Cooking with Thyme

If you are cooking with thyme then the key is to focus on the different varieties, as shown below.

Follow the links below for details, or read on for growing and cooking advice:

The Different Thyme Varieties

Orange thyme

Ideal for duck, dessert & carrot recipes.

French Thyme

Ideal for stews, soups, meat and fish dishes.

The cooking with thyme index

Below you will find in order:

The different varieties of thyme
How to prepare thyme
Cooking with thyme – advice for different varieties
How to grow thyme indoors
How to take a thyme cutting
Our most popular thyme recipes

1. – Lots of different varieties of thyme

There are over 100 different varieties – some are great for decoration or attracting bees or caterpillars. But the most popular ones to use for cooking are:

French or common – the one used most often in cooking.
Lemon
Caraway
Oregano-scented
Orange

Use Fresh or dried thyme?

The advantage of growing your own is that fresh thyme is much more flavourful than dried thyme.

If you want to know how to grow the plant indoors a key element will be which type you want to grow – as different types taste differently and you might want to grow at least 2 or 3 different types. (more details lower down the page)

2. – How to prepare thyme

Thyme is very simple to prepare as an ingredient

Wash the thyme before usings
Then either use the whole sprig or simply remove leaves and bin the stalk.
If you want to strip the leaves, hold a stalk at the top and run your thumb and forefinger along the stalk from top to bottom

Or the video shows ‘step by step’ instructions.

3. – Cooking with thyme – the different varieties

Taking them in turn.

French or Common

This is the one you are probably used to. The leaves have a strong aroma and are useful in stews, soups and with meat and fish dishes. Because it’s such a powerful herb is it great when combined with other herbs like garlic, oregano, rosemary, etc.

Typical Recipes are

Lemon Thyme

This type will have yellow-green leaves that are lemon-scented, making it perfect for chicken and fish dishes.

Typical recipes

Caraway Thyme

If you are not familiar with caraway – the flavour is a bit like mild aniseed with a subtle liquorice hint. It is sometimes used as a substitute for caraway in recipes, but named after it’s use when seasoning beef. (It’s latin name is Thymus herba-barona)

Typical recipes:

Orange thyme

The orange one combines both the original flavour with a citrus orange peel taste and is a great companion to the Lemon variety.

Typical recipes:

4. – How to grow thyme indoors

It tends to be best suited to well drained soil and full sun.

Which is why it’s ideal for growing either using soil or hydroponics on a balacony (if it’s sunny) or using a kitchen hydroponic or aquaponic kit with back up lighting.

If using soil

Sow the seeds thinly into moist warm soil
Cover slighly – will germinate 7 to 21 days
Thin to 30 cm between plants

Using Hydronics or Aquaponics

It is ideal for hydroponics or aquaponics
Will take about 5 to 7 weeks before harvesting
You can speed this up by planting cuttings

5. – To get a thyme cutting

Cut at the point where the leaves attach. Then remove the lower leaves and then push the cut end into a container of moist soil mix. Keep the pot in a warm, shaded area and keep slightly damp. The video provides full details