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Drink

Balm Tea

A herbal infusion made by steeping fresh balm leaves in boiling water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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Balm Tea

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Place fresh balm leaves into a stone jar.

  2. Pour boiling water over the leaves.

  3. Cover the jar with a linen cloth, folded three or four times, to retain steam.

  4. Let it stand until cool.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Fresh balm leaves
Supply the main aroma and flavour, released into the hot water as the leaves steep.
Boiling water
Extracts flavour and aromatic oils from the leaves through steeping.

The step that matters

Cover the jar with a linen cloth. Covering traps steam so volatile aromatic compounds stay in the infusion rather than escaping into the air. Keeping the steam in helps the tea carry more of the leaves' aroma.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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