Thursday, January 19, 2012

What the heck is that? #1

Now I have heard the word Burnet before but have never seen, or tasted it. To me it wass one of those illusive ingredients that i just made do without cause it was easier at the time. Now that I am a little more serious about the cooking I am doing I realized that I was going to have to look up what this thing is and see if it is still available or if from the information I could find an appropriate substitute.

It started like this, go to wikipedia, type in Burnet then read. As I was reading I discovered that Burnet comes from a huge family of plants and finding the righht one might be tricky. I sort of just jumped place to place looking at the different types of plants and what they are used for, anything not cullinary or native to the US I threw out immediately .

I started with the Pimpinella  (Pimpinella major, common name Greater Burnet-saxifrage or Hollowstem Burnet Saxifrage, is a herbaceous perennial plant in the genus Pimpinella belonging to the Carrot family (Apiaceae).) as that is what I had gotten translating Burnet to German. I found while looking through it that it is the genus of plants of which Anise is a part of. Then I found that Sanguisorba has many different species. The list Follows:
Sanguisorba alpina
Sanguisorba annua
Sanguisorba applanata
Sanguisorba armena
Sanguisorba canadensis - Canadian Burnet
Sanguisorba caucasica
Sanguisorba cretica
Sanguisorba diandra
Sanguisorba dodecandra - Italian Burnet
Sanguisorba filiformis
Sanguisorba hakusanensis - Hakusan Burnet
Sanguisorba hybrida
Sanguisorba magnifica
Sanguisorba menendezii - Canary Islands Burnet
Sanguisorba menziesii
Sanguisorba minor - Salad Burnet
Sanguisorba obtusa - Japanese Burnet
Sanguisorba officinalis - Great Burnet
Sanguisorba stipulata
Sanguisorba tenuifolia - Asian Burnet

Needles sto say I looked at them all to deduce what the next step would be. Weeding out what was obviously not it! I threw out any thing that was native to North America as well as any that did not have a cullinary usage. Leaving me with still a good amount of options. The three I reduced down to are:

1st
Pimpinella saxifraga:
The Burnet Saxifrage is a plant, Pimpinella saxifraga of the family Umbelliferae a native of the British Isles and temperate Europe and Western Asia. It is neither a Burnet, which its leaves resemble, nor a Saxifrage although it has a similar herbal effect as a diuretic.
Uses:
One of the better known recipes that includes burnet Saxifrage is Grie Soss (Grüne Soße = Green Sauce) made famous in Frankfurt, Germany. This sauce includes traditionally at least seven of the herbs parsley, chervil, dill, chives, cress, sorrel, burnet saxifrage and borage.
2nd
Sanguisorba officinalis:
(Great Burnet) is a plant in the family Rosaceae, subfamily Rosoideae. It is native throughout the cooler regions of the Northern Hemisphere in Europe, northern Asia, and northern North America.
It is a herbaceous perennial plant growing to 1 m tall, which occurs in grasslands, growing well on grassy banks. It flowers June/July.
anguisorba officinalis is an important food plant for the European Large Blue butterflies Maculinea nausithous and M. teleius.[1]
3rd


Sanguisorba minor:
 (Salad burnet, Garden burnet, Small burnet, burnet) is a plant in the family Rosaceae that is native to western, central and southern Europe; northwest Africa and southwest Western Asia; and which has naturalized in most of North America. It is a perennial herbaceous plant growing to 40-90 cm tall, typically found in dry grassy meadows, often on limestone soils. It is drought-tolerant, and grows all year around.
It is used as an ingredient in both salads and dressings, having a flavor described as "light cucumber" and is considered interchangeable with mint leaves in some recipes, depending on the intended effect. Typically, the youngest leaves are used, as they tend to become bitter as they age.
Salad burnet has the same medicinal qualities as medicinal burnet (Sanguisorba officinalis). It was used as a tea to relieve diarrhea in the past.
It also has a respectable history, called a favorite herb by Francis Bacon, and was brought to the New World with the first English colonists, even getting special mention by Thomas Jefferson

As I am looking to purchase this herb in Germany I went back to my trusty translator www.Leo.org

ENGLISCH
DEUTSCH
der ausgewählten Wörter im Trainer
13 Treffer
Unmittelbare Treffer
Substantive (3 of 3)
burnet [bot.]
burnet [bot.]
burnet [bot.]
 
the next course was to search Sanguisorba minor (which was on my list of 3)

ENGLISCH
DEUTSCH

  der ausgewählten Wörter im Trainer
60 Treffer
Keine unmittelbaren Treffer

Keine Grundformen ableitbar

Weitere Treffer

Substantive (60 of 60)

euphrasy [bot.] rare

eyebright [bot.]

burnet [bot.]

salad burnet [bot.]

borage [bot.]

common borage [bot.]

borage [bot.]

common borage [bot.]




common sage [bot.]

garden sage [bot.]

kitchen sage [bot.]

sage [bot.]



lungwort [bot.]

vervain [bot.]

fumitory [bot.]


lungwort [bot.]

common sage [bot.]

garden sage [bot.]

kitchen sage [bot.]

sage [bot.]


lungwort [bot.]


lungwort [bot.]


lungwort [bot.]


borage [bot.]

common borage [bot.]

common sage [bot.]

garden sage [bot.]

kitchen sage [bot.]

sage [bot.]

balm [bot.]

common balm [bot.]

lemon balm [bot.]

sweet balm [bot.]

burnet [bot.]

salad burnet [bot.]

burnet [bot.]

salad burnet [bot.]

calendula [bot.]

pot marigold [bot.]

rosemary [bot.]




balm [bot.]

balm [bot.]

bee balm [bot.]

common balm [bot.]

lemon balm [bot.]

sweet balm [bot.]

This gives me allot of options to try out! This is where I am now on it.