Herbs in Tudor Cooking & Medicine

 From The Tudor Travel Guide:

Rosemary was generally used in the kitchen for flavouring pottages and also featured as an ingredient in cordials. In the ‘Castel of Health’ (1539), Sir Thomas Elyot says, that ‘Rosemary has many virtues including helping a cough if taken with pepper and honey’. John Partridge advises in ‘The Treasurie of commodious Conceipts’ (1573), that its flowers should be gathered in May. Indeed, he writes about its health benefits (virtues) and praises this herb much more than any others. He recommends putting the leaves into a wine vessel to prevent them from going off. Andrew Boorde praises rosemary for its use in treating ‘fallynge syckenes and for the cowghe, and good against colde’.

According to John Gerard, thyme was hot and dry in the third degree and boiled in water, and drunk with honey could be used to treat a cough: ‘Time boyled in Mede’ cleans the lungs and kills parasitic worms in the bowel. He also tells us that thyme is good against sciatica, and Andrew Boorde thought that thyme could help with breaking up kidney or bladder stones. (Read more.)