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- General Information -
"If you pick up a half-dozen herb books to look up chamomile, you are
likely to find a bewilderment of names. There's Roman (or English)
chamomile, a perennial, and German (or Hungarian) chamomile, an
annual. The German species might be listed as Matricaria chamomile,
Chamomilla recutita, or Matricaria recutita. These are all the same
plant! Roman chamomile is referred to in some sources as Anthemis
nobilis, in others as Chamaemelum nobile. The currently accepted
nomenclature is Matricaria recutita for the German, and Chamaemelum
nobile for the Roman.
"The word chamomile (sometimes spelled camomile, and generally
pronounced with a long i), is derived from Greek - chamos (ground)
and melos (apple), referring to the fact that the plant grows low to
the ground, and the fresh blooms have a pleasing apple scent. Even at
this level of naming, all is not clear. Roman chamomile is indeed
low growing, and is used for clipped lawns in England. But German
chamomile grows to a relatively stately 2 1/2 feet.
- Telling Them Apart -
"German chamomile is a sweet-scented, branching plant whose tiny
leaves are twice-divided into thin linear segments. The flowers, up
to one inch across, have a hollow, cone-shaped receptacle, with tiny
yellow disk flowers covering the cone. The cone is surrounded by 10
to 20 white, down-curving ray flowers, giving it the appearance of a
miniature daisy. German chamomile is native to Europe and Western
Asia, where it is weedy; it has escaped from cultivation in the
United States as well."
"Roman chamomile...has a spreading habit and grows only about a foot
high. Leaves are twice or thrice divided into linear segments, which
are flatter and thicker than those of German chamomile. Its flowers
are also up to an inch across, but its disk is a broader conical
shape, and the receptacle is solid. Roman chamomile also has white
ray flowers, though a number of cultivated varieties have none at all
and give the appearance of little yellow buttons. There are also
double-flowered cultivars (well-known by the sixteenth century), and
a flowerless one called 'Treneague,' named for the English estate on
which it was developed. Roman chamomile is native to Western Europe
northward to Northern Ireland.
"If you have a pile of dried chamomile flowers, you can distinguish
the Roman from the German by splitting the flower receptacle open
down the middle. If the receptacle is solid, it is Roman; if hollow,
it is German. You should test five or ten flowers to be sure, because
occasionally a German chamomile flower will be solid in the interior.
Roman chamomile has slightly hairy stems, while those of the German
are smooth. In the live plant, the flowers of Roman chamomile sit
singly atop the stem, while those of the German are on divided stems
in a comb-like arrangement (known as a corymb)."
Excerpted from Steven Foster's "Chamomile" article in "The Herb
Companion." Dec. 1992/Jan. 1993, Vol. 5, No. 2. Pp. 64-65. Posted by
Cathy Harned.
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The History of Recipes
Written cooking instructions as a concept can be traced far back into the far past, in fact as far back as the Egypt of the Pharoahs, and quite possibly further than that. Interesting though that is, mostly, these ancient records were just very basic pictorial instructions for meal preparation.
In an interesting twist, the oldest recipe in existence, according to historians are a few tablets in ancient Sumerian which show the preparation of bread which is then used to make a drink, quite possibly a form of beer as it is recorded as making people feel `wonderful`. Continuing our culinary historical journey, there are two interesting books published in the 1300s - one book published under the title `Forme of Cury`, and another, similary entitled `Curye on Inglish`. Although the titles sound familiar, these two books are unconnected to the indian curry that is served today, but rather recipes for the types of meals eaten by the rich people of that period. Over the succeeding few hundred years, the powerful families of the West competed with each other to serve the most extravagent banquests, and as a consequence, chefs and their recipes were much in demand. Even so, it was during the nineteenth century that cookery and cookery books rose to prominence. The Famous Mrs Isabella Beeton in the UK, and the equally well-known Fannie Merritt Farmer in the US, spent years to collecting, verifying, and publishing recipes to allow everyone to enjoy them. The TV revolution brought us cooking programs and the demand for the spin-off recipe books. And that pretty much brings us to the present day and the invention of the internet, permitting everybody to access massive numbers of recipes such as those found on the site you are now reading. |
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