Winter or Summer Savory?
Sharon Barbour
I am a new notes reader and an avid gourmet cook. I grow several herbs in my
back yard which I use frequently for cooking. An herb that I am interested in
growing and cooking with is Savory. However, there are two kinds that I know
of - Winter Savory and Summer Savory.
Does anyone have experience cooking with either variety? Can anyone tell me
if there is a palatable difference between Winter an Summer Savory? Do you
have any great recipes to share?
Thanks in advance,
Sharon Barbour
Melinda Meahan
SB>Does anyone have experience cooking with either variety? Can anyone tell me
SB>if there is a palatable difference between Winter an Summer Savory? Do you
SB>have any great recipes to share?
No personal experience, but I remember reading that Summer Savory can
be used for everything, but Winter Savory has some limitations. I
think I read this in a gardening book somewhere.
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tha...@rhea.arc.ab.ca
Winter savory (a perrenial) is much stronger tasting than summer savory
(an annual). It is summer savory you want to use for just about any
recipe that calls for savory. You would probably find winter savory
overwhelms most dishes, and I don't think the taste is the same anyway.
You can use summer savory in turkey and chicken stuffing, in soups,
with veggies, etc. It is easy to grow, gets maybe two feet high.
I plant mine in mid-late May and pick it about mid-August as it just
starts to flower. A 3 foot row (planted fairly crowded) gives at
least a 3 pound peanut butter jar full of dried crumbled savory.
Don
L.A.Z. Smith
(Sharon Barbour) writes:
Winter savory is a perennial and summer savory is an annual. Summer
savory has long, tender leaves and a more delicate flavor than winter
savory, which has spikier, evergreen-type leaves and a somewhat more
robust flavor.
I don't find the difference in flavor to be significant in cooked dishes.
I use winter savory in everything and no longer bother to grow summer
savory. Use a trifle less of it than is called for in recipes. I like
savory in bean dishes and in hearty soups and stews.
If you have garden space to do so, try planting both summer and winter
savory and taste for yourself. I find the convenience of a perennial
plant makes up for whatever minor sacrifices I may be making as to flavor.
Basil is usually the only annual herb I grow.
Leah Smith le...@smith.chi.il.us
Steve Alexander
Sorry I missed the original article. I've grown summer savory for the
last several years and really enjoy the flavor. In the spectrum of
spices it falls somewhere around thyme, but less floral and more black
peppery flavors. I tend to use it in place of thyme most everywhere.
I particularly like it in pork roasts:
5 lb pork loin roast,
2 to 4 tsp of savory
1 or 2 garlic cloves cut into matchstick slivers
coarse salt (sea salt preferred otherwise kosher salt)
Cut several slits length wise down the roast & poke the garlic
slivers & savory down the length of the holes. Coat the
exterior of the roast w/ several table spoons of coarse salt.
Roast at 350%F until the interior temperature is 160%F (165%F
max), about 1.75 - 2.0 hours. Most of the salt ends up in the
pan, but it's perfectly acceptable to salt after cooking for
those w/ sodium problems. Remove from the oven and allow 15+
minutes before slicing. Even better the next day !
Savory is wonderful in stews, and nearly all soups. I also like a
little crushed on steamed or sauted carrots. I use it in chicken
dishes as well. It's also a good spice to use in baked/sauted
potatoes that seem to be showing up more frequently in restuarants:
bake potatoes (microwave is fine),
allow them to cool a few minutes on a cutting board, then
quarter them,
add immediately to a heated pan with a olive oil and
add spices (lots of variants) - browning the two cut faces of
the potatoes.
salt & serve.
variants spices -
I like savory and oregano together for spices.
Chili roast potatoes have cumin and paprika for spices, saute
some bell peppers along side for color.
oregano w/ black pepper is pleasant.
some people like dill in this dish - but don't ask me.
--
Incidentally, growing summer savory isn't difficult, but it takes a
remarkably long time for the seeds to germinate, and it grows rather
slowly. Pinching back the tops once the plants are several inches
tall will cause them to become bushy - instead of one 15" long string.
--
Steve Alexander [ste...@solonsys.mcd.mot.com] - Clever witticism omitted
Sylvain Bergeron
ste...@solonsys.uucp writes:
>Sorry I missed the original article. I've grown summer savory for the
>last several years and really enjoy the flavor. In the spectrum of
>spices it falls somewhere around thyme, but less floral and more black
>peppery flavors. I tend to use it in place of thyme most everywhere.
(Having problems posting...)
From the peanut gallery...
Savory falls in the HERB category (genreally grean, leafy plants used for
their aromatic quality)
Sylvain
barbara goldman
Sylvain Bergeron <sn...@cornell.edu> wrote:
>
(miscellany deleted)
>
>Savory falls in the HERB category (genreally grean, leafy plants used for
>their aromatic quality)
>
>Sylvain
Getting back to the summer vs. winter savory question, according to "A
Matter of Taste", a great book on seasonings, (can't remember the
author's name offhand) perennial winter savory is stronger, and is better
with meats, whereas summer savory is an annual, and has a more delicate
flavor.
Steve Alexander
Webster Collegiate Dictionary says:
Spice - 1: any of various aromatic vegatable products used to season
or flavor food.
Herb - 1: a seed producing annual, biennial, or perennial that does
not develop persistant woody tissue but dies down at the end of a
growing season. 2: A plant or plant part valued for its medicinal,
savory or aromatic qualities.
American Heritage Dictionary says:
Spice - 1: An aromatic or pungent plant substance, as cinnamon or
pepper, used as a flavoring. 2. Something that adds zest or flavor.
Herb - 1: a plant that has a fleshy rather than a wood stem and that
generally dies back at the end of each growing season. 2: An often
aromatic plant used in medicine or as seasoning.
Popular TV show cooks to the contrary - I haven't found any
etymological basis for the notion that 'spice' refers to seeds and
'herbs' to leaves, or that the terms are mutually exclusive. The word
'spice' would seem to subsume the word 'herb' so that all herbs are
spices. Of the examples given in the definition of 'spice', pepper is
a seed but cinnamon is tree bark.
The 'no persistant woody tissue' clause for the definition of 'herb'
clearly *EXCLUDES* sage, rosemary and thyme. The second dictionary
definition for either word seems overly inclusive; your "green
leafy plants used for their aromatic properties" is a bit better.
So summer savory is a spice, an herb, and a member of the genus
satureia. And winter savory is a spice but NOT an herb because of the
persistant woody growth.
The point is that even the dictionary definitions are not specific,
and unless you have a comment regarding the flavor, a recipe or a
cooking question perhaps your comments belong in alt.slack .
Incidentally the sentences you quote compares the FLAVOR of savory to
SPICES thyme and black pepper (which are clearly not herbs) and upon
careful reading does not even imply that savory is a spice.