Rue

Rue is grown throughout the world for its bluish leaves, and sometimes for its tolerance of hot and dry soil conditions. It is also cultivated as a medicinal herb, as a condiment, and to a lesser extent as an insect repellent.  Rue extracts can cause chemical liver damage.  Large doses can cause violent gastric pain, vomiting, systemic complications, and death.  The bitter taste of its leaves led to rue being associated with the (etymologically unrelated) verb rue "to regret". Rue is well known for its symbolic meaning of regret and it has sometimes been called "herb-of-grace" in literary works.  Rutin is one of the phenolic compounds found in the plant and contributes to the antibacterial properties of the plant.  Rutin is a citrus flavonoid glycoside found in many plants including buckwheat, asparagus, fruits and fruit rinds (especially the citrus fruits orange, grapefruit, lemon, and lime) apples, berries such as mulberry and cranberries.  Only a small amount of rue is needed as it has a very strong flavor. The bitter taste can be reduced by acids.  To avoid the bitterness of rue a cook can use the fact that it releases its essential oil much more quickly than its bitter rutin. You can place the fresh leaves in slightly boiling sauce for about a minute and then remove it. This way you will get the flavor but not the bitterness.

In this experiment I have first cut the rue into small pieces with scissors.  I added vodka to the rue and gently brought the mixture to a boil.  I immediately removed it from the stove and let it cool in a glass bottle for 3 days.  I will use this vodka to deglaze a meat dish that uses a tomato base.  I hope to gain the rue's flavor and  minimize the bitterness by the quick usage of heat, and abundant addition of acid from the tomatoes.