An Italian “brandy”, “Candolini Grappa Ruta”, is made with rue, and even has a piece of rue leaf floating in the bottle. Rue was very popular in cooking up until a few hundred years ago, but it is no longer really used in modern Western recipes. It is still used a good deal in Ethiopian cooking. Using Common Rue.

Rue for Eyes/Vision: Rue has an ancient reputation as an herb healing eyesight, and modern science confirms that the flavonoid rutin indeed strengthens the small capillaries that improve circulation to the eyes and heart. Rue was a common cooking herb for the Romans and commonly used in a spicy seasoning paste that contained garlic, hard cheese, coriander, and celery seeds with rue leaves. During the last 2000 years, this ambivalent position gave way to an almost universal rejection in our … Read the Rue (The Herb) discussion from the Chowhound Home Cooking food community. The botanical, Latin name of “Ruta” comes from Greek, translated as “to set free,” referring to its use as a chief ingredient in mixtures used as antidotes to poisoning. Join the discussion today. Rue was a very common spice in ancient Rome (see silphion on ancient Roman cuisine), often being used for country-style food like moretum, a spicy paste of fresh garlic, hard cheese and herbs (coriander, celery, rue); never­theless, its name was often used meto­nymically for bitter­ness, especially in poetry. In the Middle Ages, the leaves were a strewing herb believed to dispel insects, scorpions and serpents. Chowhound Giveaway: Weber Portable Gas Grill & Meat Box Enter

The seeds were used in early Roman cooking. Besides a musty odor, rue leaves have a bitter flavor. Nevertheless, the oil and fresh or dried leaves have been widely used in perfumes and foods of all sorts.