Salad Burnet

Young burnet leaves are used as an ingredient in salads, dressings, sauces, summer drinks, and in claret. It is also used to flavour vinegar, butter, and cream cheese. It has a flavor described as "mildly cucumber, a bit tart, a little hot" and is considered interchangeable with mint leaves in some recipes, depending on the intended effect. Typically, the youngest leaves are used, as they tend to become bitter as they age; old leaves are cut back to encourage new growth. Salad burnet was called a favorite herb by Francis Bacon, was brought to the New World with the first English colonists, and was given special mention by Thomas Jefferson. It declined in popularity as a kitchen herb, but as of 2022, is becoming more popular again, for food and as an ornamental.

Salad burnet has in the past been used medicinally in Europe to control bleeding. Salad burnet has the same medicinal qualities as medicinal burnet (Sanguisorba officinalis). It was used as a tea to relieve diarrhea in the past.

It is grown in containers, wildflower meadows, ornamental gardens, and kitchen gardens, usually in sunny or very slightly shady spaces with an equator-facing or west-facing aspect. In North America, it is grown on dry rangelands. It is used for grazing, erosion control, post-fire weed control, firebreaks, and landscape rehabilitation. Because it tends to stay green, it is considered fire-resistant.