Summer Savory Uses: Beans, Stuffing, Fricot and Bulgarian Blends

In German, savory is Bohnenkraut, the bean herb, and beans are the first place to use it. Its other big job is stuffing: one Newfoundland dressing, where savory is the main flavor, takes up to 4 tablespoons of it dried. When America’s Test Kitchen (ATK) tasted it, most of the tasters found it resembled thyme and sage.¹ It also turns up in Acadian fricot, herbes de Provence and Bulgarian table salt. For how much to add, when to add it and how to keep it, see cooking with summer savory.

Summer savory uses at a glance

Beans and lentils

In German, savory is Bohnenkraut, which Duden defines as an herb used as a seasoning especially for bean dishes.² Savory is very often used for legumes, especially dishes made from dried lentils or beans, and Gernot Katzer suggests pairing it with hyssop in rustic bean or potato recipes. We didn’t find a source that favors one kind of bean over another, so any bean pot is fair game.

You’ll often read that savory cuts down on the gas beans cause. We found no source that supports it.

Stuffing and poultry

Britannica’s main uses for savory are poultry and stuffings.⁷ The clearest example is Newfoundland dressing, a bread stuffing where savory is the whole point. Barry C. Parsons of Rock Recipes uses 2 to 4 tablespoons of dried savory for 4 cups of coarse breadcrumbs.³ See good stuffing spices.

You may also hear that summer savory is an important part of poultry seasoning. McCormick Culinary’s poultry seasoning is thyme, sage, marjoram, rosemary, black pepper and nutmeg, with no savory.⁸ If you’re out of summer savory for a stuffing, ATK replaced it with 2 parts fresh thyme to 1 part fresh sage (Attributed).¹ See summer savory substitutes.

Acadian fricot

Fricot is the Acadian stew of potatoes, meat and dumplings. In Canada’s History, Marie Fitrion recalls her mother’s rule that it wasn’t fricot until you added summer savory. Fitrion’s chicken fricot adds 1 tablespoon of dried summer savory, or 1 to 2 chopped fresh sprigs, to the pot with the potatoes, carrots, celery, onion and bouillon.⁴

Herbes de Provence and other blends

France’s Label Rouge specification for herbes de Provence sets savory (sarriette) at 26 to 27 percent, matching rosemary, with thyme at 19 percent.⁵ The specification doesn’t name the savory species. Savory is often, though not necessarily, part of herbes de Provence. See herbes de Provence.

Savory also shows up in blends you might not expect. McCormick’s Italian seasoning lists it alongside marjoram, basil, rosemary, thyme, oregano and sage,⁹ and it’s in most versions of Georgian khmeli-suneli. See Italian seasoning and khmeli-suneli.

Bulgaria

Katzer calls savory the most frequently used culinary herb in Bulgaria. Bulgarian table blends may combine salt, paprika and dried herbs like savory, thyme, basil and lovage, and they often go by sharena sol. Katzer also names savory, with black pepper, as the seasoning of kavurma, a meat stew, and uses it in the filling for sarmi, stuffed cabbage rolls.⁶ He doesn’t say which savory species Bulgarian cooks use.

Vegetables, mushrooms and sausage

For all its resemblance to thyme, savory is rarely used for meats and mostly goes with vegetables, Katzer says, and he finds it well suited to mushrooms. Processed meat is the exception: savory turns up a lot in commercial spice mixes for sausages, pâtés and pickles.⁶

Bouquet garni

The classic bouquet garni is parsley, thyme and a bay leaf, no savory. Katzer notes that savory often goes into German versions of the bundle,⁶ which suits a bean pot nicely. See bouquet garni.

Uses we could not confirm

• A pepper substitute before pepper was common, and savory as a Roman table condiment: no source found.
• Savory with oily fish like mackerel and trout, or in place of parsley in gremolata: no source found. Katzer’s only fish note is about a lemon-scented Croatian savory, not summer savory.
• Savory in dry rubs and marinades as its most popular use: Katzer’s account points the other way, toward vegetables.

How much to use

The University of Delaware puts savory in its medium-strength group, and suggests 1 to 2 teaspoons for 6 servings (Attributed).¹⁰ Fitrion’s fricot uses 1 tablespoon of dried savory for a whole chicken,⁴ and Parsons’s dressing up to 4 tablespoons, because savory is the main flavor there.³ Katzer says boiling drastically reduces savory’s aroma, and adds it only a minute or two before a dish is done.⁶ More on timing at cooking with summer savory.

Related

• Summer savory
• Winter savory uses
• Summer savory vs. winter savory
• Winter savory