Marjoram, Spice
Marjoram (Origanum majorana) is a species of perennial herb in the family Lamiaceae. It is native to northern Africa and southwest Asia. Marjoram is cultivated around the Mediterranean regions for its aromatic leaves, seeds, or flowers which are used for culinary purposes or in medicine, cosmetics, dyes, and perfumes. Marjoram is also known as Sweet Marjoram, Knotted Marjoram, and Joy of the mountains. Most of the world's marjoram supply comes from Egypt. Marjoram grows 30-46 cm tall, and bears pink to lavender flowers. It grows well in full sun, well-drained soil and prefer to have room to spread. The tops are cut as the plant begin to flower, and are left to dry slowly in shade. The tops and the flowering leaves are steam distilled to extract the essentil oil, which is yellowish in color, darkening to brown as it ages. Marjoram has small, oval, light green with a grayish tint leaves, which are used fresh, as whole or chopped, and dried whole or broken, and ground. In culinary, marjoram acts like a mild oregano with a slight balsamic flavor. It is used more on savory dishes, and is a frequent companion to basil, garlic and thyme. Marjoram is one of the key ingredient in Italian cooking. It blends well with all kinds of meats, fish, soups, vegetables, legumes, and egg and cheese dishes. The flowering tops and seeds of marjoram, which are not as strong as the leaves, are also used as flavoring. Marjoram has digestive, antispasmodic, carminative, diaphroretic and diuretic qualities.  Marjoram Author: Forest & Kim Starr (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported) | ||
|
