Salad burnet
Sanguisorba minor · Herb
Top 10 pairings
Salad burnet (Sanguisorba minor) is a small, hardy perennial herb of the rose family whose young leaves taste startlingly of cucumber. Tossed raw into salads, dressings, cold soups and herb butters, or steeped in cooling summer drinks, it was a kitchen-garden staple long before the cucumber became common in northern Europe.
Picking a good onedrag
Just cut, sprigs standing upBlackened and slimy at the tie
Bunch freshEveryday bestStrip the young leaflets off the midrib and chop them in late: salad, herb butter, dressing, cold soup, a jug of water. Heat drives the cucumber note straight off.
Where it came fromFrom a kitchen garden or grower you know was never sprayed for looks
The leafletsFull-sized leaflets, still green and flat, the toothed edges crisp
A sprig in the handStands, then the tip nods over slowly
Stems and cut endsStems firm, cut ends dried and browned a few millimetres up
Flower heads, if the bunch carries themOne or two green thimble heads among mostly leafy stems
Smell of a bruised leafletQuiet cucumber with a green, faintly nutty edge