Fresh angelica | ©H. Alexander Talbot / CC-BYWhat’s this?
You can cook many things, with angelica! Cakes, of course, but also syrups, jams...
It’s a speciality from Niort, created by nuns from the Visitation convent.
The little history
Angelica is pretty good for digestion and stomach pains!
Nuns used to make drinks with it, the "Carmelite water" or "lemon balm water", composed of 14 plants and spices.
Annibal Camous, from Nice, used to chew angelica roots... well, this chap died in Marseille in 1759, he was... 121 years old!
A simple soldier: king Louis XV gave him a nice pension for his retirement!