Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Oregano

The L.A. Times food section has an article on reproducing a particular over-the-top salad today. It includes this very interesting info on dried oregano:
It turns out that what we often buy in supermarkets isn't just one sort of oregano, but a blend harvested in its native ranges in the Mediterranean, then sometimes even augmented with a South American sage. Over the years, scientists poking around the contents of bottled oregano have found so many plant genera (16) and species (40) that it led Rutgers University biologist James E. Simon to quip that oregano was more "a flavor and aroma rather than an individual plant."
I had known that oregano wasn't just one plant -- and varied depending on which country/locale it was gathered, if wild or cultivated, etc. But this is even more detailed. I wasn't especially intrigued by the recipe, but the article is here: The mojo of dried oregano by Emily Green.

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