Sweet cicely

What it is¶

Sweet cicely is a stout, bushy perennial, around a metre tall, with soft, downy, finely divided leaves like a large, pale fern, often flecked with white near the base. In late spring it bears flat, lacy umbels of white flowers, followed by very distinctive seeds: long (about 2 cm), ribbed, pointed and glossy, green at first and turning dark brown to black when ripe. Crush any part and it smells powerfully of aniseed.

It is also known as garden myrrh, sweet chervil or anise fern, and in older books simply as cicely. It is one of the first herbs to reach picking size in spring and stays green until the autumn frosts, making it a useful plant for cooler, shadier gardens where many Mediterranean herbs struggle.

Origins and history¶

Sweet cicely is a plant of the European mountains — the Alps, Pyrenees, Apennines and the Balkan ranges — and its long history of cultivation has spread it well beyond them. It is widely naturalised in northern England and Scotland, where it grows along streams and road verges and near old farmsteads, which suggests it was once commonly planted there. Its botanical name, Myrrhis, comes from the Greek for myrrh, a reference to its scent.

The sixteenth- and seventeenth-century English herbalists, including John Gerard and Nicholas Culpeper, described it as a pot-herb and salad plant, recommending the green seeds and the boiled root. In northern England the seeds were traditionally crushed and rubbed into oak furniture and floors as a polish, leaving a sweet scent — a piece of folk practice rather than something with a documented origin. Like many old cottage herbs it fell out of use in the twentieth century and is kept alive largely by gardeners and foragers. See herbals-and-herbalists.

Flavour and aroma¶

The whole plant tastes of anethole, the sweet aniseed compound also found in aniseed, fennel and star anise. The leaves are mild and green, with a fleeting sweetness that is noticeable on the tongue. The unripe green seeds are the most intensely flavoured part — crisp and nutty, tasting rather like aniseed sweets. Ripe black seeds are hard and fibrous. The roots are milder, with a carrot-and-aniseed flavour.

Anethole is detected as sweet, which is why sweet cicely is said to "reduce the sugar" in fruit dishes: it makes tart fruit taste less sharp. How much sugar you can actually leave out depends on the fruit and your taste, but a noticeable reduction is realistic.

In the kitchen¶

Sweet cicely is best known as a companion for sharp fruit, but it is also a gentle leafy herb.

• Rhubarb: the classic use. Cook a good handful of chopped leaves (roughly 15–20 g per 500 g of rhubarb) with the fruit in crumbles, compotes, fools and pies, and cut the sugar back a little. Sweet cicely leaves appear just as the forced and early outdoor rhubarb arrives.
• Gooseberries, redcurrants and plums: the same treatment, for fools, jams and tarts.
• Cream and custard: infuse leaves in cream or milk for ice creams, panna cotta and custard; whip chopped leaves into cream to serve with fruit.
• Salads: young leaves and flowers in green salads; the crunchy green seeds, chopped, in fruit salads or over ice cream.
• Savoury: leaves with carrots, parsnips, root soups and omelettes, and as a milder alternative to fennel with fish. The roots can be boiled or roasted like parsnips, or grated raw into salads.
• Drinks: the seeds are used to flavour home-made liqueurs and spirits in the Alps and Scandinavia.

Use the leaves generously; they are mild. Add them near the end in savoury dishes, but cook them with fruit from the start.

Buying and storing¶

Sweet cicely is almost never sold, so it is best picked as needed. Leaves keep for two or three days wrapped in damp paper in the fridge but wilt quickly at room temperature. They lose much of their flavour when dried; freezing chopped leaves in a little water, or cooking them into a rhubarb compote and freezing that, works better (see freezing-herbs). Green seeds are best eaten fresh or preserved in sugar syrup or vodka. Dig roots in autumn and use within a week.

Substitutes¶

chervil is the nearest leafy substitute: similar in appearance, with a milder aniseed note. fennel fronds give more aniseed and less softness; use a little less. For fruit, a pinch of crushed aniseed or fennel seed, or a star anise pod simmered with the fruit and removed, gives the aniseed flavour, though not the reduction in perceived sharpness.

Pairs well with¶

Rhubarb, gooseberries, redcurrants, strawberries, plums, apples, cream, custard, yoghurt, carrots, parsnips, white fish, eggs, chervil, lovage, mint, ginger and angelica.

Growing your own¶

Sweet cicely is a fully hardy, long-lived perennial that prefers cool, moist conditions and light shade — a woodland edge, a north-facing border or under deciduous trees suits it well. It dislikes hot, dry spots. Once established it forms a long taproot and resents moving.

The seed needs a long period of cold to germinate, so sow it fresh in autumn, outdoors or in pots left outside over winter; seedlings appear the following spring. It is easier to buy a plant or take a root division in spring or autumn (each piece needs a bud). Cut the plant back after flowering to encourage a flush of fresh leaves, and remove seed heads if you do not want seedlings. See propagating-herbs and annual-and-perennial-herbs.

Health and safety¶

Sweet cicely itself is safe to eat. The danger lies in confusing it with its deadly relatives, which grow in the same damp, shady places:

• Hemlock (Conium maculatum): smooth, hairless stems blotched with purple, and an unpleasant mousy smell when crushed. All parts are highly poisonous.
• Hemlock water dropwort (Oenanthe crocata): grows by water in Britain and is one of the most poisonous plants in the country.
• Fool's parsley (Aethusa cynapium) and the many harmless but similar umbellifers such as cow parsley.

See also¶

• chervil
• fennel
• angelica
• poisonous lookalikes
• foraging wild herbs
• aniseed