Oregano Daze

Oregano is the first flavorant that I’ve talked about which can be strictly classified as an herb; to go back to basics, that means that the essential oils are secreted by glands located in its leaves and flowers, rather than anywhere else. In other words, unlike cilantro, which has tasty leaves AND tasty seeds, or fennel, which is delicious all over the place, oregano is only good if you’re eating the leaves.

Oregano also has looser morals than most of the plant kingdom; according to the Herb Society of America, while it has a ton of variants on its own (71, if I am counting correctly) it also crossbreeds fairly easily – “there are hundreds of unclassified hybrids growing in gardens where close proximity encourages crossing that isn't likely in the wild.” [1]

Despite all that, for culinary value, there are two main contenders – as I mentioned in passing yesterday, they are Mediterranean and Mexican. They’re actually different plants; I don’t even vaguely pretend to understand how scientific classification works, so I can’t tell you how closely related they are. (Okay, I tell a lie – I understand how it works, I just don’t know what “same order, different family” means as far as how close the two plants are.) In any case, an idea that I’ve read more than once in the last few days is that oregano should be thought of as a flavor, rather than a particular plant. In other words, there are a number of different plants that contain the chemical carvacrol, and there’s not enough difference between them to really make a fuss if one of them is technically oreganum vulgarae and the other is lippie graveolens.

Mediterranean oregano – oreganum vulgarae, or common oregano for those of you… who the crap am I trying to kid? Not only do I not know anyone who can’t figure out what “oreganum vulgarae” means, I can’t imagine any of the people I know would recommend this blog to anyone who can’t figure out what it means. I’m sorry. Let me try again.

Mediterranean oregano, the plant that is actually biologically oregano, is the type we use most frequently. Mexican oregano is darker and color, and a more complex flavor; to me, it’s more pungent, with hints of lemon in the scent. It’s slightly piquant, as well, and unsurprisingly it is a perfect complement for dishes with cumin in them, or any other Mexican-type dish that might call for oregano. I definitely wouldn’t use it in pasta sauce…

Damn it! I need to get through a paragraph without lying to you guys. I would DEFINITELY use it in pasta sauce – in fact, I think I’m going to go do that right now, for science – but I don’t think it will be nearly as good as Mediterranean oregano. I can see it overwhelming the other flavors in the sauce fairly easily.


I had a fun conversation with Joe yesterday. Fun, because metaphorically I got to punch him right in his stupid face, and then even more metaphorically he turned around and roundhouse kicked me (metaphorically, of course) right in my metaphorical balls.

Actually, I think that’s a pretty good metaphor for all of my friendships.

Anyway, this guy was all like “I use fresh oregano – fresh ingredients are teh roxxorz.” (I may be paraphrasing slightly.) To which I was like, “Your MOM are teh roxxorz. And besides, oregano is one of the few herbs that generally tastes better dried – drying it really brings out the flavor.” And I was thinking, man, pwned right in the face, poor guy. But then he busts out with “If you gots da bling, you can git yo’self a food dryer like the J-Dawg got, fool! Then you be dryin’ you OWN oreganizzle!” (Again, I might be slightly misremembering his exact words.)

I was like, I just got pwned so hard I fell out of my chair… at which time my baby came over and, as is his wont, started kicking me in the nuts. Well played, Joe, well played.

So, two good points there – first, don’t automatically assume that picked-right-off-the-plant is going to be better all the time. (Although since Victoria got me an oregano plant, I’ve been looking for a recipe that calls for fresh oregano specifically.) But second, don’t be afraid to do a little bit of work – Alton Brown is constantly doing episodes where he dries various foods without the benefit of no fancy-shmancy machine.


Mushroom Report: Turkish oregano mushrooms were spectacular. Oregano’s not a flavor that often gets to be the star of its own show – and while the stuffed mushrooms aren’t a one-man oregano show, they’re still giving the herb a chance to really strut its stuff. The fact that the mushrooms were the first thing I made using the bag of awesome oregano I bought – and thus my first chance to really sample the full flavor – might have had something to do with it as well.


Tomorrow, I get totally nuts on some fish, oregano-style.


[1]http://www.herbsociety.org/origanum/odesc.php