This week on AOL I take a European grand tour looking at the history and culinary uses of summer herbs.
Historically herbalists can't seem to agree on the uses and effects of basil. The English botanist, Nicholas Culpeper (1616 – 1654) says of it 'all authors are together by the ears about, and rail at one another, like lawyers' meaning they argue and contradict each other. He goes on 'Galen and Dioscorides hold it not fitting to be taken inwardly, and Chrysippus rails at it with downright Billingsgate rhetoric: Pliny and the Arabian physicians defend it'.
The use of the term 'Billingsgate rhetoric' means to use robust language like a porter at London's Billingsgate fish market. Chrysippus, who lived 200 BC said that the herb 'exists only to drive men insane'. Others thought it provoked lust, or even wind. Remember that next time you're cooking Italian for your beau!
