Oregano vs. Thyme: Same Two Phenols, Different Balance

Out of oregano? Thyme is a common stand-in, and the swap works better than most because the two are so alike underneath. Both oils are built on the same two phenols, carvacrol and thymol. The balance differs: oregano oil usually leads with carvacrol, while most thyme oils lead with thymol. Both are hearty herbs that dry well and go in early, and each is the other’s most-cited substitute.

Side by side

The Greek and Italian culinary oreganos have a strong aroma and a warm, pungent taste.

The chemistry, sample by sample

Each figure belongs to the oil it was measured on. These are essential-oil numbers from different studies, not measurements of dried leaf, so don’t merge them.

In the 2023 study, six of the eight thyme oils were thymol-type.³ PROSEA also reports thyme chemotypes where thymol and carvacrol are both below 5%,² so not every thyme plant is thymol-led. The overlap runs the other way too. A 2020 review notes that the name “oregano” gets applied to plants of several other genera, Thymus among them,¹ and PROSEA lists Thymus capitatus under the common name Spanish oregano.

The differences that change a dish

Strength: the sources differ

The University of Delaware’s extension guide puts oregano and thyme in the same medium-strength group.⁴ A Couple Cooks wouldn’t swap dried thyme for dried oregano, because in its view thyme has a much stronger flavor.⁶ So whichever direction you’re swapping, start with less than the recipe calls for.

Cooking

America’s Test Kitchen classes both as hearty herbs to add early, noting that their flavor compounds are somewhat more heat-stable than those of delicate herbs.⁷ In ATK’s dried-versus-fresh tests, dried oregano and dried thyme both held up reasonably well in dishes with more than 20 minutes of cooking and a good amount of liquid.⁸ For long simmering, the University of Delaware’s gentler rule is to add herbs during the last 45 minutes.⁴

Where each one belongs

Oregano is essential in Italian pizza and pasta sauces, Greek salads and gyros. Thyme goes with butter, cheese, fish, meat, olives, sauces, soups, stews, stuffings and vinegar. Thyme is a fixture of French cooking: the classic bouquet garni is sprigs of parsley and thyme with a bay leaf. It isn’t one of the fines herbes, though. That mix commonly includes parsley, chives, tarragon and chervil.

They often show up together. In the Label Rouge recipe for herbes de Provence, as reported by the French trade press, oregano makes up 26% and thyme 19%.⁹

Mexican oregano is a different plant

The oregano in Mexican cooking is usually Mexican oregano, Lippia graveolens. It’s a verbena-family shrub with a thymol-led oil (40–60%), and PROSEA describes it as stronger and sharper than Origanum.¹⁰ More in Mexican oregano vs. oregano.

Can one stand in for the other?

Yes, and better than most herb swaps, thanks to those shared phenols. The Spice House lists oregano first among its thyme substitutes,¹¹ and for chili it suggests thyme, sage or marjoram when you’re out of oregano.¹² Neither gives an amount.

• Oregano in place of thyme. Fresh for fresh, start with the same amount. Dried for dried, start with about three quarters of the thyme amount and taste. That’s the starting point on our thyme substitutes page too.
• Thyme in place of oregano. Fresh for fresh, start with the same amount. Dried for dried, start with about half and taste after 20 minutes of cooking, since A Couple Cooks finds dried thyme much stronger.⁶ See oregano substitutes.

You’ll notice the swap most in a dish built around one herb, like a pizza sauce or a thyme-roasted chicken.

Varieties

The thyme genus is a big one. Lemon thyme, Thymus × citriodorus, is a hybrid of T. pulegioides and common thyme. Caraway thyme, Thymus herba-barona, is native only to Corsica, and we couldn’t find a source describing its flavor. On the oregano side, Greek oregano is known for denser, larger oil glands on the leaf than common oregano.¹

What isn’t known

• You’ll often read that only English and French thyme work in place of oregano. We found no source for it.
• We also found no source for the claim that oregano is the easiest herb to pick out in pizza sauce.

Related

• Profiles: oregano, thyme, lemon thyme, marjoram
• Substitutes: oregano substitutes, thyme substitutes
• Comparisons: marjoram vs. oregano, rosemary vs. thyme, thyme vs. lemon thyme, English thyme vs. French thyme, oregano vs. mint, basil vs. oregano
• Bouquet garni, herbes de Provence, cooking with oregano, too much thyme?