Underrated: Marjoram

No one ever seems to talk about Marjoram, it just gets mentioned occasional as part of "fine herbes" or an herb bouquet and that's it. We have a small Marjoram plant in our garden that has been steadily providing herbs and flowers all summer long. How good it is! The flavor is very close to oregano, slightly mellower with a dusty sage tone. Absolutely delicious in:

--tomato gratin (thick sliced tomatoes in a lightly olive oiled gratin dish with marjoram and a layer of grated cheese).

--chicken-bean fricassee (seared chicken thighs, tomatoes, white beans with chicken stock, white wine, garlic and plenty of marjoram)

--lentils with onions and ham

--ground turkey and potato hash

--pizza, roast chicken, soups and more.

I highly recommend a plant in your garden or windowsill.

[Jenise]

Christian, you're absolutely right. Marjoram deserves more respect than it gets, and I'm guilty. I don't grow it--I grow oregano--nor do I own it in dry form. I know it has a wonderful flavor, but it's just never been part of my life and I tend to forget it exists though back when I used to buy more fresh herbs than I do now, since I grow many, I used to buy marjoram in preference to oregano. Makes no sense.

I'm similarly bi-herbal on this one. I grow oregano in the garden (normal and golden), but have dried marjoram in the spice cupboard.

Interestingly, the cost of dried marjoram at Tescos (the main supermarket chain over here - or certainly in the south) is twice that of dried oregano. Wonder why?

Totally agree. It has a much mare subtle flavor and I use it a lot in place of oregano. Ditto for not growing it and buying it dried. Never really thought about it but it will be on my seed list for next year.

One plant has carried us through the whole summer and looks like it'll make it through fall too. Depending on your love of labor and your garden's mortality rate, you might want to just buy a single plant twice a year.

As you might expect, the fresh version is distinctly more lively and less "dusty" in flavor than the dried. I actually do the reverse of the rest of the posters and have fresh marjoram and dried Oregano.

[Jenise]

Interestingly, the cost of dried marjoram at Tescos (the main supermarket chain over here - or certainly in the south) is twice that of dried oregano. Wonder why?

Bi-girl, sounds odd to me, too. I don't recall marjoram being especially dear, so I went to the website of Penzey's Spice Company who I buy from twice yearly, who sources from around the world, hoping for englightenment. No help there: an 8 ounce bag of marjoram, origin Egypt, was $7.19, compared to $9.29 for either Turkish or Mexican Oregano. Marjoram's cheaper!

Bi-girl, sounds odd to me, too.

Ah, I think you've just made my partner's evening there! I'll have to let him down gently (as usual).

[/quote] an 8 ounce bag of marjoram, origin Egypt, was $7.19, compared to $9.29 for either Turkish or Mexican Oregano. Marjoram's cheaper![/quote]

Well, it must just be a British thing then. Because it's the same at Sainsburys (another of our big national supermarkets) - dried marjoram's twice the price of dried oregano.

Any other Brits out there able to shed some light on this anomaly?

[Jenise]

Ah, I think you've just made my partner's evening there! I'll have to let him down gently (as usual).

Tell him the boots are kinky enough.

Because it's the same at Sainsburys (another of our big national supermarkets) - dried marjoram's twice the price of dried oregano.

Bi-girl, I lived in Cheshire some years ago and after 9-10 months of an industrial Tesco as the only option in my town, a Sainsbury's opened in Wilmslow. Manna from heaven, that store was.

Bi-girl, I lived in Cheshire some years ago and after 9-10 months of an industrial Tesco as the only option in my town, a Sainsbury's opened in Wilmslow. Manna from heaven, that store was.

Sainsburys is certainly a lot better than Tescos IMO (and I have a couple of both within cycling distance of me), but for fresh produce (fruit and veg) and other fresh ingredients (fish, cheese, and bread when I'm being lazy and not making it myself) I'm a 100% Waitrose-addict.

They're undeniably more expensive than the other big two, but the difference in quality makes it no contest whatsoever.

[Jenise]

Sharon, total agreement: it's always worth a little extra for fresher, better quality. But I never heard of Waitrose, it must have popped up since I lived there, or it just wasn't in my area. Before Sainsburys, my only alternative to Tesco was Marks & Spencer!

Sharon, total agreement: it's always worth a little extra for fresher, better quality. But I never heard of Waitrose, it must have popped up since I lived there, or it just wasn't in my area. Before Sainsburys, my only alternative to Tesco was Marks & Spencer!

Waitrose is part of the John Lewis Partnership (all staff are partners in the business). The supermarket side of things has been around and growing since 1937, but I'm not sure about how wide their geographical spread is (I know they're national now, but they've probably been more focused in the south of England).

Their ethos is to combine the convenience of a supermarket with the expertise and service of a specialist shop. They were named Supermarket of the Year in the 2007 Decanter World Wine Awards, and Britain's favorite retailer 2007 in the Which? customer satisfaction survey.

Have a look at http://www.waitrose.com and you'll get an idea why I rate them above any of the other supermarket chains.

It gets good credit internationally in stews.

A Gulasch made often around Vienna (and I think the version I've also seen on the German Federal Railways) and in thinner "soup" form (and wider geography) as Gulaschsuppe, has characteristic seasonings of marjoram, caraway, and garlic (besides the basic ingredients of a Gulasch). This works. Well. There are countless versions of this stew in that part of the world* -- even, at last note, a dedicated restaurant serving 31 Flavors or so (including vegetarian versions and on the other hand Pferdgulasch, which you'll not likely see soon in North America). I grew up cooking stews, and when time came for serious Gulasch tasting around middle Europe I noticed the particular combination of spices above -- sweet and hot peppers are also mixed in various proportions -- and have used the same seasonings often since, when making it, to reasonably high acclaim.

Marjoram is useful as a foundation herb for stews of most any kind, especially for meats braised in wine. (Don't forget the garlic. That combination yields exceptional aromas while cooking.) I have an original recipe -- to the extent any stew can truly be called original! -- Firecracker Stew, -- marjoram is valuable there too. I already promised the recipe to another forum and plan to post it here too (if you get impatient, PM me). We are getting into prime soup and stew season ...

Finally oregano has traditionally also been called wild marjoram in US -- they are closely related, and can sub for each other in a pinch.

* Linguistic note: there are clear but fairly involved traditions of who uses what ingredients in which regional version of this dish -- called variously Gulasch, Guylas, Pörkölt, and even Goulash although the last looks like a French spelling to me, I don't see it spelled that way in c. Europe. Gulasch is a fairly standard Germanic spelling.

[None of this is from online, but from experience -- and memory, therefore fallible.]