Cooking with Thyme
By Sherril Steele-Carlin
If you have thyme in your garden, you'll create some wonderful dishes in the kitchen. Thyme can enhance the flavor of any dish, from gumbo to baked potatoes. There's no time like the present to discover the magic of thyme!
Versatile Thyme
Thyme is so useful in the kitchen, it's a must in your herb garden, because fresh thyme is much more flavorful than the dried variety. Thyme is easy to grow, and resistant to all kinds of weather, too, and you can even harvest it in winter, so there's no reason for you not to make thyme an important part of your herb garden.
Thyme is a dominant herb, like basil, so you need to be careful not to blend it with other dominant herbs in cooking, because they will compete with each other, and can take over the flavor of a dish. (However, rules are always made to be broken. Always experiment and make notes of your own personal favorite herb blends.) Thyme will add to the flavor of many dishes, including most all meats, seafood, shellfish, many vegetables, soups, stews, and egg dishes.
Chop the leaves fine and add to melted butter, then pour over mushrooms, carrots, onions, or potatoes. (Thyme makes a wonderful alternative to chives on a baked potato.) It also compliments fruit cups and salads nicely. You can also make your own thyme vinegar, and a fine herb tea with this versatile plant.
Medicinal Uses of Thyme
Thyme has been used throughout the ages for many different ailments. In ancient times it was associated with both courage and fumigation, nowadays it is commonly used against coughs and bronchial distress, laryngitis, and cramps. It is also an antiseptic; perhaps the ancients had the right idea! It will stimulate the appetite, so those on a diet, beware.
Thyme is helpful in preventing kidney stones, and generally good for the digestive tract. However, too much internal use of thyme ha been known to cause symptoms of poisoning, and to over stimulate the thyroid, so follow directions carefully when using thyme medicinally. Thyme can also aid in the digestion of fatty meats and fish, and it is said to help cure a hangover.
Thyme Tea Recipe
Place 1/2 tsp. fresh thyme in 1/2 cup hot water, and allow to steep for 3 to 5 minutes. Don't take more than 1 1/2 cups in a day, a swallow at a time.