SAGE , SALVIA OFFICINALIS

Ruth Winter.1978. A Consumer's Dictionary of Food Additives. Crown Publishers, Inc., New York.

The flowering tops and leaveds of the shrubby mints. Spices include Greek sage and Spanish sage. The genus is salvia, so named for the plant's supposed healing powers. Greek sage is used in fruit and spice flavorings for beverages, baked goods, and meats (1,500 ppm). Gree sage oil, obtained by steam distillation, is used in berry, grape, liquor, meat, crème de menthe, nutmeg, and sabve flavorings for beverages, ice cream, ices, candy, baked goods, chewing gum, condiments, meats, and pickles. Greek sage oleoresin is used in sausage and spice flavorings for condiments and meats. Spanish sage oil is used in fruit and spice flavorings for beverages, ice cream, ices, candy, baked goods, condiments, and meats. Greek sage is used in medicine. No known toxicity. GRAS ACCEPTABLE

Garrett, Theodore Francis (edited by). 1898. the Encyclopedia of Practical Cookery. L. Upcott Gill, 170, Strand, W.C. London. Vol. III

is a herb (Savia officinalis) is best known to us in conjunction with onions for stuffing pork and geese. It has a peculiar grayish green leaf, powerfully aromatic.

Simon, Andre L. 1952. A Concise Encyclopaedia of Gastronomy. Harcourt, Brace and Company, New York.

Lat. Salvia officinalis; Fr. Sauge; Ger. Salbei; It. And Sp-. Salvia. The three chief sorts cultivated in England are the green, the purple and the narrow leaved. Sage is used mostly in forcemeat and sauces in England.

Grimes, William. 2004. Eating Your Worlds. Oxford University Press.

is the grayish-green leaves of an aromatic plant native to the Mediterranean, used as a culinary herb. -
ORIGIN Middle English: from the Old French sauge, from Latin salvia 'healing plant,' from salvus 'safe'.

Igoe, Robert S. 1983. Dictionary of Food Ingredients. Van Nostrand and Reinhold Company.

is a spice which is the dried leaves of Salvia officinalis L., a shrub. It has a strong, fragrant odor. It is available industrially as whole leaf, cut, rubbed, and ground to determined granulations. It is used in pork, soups, poultry seasonings, and fish.

Hedrick, U.P. editor. 1919. Sturtevant's Notes on Edible Plants. Report of the New York Agricultural Experiment Station for the Year 1919 II. Albany, J.B Lyon Company, State Printers. [References Available]

is a Mediterranean region. this plant is one of the most important occupants of the herb garden, being commonly used for seasoning and also in domestic medicine. It has been under cultivation from a remote period and is considered to be the elelisphakos of Theophrastus, the elelisphakon of Dioscorides, the salvia of Pliny. Its medicinal virtues are ntoed by Oribasius and others of the early writers onmedicine. In the Middle Ages, sage found frequent mention, as by Albertus Magnus in the thirteenth century, and the plant and its uses are noticed in nearly all of the early botanies. Although but one variety is now grown in our gardens, yet formerly a number of sorts were ntoed, the red, green, small and variegated being named by Worlidge in 1683. Sage was in American gardens in 1806 and doubtless long before. Six varieties are described by Burr, 1863, all of which can perhaps be included among the four mentioned in 1683 and all by Mawe in 1778.

The French make an excellent pickle of the young leaves. The Chinese value the leaves for making a tea, and at one time the dutch carried on a profitable trade in exchanging sage for tea, pound for pound. In Zante, the apples or tumors on the sage, the effect of a puncture of a species of Cynips, are made into a conserve with honey, according to Sibthorp.

Igoe, Robert S. 1983. Dictionary of Food Ingredients. Van Nostrand and Reinhold Company.

Excerpts from Bender, Arnold E. 1990. Dictionary of Nutrition and Food Technology. Butterworths, Boston.

Dried leaf of the Dalmatian sage, Salvia officinalis, of the mint family; fragrant and spicy and is the most important herb used in the kitchen for flavoring meat and fish dishes and in poultry stuffing. Other sages (Greek, Spanish, English) differ in flavor from the Dalmatian variety. Also sage oil from the same source by steam distillation. Contains the essential oil thujone together with alpha-piene, cineol, borneol and D-camphor.

COMMON SAGE

(Salvia officinalis)

Hewitt, Ben. 2001July/August. Tea for Two. Organic Gardening 48(5):32.

A perennial that grows to 32 inches, has aromatic purple foliage, and flowers in June. Harvest the pleasantly bitter, lemony-flavored leaves all season long. Sage prefers moderately rich, well-drained soil and full sun in Zones 4 to 8. Use to soothe the itchiness and discomfort of sore throats, relieve canker sores, gingivitis, and other mouth inflammations, and aid digestion. It's safe iun culinary and medicinal quantities, but don't drink sage tea every day for long periods. The herb contains a substance called thujone, which in very high doses can cause convulsions. Pregnant women and nursing mothers should avoid.

Mazza, Irma Goodrich. 1952July. Herbs for the Kitchen. Little, Brown and Company, boston.

SAGE

Salvia officinalis

Perennial

He that would live for aye

Must eat sage in 'May.

This much-quoted couplet gives Sage its traditional significance of immortality. Also the wise ones ages ago believed that if the household prospers, the sage about it grows strong, especially if the wife rules the house. But just keep the fact under the hat, for it is dangerous knowledge.

One of the hardiest of perennials, sage starts with alacrity from seeds or cuttings, and grows with little care. Perhaps that is why we here in America have elected it almost the sole survivor of a long list of herbs once in use here. If we learn to use it in discreet amounts and with the restraint it demands, it will continue in favor.

Fresh sage is more satisfactory than dried. Its smartly pointed gray leaves can be gingerly and sparingly introduced into beans, pot cheeses, salt fish, stews, duck or geese. But it is too strong for turkey or chicken. A mixture of savory, thyme, and sweet basil flavors these fowls more subtly.

Excerpted from American Spice Trade Association. 1966. A glossary of Spices. American Spice Trade Association. 76 Beaver Street, New York, NY 10005

Salvia officinalis L.
Sage, hardy perennial of the mint family and native to the northern shores of the Mediterranean, has been known and esteemed for centuries not only as a fine seasoning for foods but also as a medicine.

Ancient herbalists believed that the use of Sage strengthened the memory. (A sage or wise man would have a long memory.) Doctors at Salerno, the great medieval school of medicine, asked, "How can man die, who grows Sage in his garden." Supposedly, too, Sage thrives when its owner is prosperous, especially if the wife rules the home. Slender and green when picked, Sage Leaves turn a silver grey when dried.

For several centuries Sage has been used in American kitchens for pork and other meats, in poultry stuffings, in baked fish, salad dressings and chowder. Sage cheese is expected on the Thanksgiving tables of many New Englanders. It belonged in the "bundle of sweet herbes" mentioned so often in old recipe books. Itgoes into poultry seasoning and large quantities are used in commercial meat packing and processing.

Sages comes in whole, rubbed and ground form. Rubbed Sage has a fluffy consistency, as opposed to the fine powder of Ground Sage. Many cooks and sausage makers, especially in the South, feel the rubbed product gives a superior flavoring effect. Sage is imported from Yugoslavia and other areas of southern Europe.

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Compiled for Food Resource http://food.oregonstate.edu