Ingredients · Herb

Marjoram

Origanum majorana · Lamiaceae (mint family)

Marjoram
Oregano's gentler cousin — the same genus, a much softer voice. Where oregano is pungent and a little bitter, marjoram is sweet, honeyed and faintly citrus, with a touch of pine and a hint of clove. It is the sausage herb and the stuffing herb: Germany calls it Wurstkraut, named straight after its commonest use, and no poultry seasoning is right without it. Eight products here carry it, most of them blends where it is doing the rounding-off.

What it’s like, and how to use it

The partLeaf
KindHerb
CaffeineCaffeine-free
Where it is fromCyprus, Turkey (native range)
TasteSweet and gentle, honeyed with sweet pine and citrus; a little like oregano with the edges taken off

How to use it

In sausage, meatloaf, pâté and any ground meat. In poultry stuffing and dressing, where it is the herb people cannot name but notice missing. In zurek and other sour soups. It is more delicate than oregano and burns off faster, so add it later in the cooking rather than at the start.

With food

Pork and sausage. Poultry and stuffing. Egg. Mushroom. Potato and root vegetables. Cabbage. Tomato. Butter. Cream sauces.

With spices

Sage, thyme, savory and parsley — the poultry-seasoning five. Oregano and basil for Italian. Black pepper. Bay. Onion and garlic.

With tea

Not a tea ingredient.

Its story

Where it comes from

The wild form comes from Cyprus and southern Turkey; it has been cultivated around the Mediterranean and far beyond for a very long time — Origanum species were grown in ancient Egypt for over three thousand years. No lot origin is named in our notes.

What happened

The myth is Cypriot. Amaracus, a boy who served as royal perfumer to King Cinyras, dropped the king's perfumes; the spilled ointments mingled into something finer than any of them, and he was turned into the sweet herb — which is why, the Roman grammarian Servius says, the best ointments were called amaracina after him. Aphrodite was said to have created it and grown it on Olympus, and Greek and Roman couples were crowned with marjoram at their weddings; the Victorian language of flowers kept the association and made it mean joy. Gerard called it of a most pleasant taste and aromatical smell. Its modern life is sausage: Nuremberg's bratwurst has been seasoned with marjoram for centuries, Franconian bratwurst counts it a characteristic ingredient, and Polish zurek, the sour rye soup eaten at Easter, wants a teaspoon or two. One small correction to the obvious guess — the name has nothing to do with Latin maior. It comes through Old French majorane from Medieval Latin maiorana, probably from India originally, and only had its spelling pulled towards major later.

On the shelf with it

Sold on its own, and in these blends.

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