Mugwort

Artemisia vulgaris · Herb

40 pairings

Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris) is a tall, aromatic wormwood relative whose deeply cut, silver-backed grey-green leaves carry a bittersweet, sagey-camphorous scent. Long the everyday bitter herb of European cookery — famously rubbed into roast goose and fatty meats in Germany to cut the grease — it leads a second, gentler life in East Asia as yomogi (Japan) and ssuk (Korea), where the tender spring shoots are pounded into grass-green rice cakes such as kusa mochi and ssuk-tteok.

Picking a good onedrag

Just cut, silver-backed and standingBlackened, slumped and slimy

Kitchen freshTender pre-flowering leaf: blanched by the handful into kusa mochi and ssuk-tteok, or a sprig rubbed on roast goose. Oil and strong medicinal teas are not food; avoid in pregnancy.Everyday best

Where it came fromYour own plant, grown for the kitchen and unsprayed

The leafStill green and silver-backed, a few tips relaxed

Stem and growing tipStem firm, bends before it snaps, cut end still pale

Lift the bunchTips fold over slowly, then lift back when you shake it

Bruise a leafClearly there, but you have to rub it harder

What to look for, from just cut, silver-backed and standing to blackened, slumped and slimy.

Preparing