Oregano's Many, Many Incarnations
I thought I had a basic understanding of oregano: I like a healthy dash on my pizza, and always in my feta-laden Greek salads.
But I was wrong. I didn't know that I'm probably using O. heracleoticum, which has a pungent oregano-like taste. Unless O. viride, a seedless cousin, is what's living in my store-bought jar of dried oregano. Or maybe it's Origanum x majoricum, an Italian oregano-marjoram hybrid that the Herb Society of America likes best for culinary use.
Margaret Roach of A Way to Garden learned her oregano lesson the hard way. She wanted to grow a supply of the versatile herb to cook with but didn't end up with what she was expecting:
The plant marked as “Oregano” at the garden center grew lush with little care, a low, green mound with a pleasant aroma if touched. But come harvest time, the oregano leaves tasted like peppery dirt, if that good, and the plant had spread in every direction I did not intend for it. Not exactly what I had in mind for a seasoning with my homegrown tomatoes.
Turns out the world's herb-namers were shockingly promiscuous with the term oregano—they gave the name to a multitude of plants, many of them totally useless in the kitchen. To further complicate matters, Mexican oregano is closely related to lemon verbena, but not at all to Mediterranean oregano. Cuban oregano makes a nice houseplant, Margaret says.
Do you cook with oregano? Which kind? Think you even know which kind now?
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7 Comments:
I might add that Margaret is the former editorial director of Martha Stewart Living and prior to that role, she was the magazine's gardening editor. This isn't just any garden variety gardening blog Hannah's linking to. You can take Margaret's gardening advice to the bank.
Adam Kuban at 8:56PM on 07/01/08
I prefer fresh marjoram to oregano, I find that it has much more flavor. It's sweet and delicate and yet very powerful. I only use oregano when I can't find marjoram. I guess the kind of oregano I'm thinking of is the most common one used in Italian and Greek cooking. I actually looked up marjoram a while ago thinking I might grow some, and that's when I learned that it is in the same family. But it's so much better!
And of course, dry oregano is awesome on pizza with a little garlic salt and red pepper flakes.
simon at 9:17PM on 07/01/08
The garden center where I buy herb plants has them named with the botanical names, so it appears they know what they're doing. And they must have had 6 or so varieties of oregano, including both Greek and Italian.
Since I generally buy herbs from Penzey's, I'm fairly confident that the Greek and Mexican oregano I got from them is the right stuff as well.
dbcurrie at 9:56PM on 07/01/08
what funny timing! just yesterday i planted some garden center oregano. but now i'm not sure what i've got.
this is what the tag says:
Oregano - Oreganum Heracleoticum - A culinary herb with small gray-green spreading foliage. Edible white to purple flowers in summer. Use fresh or dried to add flavor to Italian, Greek, and Mexican cuisine. Best planted in borders and herb gerdens.
so, what do i have? am i going to end up with peppery dirt? yuck!
redhead at 10:23PM on 07/01/08
Thanks, Hannah and Adam, for sharing my oregano crisis. So many herbs are not just generic but really distinctive: holy basil just ain't Genovese, is it? And to my picky eye/tongue, even Italian (flat-leaf, or 'Gigante') parsley is different from the more common curly-leaf when I am cooking (I grow and cook w/the former almost exclusively, considering it superior). If I'm making pickles I want the showy seedheads of 'Mammoth' dill, not just leaves, but for tzatskis I want foliage only, from the variety 'Fernleaf.' Now don't get me started on mints or thymes...
Margaret
awaytogarden at 11:22PM on 07/01/08
I love oregano - when my Nonna died my aunt and mom dug up and split her original plant, so every year we have some. But we did plant some new kind too, from a garden center. It tasted like felt. Yeesh.
In my family, we sprinkle it on tomatoes and onions with a little oil for a pungent summer salad. I love it!
BangieB at 11:40PM on 07/01/08
@Margaret: Thanks for stopping by! We'll be watching your garden digitally here over the season.
Adam Kuban at 11:46PM on 07/01/08