Violet (2)

violet (2) Viola odorata, a familiar garden flower, indigenous to Europe and N. Africa but introduced elsewhere, whose petals are sometimes used as a fragrant flavouring. In candied form they make good decorations for cakes, trifles, etc. The fresh petals are used in salads, as garnishes, and to flavour milk puddings and ice cream.

Claire Clifton (1986) in her essay ‘The Search for the Blue Violet Salad’ quotes M. F. K. Fisher:

I remember deciding once, long ago and I believe after reading Ellwanger’s Pleasures of the Table for the first time, that the most exquisite dish I had ever heard of was a satiny white endive with large heavily scented Parma violets scattered through it. It meant everything subtle and intense and aesthetically significant in my private gastronomy, just as, a few years earlier, a brown-skinned lover with a turquoise set in one ear lobe epitomised my adolescent dream of passion.