Ingredient

Thyme

Thyme is the herb that goes into more dishes than any other without ever taking one over. It is savoury and faintly floral rather than assertive, it tolerates long cooking, it dries well, and it works with meat, fish, vegetables and pulses equally.

Why it is so versatile

Thyme's dominant aromatic is thymol, with carvacrol and linalool alongside it. The combination reads as warm and savoury rather than as any single loud note, which is why it slides into dishes without announcing itself.

It is also comparatively heat-stable. Unlike basil or coriander it can go in at the start of a two-hour braise and still be there at the end, and unlike rosemary it does not intensify into something overwhelming.

This is the practical reason it appears in almost every classical aromatic base — bouquet garni, herbes de Provence, and the standard onion, carrot and celery beginning of a French braise.

The varieties

Common thyme

The standard. Small grey-green leaves, warm and savoury. What a recipe means by thyme.

Lemon thyme

Distinctly citrus alongside the thyme note. Excellent with fish, chicken and in sweet things.

Wild or creeping thyme

Smaller leaved, milder, more floral. Good but less useful for cooking.

Dried thyme

One of the few herbs that dries genuinely well. More concentrated, so use roughly a third of the fresh quantity.

Stalks

Woody and not eaten, but full of flavour. Add whole sprigs and fish them out, or tie them into a bouquet garni.

Stripping the leaves

A fiddly job with a trick to it.

1. Hold the sprig at the top and run your thumb and forefinger down it, against the direction of growth. Most of the leaves come away.
2. For very fine young sprigs the whole thing is tender enough to chop and use, stalk included.
3. For soups, stocks and braises, do not strip at all — put whole sprigs in and remove them at the end.
4. To make a bouquet garni, tie thyme sprigs with parsley stalks and a bay leaf using kitchen string, leaving a long tail to pull it out with.
5. Leftover stripped stalks go into a stock rather than the bin.

Where it belongs

• Any braise or stew, from the beginning. It survives the whole cook.
• With mushrooms, where it is nearly compulsory. Thyme and mushroom is one of the great pairings.
• Roast chicken, pushed under the skin with butter and lemon zest.
• With root vegetables, roasted or in a soup.
• In a stock or a bouquet garni, alongside parsley stalks and bay.
• Lemon thyme with fish, particularly white fish and scallops.
• In a custard or a syrup, where it is unexpected and excellent — thyme and honey, or lemon thyme with apricots.

Drying and keeping it

One of the few herbs that genuinely dries well, because its aroma sits in resinous oils rather than in volatile ones.

1. Cut whole sprigs rather than picking leaves, ideally before the plant flowers.
2. Rinse only if it needs it, and dry it thoroughly — any moisture left will cause it to mould rather than dry.
3. Tie in small loose bunches and hang somewhere warm, dark and airy for a week or two.
4. It is ready when the leaves fall off at a touch.
5. Strip the leaves onto a tray, discard the woody stems, and store in a sealed jar away from light.
6. It keeps its character for six months or so and then fades. Replace it annually rather than keeping a jar for years.
7. A fresh sprig and a pinch of dried are roughly interchangeable in a long-cooked dish, which is unusual among herbs.

Common questions