Rubbed Sage vs Ground Sage
Sage is a plant, rather herb that is used as a spice in many recipes in the kitchen, particularly poultry recipes. In fact, it is the dried leaves of the plant that are called sage. This is a spice that is used in many European, particularly Italian and Greek cuisines. There are two different forms of sage that are available namely rubbed sage and ground sage confusing many new cooks. They do not know whether to substitute one for another when a recipe calls for rubbed sage and vice versa. This article takes a closer look at the two forms of sage to come up with differences between rubbed sage and ground sage.
Sage is a herb that is Mediterranean in origin. It has a bitter taste and a flavor that is very intense. While there are many uses of fresh sage leaves too, it is mainly the dried sage that is used inside a kitchen. Dried sage is actually whole sage leaves dried and sold inside a jar. You can remove the leaves after cooking a recipe thereby using the flavor but removing the leaves altogether.
It is when the sage leaves are ground into a fine powder that we get ground sage. In this form, it is sprinkled as a spice during cooking. Rubbed sage is obtained by rubbing dried sage leaves between two objects that are hard. This rubbing leaves the dry stem behind while the leaves crumble and are dropped in the recipe that is being cooked. When you used rubbed sage in a recipe, you find that it is very light and feels like cotton. Many purists used rubbed sage instead of ground sage in their recipes.
By using rubbed sage, you make sure that the oil of the sage is easily introduced into your recipe. Also, rubbed sage is lighter than ground sage and is much less dense than ground sage. If the recipe calls for rubbed sage, but you have ground sage instead, you will have to use only half the amount of ground sage in place of rubbed sage to keep the flavor of sage as it should be in the recipe.
What is the difference between Rubbed Sage and Ground Sage?
• You can create rubbed sage by rubbing leaves of dried sage against your palms.
• Ground sage is the finely made powder of these dried leaves.
• Rubbed sage is thus lighter and fluffier than ground sage
• Rubbed sage is the form of sage that is rubbed on the recipe by rubbing the dried leaves against any hard object.