A sweet girl – Meadowsweet

An herb for cute girls or even to bewitch pretty women? Ganz und gar nicht.

Actually, I know quite a lot about tea and herbs, as I am a trained pharmaceutical assistant. During the last 30 years I have been able to learn a lot, among other things also from my mother who has a lot of knowledge about what is going on in the forest and on the meadows grows and how to use it in the kitchen. When walking or hiking I can’t help but pass a herb or a spice without smelling it or even picking it when it is ready for harvest. I always get carried away when I see nettles, elderflowers, wild thyme and rosemary, just to name a few examples. Of course only what the free nature conjures up.

The flowers of Mädesüss are white and small.

The leaves of the meadowsweet are long and pointed.

A sweet girl – Meadowsweet

When I visited a good friend 2 years ago, she asked me if I would like to drink meadowsweet syrup. I asked you astonished, what is this? When I tasted the sweet, sweet taste for the first time I was amazed that I had never heard of this plant before.

Mädesüss in the Glarus Alps

When we were travelling in the Glarus mountains this year, I saw huge fields of Mädesüss on the shore of the Klöntalersee. Armed with a large bag and a pair of scissors, I harvested the slightly sweet-smelling flowers in a beautiful setting and summery weather, which I immediately processed into syrup in my Petromax and Atago over the fire. I was gripped by the thought of writing my first Dubu-and-more report.

With all the ingredients together, outdoor cooking of meadowsweet syrup can begin.

In Petromax the water bubbles with the sugar.

Where do you find meadowsweet?

Meadowsweet can be found all over Europe and North America, especially on the banks of streams and in damp meadows. It belongs to the rose family and flowers from June to September.

What is meadowsweet good for?

Meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria) is suitable for flavouring sweet and fruit dishes and drinks.

The flowers can be used to make aromatic tea, sorbet, jam, whipped cream, fruit salad and many other delicious things.

What else can Meadowsweet do?

The interesting thing about the plant is that Meadowsweet contains salicylic acid. Salicylic acid was first chemically produced in 1897 and is better known as acetylsalicylic acid – a painkiller that has been used for over a hundred years and is still widely used today. Meadowsweet is purely herbal and has an anti-rheumatic effect, supports the immune system, can relieve pain and lower fever. It also contains flavanoids, tannins, essential oil, citric acid and silicic acid. So a whole collection of healthy and natural ingredients. The English Queen Elizabeth I already appreciated this plant in the form of potpourri.

Recipes

Meadowsweet syrup

About 8. flower umbels
1 liter of water
20 g citric acid
1/2 Lemon
1 kg Sugar

Cut the lemon into slices or slices and put them in a bowl together with the meadowsweet and the citric acid to the water, cover and let it stand for 2 days or boil it up briefly.

Sieve the liquid and bring it to the boil together with the sugar and pour it while still hot into small bottles with tight closures. The syrup is ready.

Basque cake with meadowsweet

300 g Butter
450 g Sugar
1 Egg
4 Egg yolks
650 g wheat flour
100 g almond semolina
8 g baking powder
25 ml Rum wahlweise

Meadowsweet Crémestrong,
1 Egg yolk
25 g Sugar
15 g flour
125 ml milk or substitute milk
0.5 Vanilla pod, scraped out pulp
1 handful meadowsweet flowers
125 g cherry jam

Preparation

For the cake batter, whip butter and sugar (both should be at room temperature) until creamy. Add the egg and the yolks. Add the flour and all other ingredients and knead for about 5 minutes. Rest in the refrigerator for two hours.

For the meadowsweet cream mix the egg yolks with the sugar until creamy.

Add the flour. Boil the milk with vanilla pulp and meadowsweet and pour into the egg yolk mixture. Cook at a moderate temperature, stirring continuously until it thickens. Cool in a bowl covered with cling film.

Roll out two thirds of the dough to a thickness of about 1 centimetre and use it to spread out a tart mould. Spread the meadowsweet cream about 2 centimetres thick. Spread the cherry jam evenly on top, but not all the way to the edge, otherwise it will run out during baking.

Roll out the remaining dough about 1/2 centimetre thick and cover the cake with it, cut the edge cleanly into small pieces. Cut a four-leaf clover from the remaining dough and place it on the top of the dough.

Place the cake in the oven/or omnia (observe baking time) at 180 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes. bake until golden yellow. The fragrant flowers of the meadowsweet have a fine almond aroma.

Meadowsweet spice sugar

10 -12 Meadowsweet umbels
3 cm cinnamon bark or optionally ground cinnamon
5 cm vanilla pod
10 star anise seeds
3 cardamom capsules
about 500 gr sugar

Pluck the meadowsweet flowers from the coarse stalks and finely chop them with the Cassius bark, the vanilla pod, the star anise seeds and the contents of 3 cardamom capsules (seeds) in a multi-chopper.

Sprinkle the meadowsweet spice mixture onto a baking tray lined with baking paper and mix with sugar. The mixture ratio meadowsweet and sugar is correct when the mixture no longer feels wet and sticky.

Dry the sugar and meadowsweet mixture in the oven at 50 degrees. Hold the oven door open a little so that the moisture can escape.

In between you should loosen the meadowsweet-sugar mixture several times so that it dries evenly.

The dry meadowsweet sugar can now be crushed in a mortar to the desired fineness or ground in a coffee grinder.

Meadowsweet spiced sugar refines cakes, waffles, pancakes, fruit salad, quark dishes and desserts. Meadowsweet spice sugar can also be used in Christmas baking. A good one…

Firming face lotion with meadowsweet

A handful of meadowsweet flowers are boiled in 150 ml of water and left to stand until the water is cold. Then filter out, mix with 100 ml witch hazel water and fill into bottles.

Meadowsweet medicine

Pour 0.7 litres of white wine over the leaves and flowers of Mädesüss, leave to stand for 2 weeks and shake regularly. Then filter out – and drink 1 liqueur glass throughout the day when you have a cold or headache or rheumatism.

Meadowsweet tincture – to rub in for aching joints

Pour 500 ml of about 40% alcohol (e.g. double grain) over 2 handfuls of meadowsweet flowers and leaves, leave to stand for 4 weeks, shake occasionally and then filter. Pour the tincture into dark bottles and rub painful joints with it.

Meadowsweet tea – for colds and fever

Pour 250ml of boiling water over 1 teaspoon of meadowsweet flowers and leaves, leave for 5 minutes. draw and drink the tea sip by sip.

Meadowsweet compresses – against pain

Pour 1 litre of water over 2-3 handfuls of meadowsweet blossoms, heat until just before boiling and leave to set for 10 minutes. on the hot stove. After sieving, make hot compresses with this decoction. They help with rheumatic joint pain, arthritis and gout.

Image source and text: Claudia Kessler
Recipes from various sources