Sweet cicely. The seeds are long, up to a foot, ridged and black with an aniseed flavour. They can be used in salads when young or as a spice as they grow older. The leaves have a smell reminiscent of myrrh and aniseed and can be added to soups, omelettes, drinks and liquors. The fruits, collected before they ripen and then dried, can be used to give meats a liquorice-like flavour, and the roots can be used as a vegetable.
There are over 150 varieties of cherry. Sweet (dessert) cherries are eaten fresh. The flesh is soft and very juicy or firm and moist. Skin colour ranges from pale yellow to near black and they can be almost heart-shaped. Acid (sour or culinary) cherries, of which Morello is one, are used for cooking, bottling and jam (US: jelly) making. The flesh may be white, pink or red. Duke cherries are a cross between the two and have juicy flesh. Montmorency indicates their presence in a dish.
"Sweet and sour cherries." Morello cherries soaked in vinegar, boiled with brown sugar, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon and tarragon and macerated for two weeks, served as an hors d’oeuvres or with cold meats.
