Marigold

marigold the common name of one group of garden plants in the Old World and another in the New World.

Calendula officinalis, a familiar garden plant in Britain, is a native of C. Europe, and its petals have been used since ancient times to colour food yellow and to give it a slightly bitter, pungent flavour.

In England the petals were used to colour cheese until annatto was introduced from America. They have also been used, by infusion, to colour milk destined for cake-making, thus giving the cake a richer colour. Marigold puddings and marigold wine were made. Petals are still sometimes added to fish soups, e.g. conger eel soup in SW England. This is but a flickering survival of what was once a vigorously established practice, to judge by the comment of Gerard (1633):

The yellow leaves of the floures are dried and kept throughout Dutchland against Winter, to put into broths … in such quantity that in some Grocers or Spice-sellers houses are to be found barrels filled with them, and retailed by the penny more or lesse, insomuch that no broths are well made without dried Marigolds.