Meadowsweet ✦

Reine-des-prés

What it is

Salicin was first drawn out of its flowers in the 1830s, and when Bayer acetylated it seventy years later they built the name aspirin on Spiraea, the plant's old genus. The white froth that scents a custard is the same chemistry that gave the twentieth century its headache pill.

In the kitchen

Infuse the flowers off the heat in cream at about 70 °C for twenty minutes, then strain. Boiling pulls the salicylate out and the cream turns bitter and antiseptic.

Goes with

Honey Cream Rhubarb Strawberry Elderflower Gooseberry Almond

In season alongside

Black locust flower Bee pollen Clary sage Damask rose petals Elderflower Greengage

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