Ingredient

Rosemary

Rosemary is the most assertive of the common herbs and the one most often used badly. Its aromatic compounds are held in resinous oils that need heat and fat to release, and a woody sprig thrown in at the end contributes little but needles. Given time, it can also take over a dish completely.

Where the flavour is held

Rosemary's aroma comes largely from camphor, cineole and pinene — resinous, hardy compounds stored in oils within a tough, waxy leaf. They do not escape easily.

That means the herb behaves in the opposite way to a soft one. Where basil loses everything to heat, rosemary needs it: fat, time and temperature draw the oils out and disperse them.

The corollary is that it goes on early, not late, and that whole sprigs are more controllable than chopped leaves — a sprig can be lifted out when it has given enough, and chopped rosemary cannot be recalled.

Getting the quantity right

This is where rosemary dishes usually go wrong.

A sprig, not a handful

One or two sprigs is plenty for a dish serving four. Rosemary is several times stronger than thyme by volume.

Whole is safer than chopped

Infuse with whole sprigs and remove them. Chopped rosemary keeps releasing and cannot be taken back.

Chop it very fine if you do chop it

Whole needles in a finished dish are unpleasant to eat — spiky and intensely resinous.

Fat carries it

Its compounds are fat-soluble, so rosemary in oil or butter distributes far better than rosemary in water.

Dried

Works, unlike most soft herbs, though it becomes harsher and more medicinal. Use less than the fresh quantity.

What it goes with

• Lamb, in every European tradition. Slivers pushed into slits in the meat with garlic before roasting.
• Potatoes, roasted, where the fat carries the oils across the whole tray.
• Focaccia and bread, pressed into the dough with coarse salt and oil.
• White beans, cooked with a sprig and a whole garlic clove and a good oil.
• Chicken, particularly with lemon, in a roasting tin.
• In a syrup or a cordial, where it is unexpected and works — rosemary and lemon, or rosemary and grapefruit.
• Sprigs as skewers, stripped except at the tip, for lamb or vegetables on a barbecue.

Using it well

1. Strip the needles by running your fingers down the stem against the direction of growth. They come off in one motion.
2. Keep the stripped stems — they are useful in a stock or thrown on a barbecue.
3. For an infusion, put whole sprigs into hot fat or liquid at the start and taste as you go. Remove them when it is enough.
4. For a roast, push slivers of rosemary and garlic into slits cut in the meat, so the flavour ends up inside rather than only on the surface.
5. To chop, gather the needles into a tight pile and chop repeatedly until very fine. Coarse rosemary in a finished dish is unpleasant.
6. Add chopped rosemary to a dish with at least twenty minutes of cooking left. Raw, it is harsh.

Common questions