Spring!

Sorrel’s up – as sure a sign as any that Spring has finally Sprung – and at long last !

Rumex acetosa or garden sorrel

20. To butter Plaice vpon Sorrell sops.

Boyle your Plaice in faire water and Salt, and a fewe sweete Hearbes and Vinegar, then take them vp and dry them in a faire cloath, then dish them in sippets in the bottom of a dish then power vpon it a quarter of a pint of the yuce of Sorrell, and set it vpoon a chafindish of coales, and when you bee ready to serve it, poure vpon it a little butter drawne thicke with the yuce of Sorrell, then strowe grose Pepper and Salt, put sippets about it and serve it then to the table hotte, your sauce will looke very green and the fish east pleasant and short.

–         1621. John Murrell. A Delightfull daily exercise for Ladies and Gentlewomen. Falconwood Press: 1990. p. 38.

Plaice is a flat fish

sops are pieces of bread to sop up the juices

Yuce is juice

sippets are small sops – small pieces of bread – rather more like large croutons

Just a few leaves in a salad perks it right up, all spring and summer and fall long.