Bergamot is easier to cook with than it looks. Here's how to choose, use, and store it, what to substitute, and 4 recipes to get you started.

What is bergamot?

The name Bergamot is used for three very different plants:

1. A native American herb, Monarda, which belongs to the mint family. It is a perennial with soft foliage and dense clusters of purple flowers and grows to two to three feet. The leaves have a pleasant lemon scent. There are several varieties of the herb bergamot, and the best known one is the Monarda didyma, a native of our eastern states commonly known as “Oswego tea,” from the tribe of Indians that used it extensively. It is also called fragrant balm, Indian plume bee balm, red balm, and mountain balm. Oswego tea is said to be the beverage used by our patriotic colonists instead of tea when they were boycotting British tea. The herb bergamot is still used as a tea when dried. When fresh, it makes a pleasant addition to wine drinks, fruit compotes, punches and lemonades, or in soups and
   stews.

2. A pear, one of the oldest to be cultivated in the British Isles, where the Romans may well have introduced it. The bergamot pear is a winter pear, and there are several varieties. There are numerous references to it in literature; in fact, up to the 19th century, bergamot in English literature meant the pear.

3. A tree of the citrus family cultivated in Italy for the essential oils of the rind
   of its small, pear-shaped orange. These oils are only used commercially either as a flavoring or, chiefly, in perfumes.

 

In Chinese:

佛手柑

British (UK) term:

Bergamot

en français:

bergamote

en español:

bergamota

Recipes using bergamot

There are 4 recipes that contain this ingredient.

All 4 recipes