Using Thyme

anyone have favorite ways or preserving Thyme for future use? I planted mother of thyme to cover my paving stones, so when someone walks on the path the sent of thyme is released. The thyme grew better then I could have imagined and we kind of stopped walking on the path. So while Mother of thyme is generally not considered culinary thyme. I have used it several times and had no complaints. Now I have a walk ways worth of thyme and I want to preserve as much of it as possible.

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When my older daughter attended the NY Culinary Institute in Hyde Park, they were surprised to learn that she knew about Mother Of Thyme and that her father grows it. It has the highest density of essential oils among Thymus species and is thus revered by some chefs.

It is a very hardy plant and in the last decade become a recommendation for walkways, etc. But even better, being native to Bavaria it is evergreen year round in most U.S. climes – and is famously harvested under several inches of snow for holiday meals.

Since it is evergreen I usually harvest it during the process of cooking – or at least in “mise en place”. Sometimes though after an explosion of summer growth it needs trimming back and I’ll end up with about a cubic foot of cuttings. I’ll then get out my Champion (brand) reamer to churn it into extract that I freeze as ice cubes. These I use later as the main ingredient in a strong marinade, or (under my daughter’s hand) a glaze on pastry or a roast.

As a rule I do not use dried herbs for cooking. I prefer fresh or frozen extracts.

Thymus serpyllum

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Is it the creeping furry variety? The most successful way to preserve it is in the fall, soread it on newspaper, let it dry completely. At the point it is totally dry. Remove all if the leaves and place them in clean jars. Screw the tops on tightly. They will last tor a year and a half.

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At the risk of hijacking this thread, let me ask a thyme related question.

We love and use a lot of summer savory. But it is sometimes hard to get SS that smells and tastes like it should, often I think they just put thyme in the containers in the stores.

Anyway, I decided to grow some this year, harvested it just as it was flowering, and amazingly enough, it smells just like thyme.

So I am wondering what’s up with summer savory. Is it really a separate plant/species? Is it just immature thyme. Anyone familiar with these two spices?

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Yes, Thymus serpyllum is often referred to as creeping Thyme.

I disagree. 1st, in most climates (Siberia!) it is evergreen year-round, so no need to pick it unless it’s overgrown. 2nd, if it is overgrown then you can successfully freeze it. The taste is so much better than dried.

Summer savory is Satureja hortensis – a typically annual plant in a Genus (not thyme) of the mint family.

Winter savory is Satureja montana – a perennial in the same genus.

I have grown (and sold) both, but now just grow the latter. Delicious flavor, it has replaced rosemary in my herbal seasonings.

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oK a discmaimer: the process I described is perfect for New England! We have been drying herbs for hundreds of years.

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Thats the thing about herbs. There dozens of aromatic compounds but a lot of herbs are dominated by carvacrol and thymol which make them taste of thyme and oregano.

Thanks Richard.

So when you did grow summer savory, how/when did you harvest it? In bloom, before? And did you find it tasted like thyme?

From the pics I’ve found online it seems that what I have growing is indeed summer savory, so I am wondering if there is something about the culture that is causing the strong thyme flavor. Perhaps too dry or harvesting it too old.

It’s not unusual to get a strong thyme scent to summer savory; when I buy it in the store I have to smell the bag it’s in to see if that batch is too thyme-like.

I harvest regular old thyme by just putting it in an organza bag, like the kind often used to protect fruit. Then use a thumb tack to tack it up, let it hang in my kitchen, and it dries nicely and is easy to access. When it’s dry it’s easy to just rub the bag between my hands and the leaves fall off the stems to the bottom of the bag.

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I harvested summer savory at the onset of budding. It’s very good in chicken with dumplings!

Well, there are over 40 species of thyme. There’s a nearby herb nursery that grows at least 2 dozen. Most of them have different flavors.

Of those whose tastes I remember I’d say summer savory is similar in some ways to French Thyme. It is not at all like Mother Of Thyme.

Winter savory has yet a different flavor. I recommend it!

Winter Savory

I really wish i had taken before pictures. My herb path has grown wonderfuly out of control. I need to give it a substantial hair cut but I dont know the best way to process all of those herbs. Destemming is going to be a chore.

i bunch it, tie it, hang it , let it dry then rub off the leaves in a paper bag.