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One of the most popular smells in human history, lavender has been celebrated around the world for over 2,500 years: The ancient Egyptians used this flowering herb, a member of the mint family, for its potent fragrance during mummification; in ancient Greece it was incorporated in treatments for everything from insomnia to backaches; and it was employed so often by the Romans for healing baths that the word lavender comes from the Latin verb lavare meaning “to wash.”
But beyond its wide range of therapeutic and healing properties, lavender is also a helpful companion in the kitchen. When you know how to cook with lavender properly, it can bring a beautiful floral quality to a number of sweet and savory dishes. But the key to keeping your food from tasting like your mom’s favorite hand lotion? Culinary lavender.
What is culinary lavender?
The term lavender is generally used to describe any plant of the genus Lavandula, which encompasses 47 known species of flowers. Not all lavender, however, should be used in food. I repeat: Not all lavender should be used in cooking. Though most lavender is technically safe to eat, culinary lavender is typically cultivated from Lavandula angustifolia plants (commonly known as English or “true” lavender) and has a lot less oil than the aromatic lavender used in perfumes or soaps.
“That leads to a much sweeter, more palatable lavender that’s easier to use in your cooking,” says Claire Cheney, founder of New England spice purveyor Curio Spice Co. “Lavender can be a polarizing flavor like cilantro. Maybe you always thought of it as an overly floral or soapy flavor, but it can be enchanting and forest-like,” Cheney says.
How do you buy high-quality lavender?
When shopping for high-quality culinary lavender, color is key. “You want to look for that vibrant blue-purple color as opposed to grayish-purple,” Cheney says. Cheney also recommends giving the herbs a nice whiff—good culinary lavender should have a “spicy, minty quality but not an overly perfumy aroma.”
Culinary lavender is sold both fresh and dried at many spice shops, farmers markets, and health foods stores, as well as chains like Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s. If the lavender isn’t specifically labeled as “culinary,” you'll want to double-check. Avoid cooking with lavender if you’re unsure, and don’t use lavender essential oil for cooking—it can be unsafe for ingestion.
As with almost any food product, the quality is incredibly dependent on the source. “Sourcing transparency is crucial in two ways,” Cheney says. “One, it results in a fresher product, closer to its harvest date. Two, it means that the money is going directly to the farmer as opposed to intermediaries,” and more information is available regarding how it was grown and processed.
How do you cook and bake with lavender?
While culinary lavender has a more delicate flavor than its ornamental counterparts, less is still more. Dried lavender buds are about three times as potent as fresh ones, so be particularly sparing when freestyling in the kitchen or using a recipe that doesn’t specify fresh or dried.
With that in mind, play around! Make lavender sugar by burying buds in granulated sugar and allowing the natural oils to permeate the surrounding crystals over the course of a week. Or grind lavender and use it in any number of cookies and cakes (pro tip: grind the buds with a portion of your sugar to help break it down more finely. You’ll still get that great lavender flavor but with no chalky chew). Or use lavender to infuse simple syrup, then mix it into lemonade, iced tea, many, many cocktails, or even meringue. Or steep it in cream or milk before straining and using in pudding, ice cream, or whipped cream. When experimenting with flavors, it’s always a good idea to balance lavender’s low notes with something bright like lemon juice and zest.
Lavender also has a litany of culinary uses beyond sweet treats. “Lavender pairs really well with rich and fatty foods because it cuts through and lifts the overall flavor,” Cheney says. Popularly used in herbes de Provence alongside herbs like marjoram, rosemary, savory, and oregano, lavender is often paired with chicken, turkey, lamb, and fatty fish like salmon or tuna.
One of Cheney’s favorite uses for culinary lavender? “Make a brown butter sauce where the lavender is briefly fried in the fat to tame the edginess that some people find cloying. Then use that sauce over roasted veggies like sweet potatoes or fennel.”
How should you store lavender?
Culinary lavender is best stored dry. The easiest way to dry fresh lavender flowers is to lay them flat on a countertop or hang a bundle stem side up in a warm, dry room for several days. If your need for dry lavender is more urgent, spread the flowers out on a sheet pan and bake at 200º for about 10 minutes, making sure to keep a close eye to avoid burning. Stored in an airtight container, dried lavender buds should maintain their fragrance and flavor for at least a year, which means there’s plenty of time to get baking.
