Brought up listening to the Simon and Garfunkel version of the song, I always thought in addition to being a witchy potion of love or otherwise, it was a great seasoning idea. Flowers, seeds and herbs have all sorts of pagan significance and modern wiccan and pagan websites vie with earth-mothery blogs about which herb to infuse your tea with when the moon is full and your heart is filled with yearning.
Most research is in accord – parsley takes away bitterness and brings comfort (digestive comfort mostly, its great for a dodgy tummy), sage brings strength and takes away anxiety. Rosemary’s good reputation precedes it as warrior against free radicals and headaches, while the tree-huggers believe it was symbolic of love and loyalty and thyme is antiseptic but also ‘promotes courage’.
A slightly less generous view of the ingredients in the song was offered by a pro-choice website that suggested that ‘Scarborough Fair’ was a euphemism for getting it on with your lover and the herbs were a remedy against either some tell tale disease or an unwanted pregnancy. But that is far too unromantic for my tastes.
Whatever personality you want to ascribe to them, parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme are the A-team of herbs – parsleys astringent crispness, sage’s earthiness, the sweetness of rosemary that is best brought out by the heat and thyme, as distinctive a flavour as it is complementary. As the recipe suggests, they work best with a breast of chicken or firm-fleshed fillets of fish. Genuinely light, quick and delicious.
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