| |
 Herbs have always been served as a traditional accompaniment to meat dishes and used as a flavoring for sauces. When you cook with fresh herbs, they release a wonderful aroma, which not only smells fantastic but makes your mouth water, and this release of saliva actually helps prepare your stomach for food. Herbs like mint also aid digestion, particularly of fatty meats like lamb, which goes some way to explaining the tradition of preparing meat with herbs.
Historically, herbs were used both as flavoring and as preservatives. Before refrigerators were invented, large households had underground cellars and cold rooms where they stored meat, which was covered in salt and wrapped in fresh sage leaves to preserve it. After shooting, fresh game was also left to hang to tenderize the meat, with bunches of fresh thyme that added flavor and imparted antiseptic properties to the meat to help prevent stomach upsets when it was eventually eaten.
|
