Where does savory grow and how is this herbaceous plant useful? What healing properties is famous for when it is recommended to include it in your diet? Recipes for dishes with spice and features of its use in cooking. The plant is also rich in tannins and resins, which add an astringent flavor and enhance the overall effect with powerful antioxidant properties. Since in essence savory is an oil plant, it is widely used in industry for the production of essential oil. The oil extracts have a warm balsamic aroma with a spicy note.
This spice has a rather pungent taste, which explains its informal name - pepper herb. Based on this, in whatever dishes it is used, the spice can partially compensate for the taste of ground pepper.
Useful properties of savory
The benefits of savory for the body are due to high bactericidal properties with a pronounced antimicrobial effect.
Thanks to its hot taste and rich composition, savory spice:
- It is used as a pain reliever. In the case of gastrointestinal disorders, there is a clear relief of the condition. Nausea, heartburn disappears, acid-base balance normalizes.
- Used as a diaphoretic to relieve symptoms of fever. As a result of consumption, fever passes, sweating decreases.
- It is prescribed to stimulate appetite in adults and children. The bitter taste of the powder stimulates the taste buds, contributing to the feeling of hunger.
- It is an excellent anthelmintic agent.
- It is prescribed to combat dry cough. Promotes more intense sputum discharge and facilitates respiratory function in diseases of the lower respiratory tract.
- It is a remedy for the relief of symptoms of flatulence. Relieves the effect of intestinal distention.
- It has a warming internal effect on the body. By acting on the taste buds, it brings the nervous system into a harmonious balance.
Harm and contraindications to the use of savory
It is known that each drug has a number of both absolute and relative contraindications. In relation to any food product, it is also customary to draw a similar analogy. Savory in this case is no exception. First of all, you should highlight the excessive inclusion of seasoning in your diet. In order to avoid undesirable consequences, all seasonings made from this herb are recommended to be used in strict accordance with the attached instructions.
When preparing dishes, you should avoid excessive heat treatment so that there is no bust with a burning and bitter taste. Otherwise, you may face the following consequences:
- Allergic reactions due to excessive exposure to the body of essential oils and plant acids;
- The manifestation of symptoms of atrial fibrillation due to the effects of components on the walls of blood vessels;
- Dysfunction of the thyroid gland due to an increase in the dose of active substances in the blood;
- Exacerbation of diseases of the gastrointestinal tract against the background of excessive use in persons with stomach and duodenal ulcers;
- The manifestation of symptoms of hypervitaminosis with the appearance of itching and cramps in the eyes.
Absolute contraindications to savory are:
- Open stomach ulcer - to avoid the threat of bleeding from the internal organs;
- Tendency to severe skin rashes - in order to prevent allergic exacerbations;
- Epilepsy and severe bronchial asthma - to prevent seizures;
- The last trimester of pregnancy - to avoid the threat of premature birth;
- Preoperative period - to exclude increased vascular tone and bleeding during operations.
In addition, close attention should be paid to the moderation of the inclusion of this seasoning in the children's diet.
It is important to remember that any independent treatment with the help of savory is unacceptable, before using it for this purpose, a consultation with a doctor is necessary!
Savory recipes
Used as a spice for many dishes from different cuisines of the world, savory is harvested at the very beginning of flowering - precisely at the time when its taste and aroma properties are highest. As a rule, leaves and young shoots are used. After drying and grinding, they are packed in an airtight container with recommendations for storage in a dry ventilated area. A feature of the use of this spice in the manufacture of various dishes is its inclusion in dishes from game or meat of wild animals. Thanks to the hotness and tart peppery aroma, the savory-based seasoning adds a unique, specific note to them.
Savory is popularly referred to as a bean herb. This is due to the fact that it is legumes that are most compatible with this spice. It perfectly emphasizes and ennobles the taste of lentils, beans and all kinds of beans. In addition, it has been found that the presence of savory in any dish not only adds a pleasant taste, but evens out the consequences such as bloating and gas formation.
The world's most famous set of Provencal herbs, used in many recipes, is hard to imagine without savory. It is he who is an excellent addition to the herbal mixture of celery, basil, coriander and marjoram. The set "Provencal herbs" is widely used in the manufacture of all kinds of dishes from meat, fish, as well as sauces and gravies.
We present to your attention recipes with savory, which are very popular:
- Pickling cucumbers … Savory is one of the main spices in the preparation of this pickling. Sort freshly picked vegetables separately according to size, removing softened and discolored fruits. Fill them with filtered water, soak for 7-8 hours, changing the liquid every hour. At the end of the soaking period, add fresh currant leaves and savory, tightly packing the cucumbers into the container. Gently tamp the jars and add grapes to fill the empty areas, store at a temperature of about zero degrees. It is noteworthy that the taste of ready-made cucumbers according to this recipe becomes almost like that of barrels.
- Flavored Cooking Oil … With the help of savory, you can enrich the taste of any vegetable oil - sunflower, olive, linseed, sesame and others. To do this, pour the required amount of grass onto the bottom of the glass jar, pouring it with the selected oil at a rate of 1: 8. When steeped for three days, an excellent oil extract with a warm spicy-balsamic taste is obtained.
- Sun-dried tomatoes … Tomatoes dried in the oven are considered an absolute favorite among Mediterranean dishes using this spice. Cutting the required number of tomatoes into halves, remove all the seeds with a small spoon. After placing the tomatoes on a baking sheet, place the savory shoots on top and, turning on the oven at 80-900 ° C, leave for 5-8 hours. Further, having laid out the finished tomatoes in jars, fill them with olive oil and put them in a cool place for storage.
- Pork kebab … It is believed that of all types of meat, it is pork that best harmonizes with the tart-spicy aroma of savory stalks. Cut the meat into large chunks to avoid overdrying when frying, salt, pepper, sprinkle with savory and mix thoroughly. We leave for marinating for at least five to six hours, and preferably overnight. In the morning, it is recommended to put pickled pork in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours. When grilling on the grill, you need to ensure that the cooking takes place exclusively due to the steam from the coals. It is noted that to get the most juicy shish kebab, it is better to use the fatty parts of the carcass, for example, the neck.
It is important to remember that in order to preserve the useful substances of this amazing plant in ready-made food, in all cases, except for canning, it is necessary to add it no earlier than two to three minutes before the dish is fully cooked! It is also categorically not recommended to put an excessive amount of seasoning. With a bitter aroma, savory is able to drown out the taste of ready-made food.
Savory is widely used in flavoring dishes. It is used as a seasoning for meat and fish delicacies and salads, as well as in the preparation of all kinds of baked goods.
Interesting facts about savory
The oldest memories of this plant were found in the oldest records of Virgil. Moreover, he was credited with truly miraculous properties with the mention of the ability to cure some ailments.
It is noteworthy that from the very beginning of the cultivation of this plant in the east of the Mediterranean, a second name was assigned to it - pepper grass. However, unlike pepper, savory is high in flavonoids and essential oils.
It is believed that the required growth phase should be the deciding factor in favor of harvesting this herb. It is harvested directly at the height of flowering, as a rule, in late June - early July. At any other time, the content of nutrients in the plant is reduced significantly.
Watch a video about savory:
Subject to the rules for the use of savory, its purchase in specialized places and with proper storage at home, you can ensure a long shelf life of the seasoning. Due to its specific tart-bitter taste and a wide range of uses, savory herb will certainly take its rightful place in your kitchen and in your home medicine cabinet.