Satureja. Both summer savory (S. hortensis)
and winter savory (S. montana) taste like a
mixture of oregano and thyme; they contain
both carvacrol and thymol. Summer savory is
often the milder of the two. It’s thought that
savory may well be the parent genus of the
various oreganos and marjoram. A native of
western North America, S. douglasii, is known
as yerba buena in California, and has a mild,
mint-like flavor.
Thyme Thyme got its name from the Greeks,
who used it as an aromatic in their burnt
sacrifices; it shares its root with the words for
“spirit” and “smoke.” There are a lot of
thymes: 60–70 species in the shrubby, tiny-
leaved, mainly Mediterranean genus Thymus,
and as many or more varieties of the common
thyme, Thymus vulgaris. There are also many
flavors of thyme, including lemon, mint,
pineapple, caraway, and nutmeg. A number of
thyme species and varieties taste much like