Ingredients · Herb

Thyme

Thymus vulgaris · Lamiaceae (mint family)

Thyme
A small woody-stemmed Mediterranean shrub, dried. Thyme is the first herb into a stew and the one that survives longest in it — unlike most dried herbs, it improves with long cooking rather than fading. Eleven products carry it, from poultry seasoning and herbes de Provence to jerk and za'atar, which is a fair measure of how far it travels: the same leaf anchors a Sunday roast in Calgary, a Levantine breakfast and a Jamaican jerk pit.

What it’s like, and how to use it

The partLeaf
KindHerb
CaffeineCaffeine-free
Where it is fromMediterranean (native range)
TasteWarm, earthy, woody and resinous, with a minty, peppery edge that deepens as it cooks

How to use it

In at the start of a stew, braise, stock or bean pot. Rubbed on roast chicken with butter and lemon. In stuffing, pan gravy and bouquet garni. In za'atar with sumac and sesame, eaten with bread and olive oil. In jerk. In a tomato sauce that will cook a long time. Dried thyme is one of the few herbs that is not a poor relation of the fresh.

With food

Chicken, lamb and beef. Mushrooms. Onion and garlic. Tomato. Lemon. White beans and lentils. Potato and root vegetables. Butter. Honey. Goat cheese.

With spices

Bay leaf and parsley, the bouquet garni. Rosemary, sage and marjoram. Black pepper. Sumac and sesame for za'atar. Allspice and scotch bonnet for jerk. Lavender in herbes de Provence.

With tea

Lemon and honey in a plain cup. Peppermint. A black tea alongside a roast.

Its story

Where it comes from

Common thyme is native to southern Europe, from the western Mediterranean to southern Italy; wild thyme grows across the Levant, where it may first have been cultivated. Shop notes name no lot origin.

What happened

The Greek word thymos means spirit, passion and courage, and thyme is usually traced to thymon, possibly from thyein, to make a burnt offering — the Greeks burned it as incense in their temples. From there the courage story runs as legend: that Roman soldiers bathed in thyme oil before battle, and that medieval ladies embroidered a bee over a sprig of thyme on a scarf for their knights. The bee part is not a coincidence. Mount Hymettus above Athens was famous in antiquity for its bees and for honey that took its flavour from the mountain's aromatic herbs, which Mrs Grieve says was the wild thyme covering it; Virgil's beekeeping poem asks for wild thyme with far-flung fragrance to flower around the hives. Titania sleeps where the wild thyme blows. And the grayling carries the Greek name thymallos because, a Roman author reported, the fish smells of freshly plucked thyme — whether it really does is still argued among anglers.

On the shelf with it

Sold on its own, and in these blends.

Every ingredient in the shop

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Other ways in

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