The cupboard

Kitchen herbs & spices

Filter by element or search a plant. Traditional kitchen and folk use — four tastes, not a clinic monograph.

Fire· bitterBitter is first hot, then cold. It speeds digestion, moves lymph and waste, wakes circulation, and calls bile from the gallbladder. As that hot, caustic bile travels, the body cools — which is why the old bitter cups were given for fever. Bitter is the strongest medicine in this tradition.

4 plants