Common sage is a hardy, grey-leaved Mediterranean shrub with a musky, slightly bitter, camphor-laced flavour. It is made for rich foods: pork, sausages, stuffing, brown butter and pumpkin.
What it is¶
Sage is an evergreen (or semi-evergreen) subshrub with soft, oblong, grey-green leaves covered in fine hairs that give them a pebbled, velvety feel. It belongs to Salvia, the largest genus in the mint family, with around a thousand species — most of them ornamental rather than culinary. rosemary was moved into the same genus in 2017.
Useful culinary forms include purple sage ('Purpurascens'), slightly milder; golden sage ('Icterina') and tricolor, both handsome and a little less vigorous; broad-leaved forms such as 'Berggarten', which rarely flower; Greek sage (Salvia fruticosa), much of what is sold dried; and pineapple sage (Salvia elegans), a tender plant with fruity leaves and scarlet flowers that tastes nothing like common sage.
Origins and history¶
The name Salvia comes from the Latin salvere, "to be well" or "to be saved", reflecting the herb's huge medieval reputation. Sage was grown in monastery gardens across Europe (see physic-and-monastery-gardens), and the medieval Latin saying Cur moriatur homo cui salvia crescit in horto? — "Why should a man die who has sage growing in his garden?" — was widely repeated. Sage tea is said to have been a common drink in England before Chinese tea became affordable.
In the kitchen, sage became a fixture of English and Italian cooking: sage and onion stuffing, Lincolnshire and other English sausages, Derby sage cheese, and in Italy saltimbocca and pasta with sage butter.
Flavour and aroma¶
Sage is savoury and assertive: musky, earthy and resinous, with camphor and eucalyptus notes, a faint lemon peel and a pleasant bitterness. Fat tames it and carries its flavour; that is why it works so well with pork, duck, butter and cheese. Fresh sage is brighter; dried sage is mustier and stronger, and "rubbed" sage — leaves crumbled to a fluffy powder — is the traditional British form for stuffing and sausages.
In the kitchen¶
- Brown butter: fry whole leaves in butter until the butter is nut-brown and the leaves crisp, then spoon over squash ravioli, gnocchi or pumpkin.
- Crisp-fried leaves: fried in olive oil at about 180°C for a few seconds, then salted — a garnish and a snack.
- Saltimbocca: veal escalopes topped with a sage leaf and prosciutto, fried and finished with white wine.
- Stuffing and sausages: sage and onion stuffing for pork, goose and turkey; pork sausages.
- Beans and roasts: Tuscan white beans with garlic and sage; roast pork, duck, liver.
Use it with restraint in delicate dishes: a few leaves are enough for a pan of beans. Unlike most herbs it benefits from cooking in fat, which softens its bitterness.
💡 Crisping sage
Dry the leaves completely before frying. Wet leaves spit, and they stay limp rather than turning translucent and glassy.
Buying and storing¶
Fresh sage keeps well — a week or more wrapped in paper towel in a bag in the fridge. It is one of the herbs that dries well: hang bunches somewhere warm and airy, then store the whole leaves in a sealed jar and rub them between your palms when needed. Dried sage keeps its character for six months to a year. Frozen fresh leaves are good for frying straight from the freezer.
Substitutes¶
rosemary and thyme are the closest in mood, though both are sharper; marjoram or savory works in stuffing. Use about a third as much dried sage as fresh. In brown butter, nothing quite replaces it, but crisp-fried rosemary needles or thyme sprigs make a different, good dish.
Pairs well with¶
Pork, sausages, duck, goose, veal, liver, butter, onions, squash, pumpkin, beans, apples, Parmesan, garlic, thyme, rosemary, bay, parsley and black pepper.
Growing your own¶
Common sage is hardy across most of Britain given sun and good drainage; like other Mediterranean shrubs it dislikes cold, wet soil more than frost. Coloured forms are slightly less hardy. Plant in spring, water until established, and then leave it alone.
Cut back lightly in spring and again after flowering to keep plants compact, but not into old bare wood. Sage grows leggy after four or five years; replace it with plants raised from softwood cuttings taken in late spring, or by layering a low branch. Seed is easy, though named cultivars will not come true.
Health and safety¶
Culinary use is safe. Sage contains thujone, which is toxic in large doses, so concentrated sage essential oil and high-dose sage supplements should be avoided — particularly in pregnancy and by people with epilepsy. The amount in a stuffing or a plate of sage butter is not a concern.