CULINARY HERBS

We Americans – people, as the French say, “” – could learn a thing or two from the English matron, who usually considers her kitchen incomplete without a dozen or more sweet herbs, either powdered, in decoction, or preserved in both ways.

A glance into a French or German culinary department would most likely reveal more than a score; however, a careful search in an American kitchen would rarely reveal more than a half-dozen, and in the vast majority of cases, only parsley and sage would be revealed.

Even the most unpalatable and insipid dishes can be made piquant and appetizing by these humble plants and at a surprisingly low cost. Indeed, most of them can be grown in an out-of-the-way corner of the garden, or, if no garden is available, in a box of soil on a sunny windowsill – a method used by many foreigners living in New York and Jersey City.

They can certainly be made to enhance the pleasure of living, and, as Solomon says, "a dinner of herbs where love is, is better than a stalled ox with contention."