About fresh sage

[Liz Brooks]

I recently ventured into herb gardening and I am sharing my discoveries. Do you have any cool tips for me about sage?

[Uncle Bob]

I hear it pairs well with pork chops and works well in fresh breads.

[luvs]

chix & other poultry, fish like cod or tilapia, &, as mentioned, pork. they work well with sage. if you dry & pulveruize it, then mix with water in a little pot, it smells lovely as it simmers. just keep an eye on it for evaporation!

[ChefJune]

sage is also delicious to potatoes and eggs, and of course, it's essential for Thanksgiving Dressing/stuffing.

You can dry the excess by separating the leaves and leaving them on a baking sheet in the oven overnight with the oven on the lowest possible setting. Dried sage is almost as good as fresh (unlike many other herbs, where the quality and flavor deteriorates greatly when dried).

[Liz Brooks]

Thanks guys, this info is great! So far I have made sage and white wine pork chops, and beer and sage dinner biscuits. Hoping to whip up a sage butter this weekend!

[BreezyCooking]

Outside of poultry stuffing (& stuffing underneath poultry skin along with softened butter), my favorite way of using fresh sage is to stuff bunches of it inside of fresh trout, along with thin lemon slices, before dredging them in seasoned flour & pan-frying. Both delicious & very attractive - especially if you have small/medium-size single-serving whole trout.

Use small bunches of sage, & arrange them so that the leaves protrude slightly from both the head & tail ends of the fish.

[mcnerd]

I like using fresh sage to "smudge".

[Alix]

mcnerd, smudging? As in purifying smudging? I don't know much about it and I don't want to hijack, I just wanted to know how it worked.

[Liz Brooks]

What is smudge?

[recipesandtips]

Use a sage & butter for a sauce with pumpkin ravioli or spinach & ricotta.In a pan melt the butter until foaming throw in the sage-if you rub it between your fingers it will release more flavour, touch of lemon juice then pour over the ravioli.
Actually sage goes really well with pumpkin. So for example a great side dish-gratin of potatoes, pumpkin & sage works well. Just layer potatoes, pumpkin & sage. Season each layer. A little vegetable stock. Bake in the oven. Easy!