Marjoram Uses: Sausage, Liver, Potatoes, Soups and Herb Blends

German cooks call marjoram Wurstkraut, the sausage herb, and that’s a good clue to where it shines. Dried, it goes into sausages, onto liver and fried potatoes, into soups like Polish żurek, and into Italian seasoning and poultry seasoning. Fresh, it’s at home in tomato sauces and with delicate fish. It’s gentler than its cousin oregano: The Spice House suggests using about half as much oregano when you swap it in for marjoram.¹ For timing, fresh-to-dried conversion and storage, see cooking with marjoram.

Marjoram uses at a glance

Sausage, liver and the German kitchen

Dried marjoram goes into sausage spice mixes along with thyme, Katzer says, and that’s where the German name comes from. He calls marjoram on boiled or fried liver somewhat classic, and recommends it mostly for heavy vegetables like legumes and cabbage. His most direct tip: fried potatoes with a liberal amount of marjoram.²

For stews, Katzer pairs marjoram with bay leaves, or with a little black pepper or juniper. The juniper version suits ragouts, especially venison.² See juniper berries.

Soups

Two named soups put marjoram in the pot:

• Żurek, Polish sour rye soup. Polonist’s recipe adds 1 tablespoon of dried marjoram to the pot with a garlic clove, then garnishes with fresh marjoram.³ See Polish spices.
• Swedish pea soup. Sweden’s inventory of living traditions lists onion, marjoram, thyme and ginger as common ingredients in the Thursday pea soup.⁴ See split pea soup spices.

The żurek’s approach, dried marjoram cooked in and fresh on top, fits Katzer’s advice to add fresh marjoram shortly before serving.²

Blends

Italian seasoning. There’s no single recipe. McCormick’s Italian seasoning lists marjoram first, then basil, rosemary, thyme, oregano, savory and sage.⁵ Simply Organic’s leads with oregano, then marjoram.⁹ The USDA’s purchasing specification names thyme, rosemary, sage, oregano and basil and doesn’t require marjoram at all.¹⁰ See Italian seasoning.

Poultry seasoning. McCormick Culinary’s blend is thyme, sage, marjoram, rosemary, black pepper and nutmeg.⁶ New England’s Bell’s Seasoning adds marjoram to rosemary, oregano, sage, ginger, thyme and pepper.⁷ See poultry seasoning.

Herbes de Provence. Here the sources disagree. France’s Label Rouge specification is thyme, rosemary, savory and oregano, with no marjoram.¹¹ Leah Kaplan of The Takeout lists marjoram among the most common herbs in commercial blends,¹² and The Spice House’s homemade version uses 1 teaspoon of dried marjoram with 2 teaspoons each of thyme and savory.⁸ See herbes de Provence.

Za’atar. The herb behind the name isn’t sweet marjoram. Katzer says the Jordanian za’atar herb is a local marjoram relative, and that a mild thyme or savory replaces it better than European sweet marjoram does.² So sweet marjoram in a homemade za’atar is a stand-in, not the original. See za’atar.

Fresh marjoram: tomato sauce, fish and herb bundles

Fresh marjoram is more popular in southern European cooking. Katzer mentions it in Italian tomato sauces with garlic, where fresh oregano can take its place, and says it’s often suggested for delicate fish. He also likes fresh marjoram in a bouquet garni, and it’s among the common additions to the classic parsley, thyme and bay bundle. Katzer thinks it can bring new accents to fines herbes, though it isn’t one of the usual four.² See bouquet garni and good spices for pizza.

In Jordan, Lebanon and Israel, the local marjoram relative flavors grilled mutton and goes on breads.

Dried is the usual form

America’s Test Kitchen lists marjoram with oregano, sage, thyme and rosemary as the herbs worth using dried.¹³ It does lose some fragrance when it dries, Katzer notes.²

Uses we could not confirm

You’ll see these suggested a lot, but we couldn’t find a source behind any of them, so think of them as ideas to try: marjoram as a salad green or in Italian-style dressings, marjoram in dry rubs with garlic powder and cumin, and za’atar as a table condiment.

How much to use

The University of Delaware puts marjoram in its medium-strength group,¹⁴ and suggests 1 to 2 teaspoons for 6 servings for herbs in that group. Polonist’s żurek uses 1 tablespoon of dried marjoram for a full pot of soup.³

Related

• Marjoram
• Cooking with marjoram
• Marjoram vs. oregano
• Marjoram substitutes
• How to dry marjoram