Sage (Salvia officinalis L.)

Sage
Although sage is an ancient spice, its importance today is quite limited; usage concentrates on the Mediterranean countries, where dishes spiced with sage are found from Spain to Greece. Undoubtedly, the country which uses sage most is Italy and England; in this respect, sage resembles rosemary (which fragrance is remotely similar).
Italians most commonly use sage to flavour meat and poultry dishes; especially veal, which is often thought bland, can profit a lot from this herb. Saltimbocca alla Romana is probably the most famous dish owing its special character to sage: Very thin veal steaks are fried together with raw salt-cured ham (prociutto crudo) and fresh sage leaves and then deglazed with red wine (some recipes used white wine).
Sage is a very powerful spice and tends to dominate; its slightly bitter taste is not appreciated by many people. It is sometimes combined with garlic and pepper (preferably green pepper) for barbecued or fried meat. Because of its strong taste, combination of sage with weakly aromatic or delicate herbs does not make much sense.
Sage species from Central and South America usually have a much sweeter and more fruity aroma. They are no suitable substitute for Mediterranean sage, but they might have same culinary value for themselves. Despite their unique and most interesting fragrance.

Used plant part
Leaves

Plant family
Lamiaceae (mint family).

Sensoric quality
Slightly bitter and aromatic, characteristic.

Main constituents
The essential oil (1 to 2.5%) is composed rather differently in different species and varieties of sage. “Dalmatian sage” (S. officinalis ssp. minor) contains mostly thujon (35 to 60%), 1,8-cineol (15%), camphor (18%), borneol (16%), bornyl esters, a-pinene and salvene. “Spanish sage” (ssp. lavandulifolia) lacks thujon, but contains more cineol (29%) and camphor (34%); this subspecies is regarded as inferior. Its leaves lack the bitter diterpene carnosol (see hyssop).

Origin
The sage varieties used as spice stem from the Mediterranean and Asia Minor. Sage is grown in Central Europe since the Middle Ages (see lovage). Genus Salvia is not restricted to the Old World; several sage species from Central America are characterized by a sweet, fruity fragrance very unsimilar to Mediterranean sage, e.g. Pineapple sage (Salvia rutilans), peach sage (Salvia greggii), fruit sage (Salvia dorisiana) and more. Some of these become increasingly popular for herb infusions, others are grown as ornamentals for their large flowers.