts are often sold in grocery stores, but making your own version of them is not only simple but also much more satisfying than buying ones that have already been prepared. This dish combines coarse salt, kosher salt, and fresh rosemary leaves, and it does so in a quick and easy manner thanks to the use of a food processor. The preparation is thus rapid and uncomplicated.
3. Focaccia has a plethora of excellent attributes, such as the ability to be personalised with herbs and flakes of salt, a texture that is light and airy, and the simplicity with which it can be put together, to name just a few of these amazing attributes. Use the warm focaccia to its full potential by drizzling it with more olive oil or dipping it in the vinegar of your choice.
   • If you bake the focaccia in a square baking dish rather than on a baking sheet, you will have a lighter and fluffier end result. Because of this, the focaccia edges will be able to cling to and rise while the dough is proving, which will ultimately result in a dough that is thicker overall.
   • If you do this, however, the amount of time it takes to cook the food will probably increase by around 5 minutes.
   • As soon as you have put the focaccia mixture in the backing tray, use your fingers to spread it slightly towards the corners (being careful not to shred the dough in the process), and then poke deep dents all the way to the bottom of the pan on the surface of the dough.
   • Additional olive oil should be poured evenly over the top of the dough (there is no such thing as too much olive oil when it comes to focaccia), and the remaining rosemary leaves and flaky sea salt should be placed on top of the focaccia.
4. The traditional herbs of Provence, including parsley, sage, and rosemary, are used to impart flavour to a French white bean soup, resulting in a meal that is both flavourful and satisfying. In addition, their velvety mouthfeel is achieved without the addition of any fat at the end of the cooking process thanks to their velvety, creamy texture, which also adds a velvety mouthfeel to any dish (although they are excellent when prepared with olive oil). This, in addition to the fact that they are an excellent source of inexpensive protein, implies that it is quite difficult to cook them in an inappropriate manner. They taste especially wonderful when accompanied by a bowl of soup that has been flavoured with various herbs. Alternately, you could serve this hearty soup on its own as a meal for lunch or dinner with crusty bread, or you might serve it as a complement to a green salad and roasted chicken entrée.

History of rosemary from the beginning until today

• Stone tablets written in cuneiform from the ancient Near East contain the first documented reference to rosemary. These stones date back to 5000 BCE. We don’t know much about it other than the fact that it was used in burial rituals in Egypt, but that’s pretty much all we know about it.
• According to historical sources, the plant finally made its way east to China, where it became naturalised during the late Han Dynasty in the year 220 CE. This information comes from the discovery of the plant in China.
• It is uncertain when Rosmarinus officinalis was originally brought to England; the Romans probably brought it with them when they invaded the nation in the first century CE, yet there are no trustworthy reports of rosemary arriving in Britain until the seventh century CE. It was believed that Charlemagne was responsible for this, since he was the one who promoted the growing of herbs in general and gave orders for rosemary to be planted in the gardens of monasteries and farms.
• There are also no records of rosemary being completely naturalised in Britain until 1338, when cuttings were brought to Queen Philippa (1311–1369), the wife of Edward III, by the Countess of Hainault, Jeanne of Valois (1294–1342). Queen Philippa was the reigning monarch at this time. It was accompanied by a card that discussed the advantages of rosemary as well as those of the other herbs that were included with the gift. You are welcome to visit the British Museum to see the original manuscript for yourself. As a result, it was agreed to put the gift in a garden that is next to the old palace that is located in Westminster.
• At the beginning of the seventeenth century, Rosemary finally made it to the Americas after enduring a harrowing trek over the ocean with other early European settlers. It first made its way to South America, and then it went on to other parts of the globe.
• Rosemary is an herb that is referenced in a number of Shakespeare’s plays as being used at funerals and other memorial rites. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Ophelia makes the following observation about the garden: “There is rosemary in the garden, which stands for remembering.” I will pray for you, my sweetheart, and ask that you keep me in your thoughts.