ny other of
the culinary herbs.

Sage, which is a strongly flavored plant, is used chiefly with such fat
meats as pork, goose, duck, and various kinds of game. Large quantities
are mixed with sausage meat and, in some countries, with certain kinds
of cheese. Throughout the United States it is probably the most
frequently called into requisition of all herbs, probably outranking any
two of the others, with the exception of parsley.

[Illustration: Garden Hoes of Various Styles]

Thyme and savory stand about equal, and are chiefly used like parsley,
though both, especially the former, are used in certain kinds of
sausage. Marjoram, which is similarly employed, comes next, then follow
balm, fennel, and basil. These milder herbs are often mixed for much the
same reason that certain simple perfumes are blended--to produce a new
odor--combinations of herbs resulting in a new compound flavor. Such
compounds are utilized in the same way that the elementary herbs are.

In classes by themselves are tarragon and spearmint, the former of which
is chiefly used as a decoction in the flavoring of fish sauces, and the
latter as the universal dressing with spring lamb. Mint has also a more
convivial use, but this seems more the province of the W. C. T. U. than
of this book to discuss.

Dill is probably the most important of the herbs whose seeds, rather
than their leaves, are used in flavoring food other than confectionery.
It plays its chief role in the pickle barrel. Immense quantities of
cucumber pickles flavored principally with dill are used in the
restaurants of the larger cities and also by families, the foreign-born
citizens and their descendants being the chief consumers. The demand for
these pickles is met by the leading pickle manufacturers who prepare
special brands, generally according to German recipes, and sell them to
the delicatessen and the grocery stores. If they were to rely upon me
for business, they would soon go bankrupt. To my palate the dill pickle
appeals as almost the acme of disagreeableness.

NOTABLE INSTANCE OF USES

The flavors of the various herbs cover a wide range, commencing with
fennel and ending with sage, and are capable of wide application. In one
case which came under my observation, the cook made a celery-flavored
stew of some meat scraps. Not being wholly consumed, the surviving
debris appeared a day or two later, in company with other odds and
ends, as the chief actor in a meat pie fl