Summer Savory: Flavor, Carvacrol Chemistry, History and How to Use It

In German, summer savory is Bohnenkraut, a name built on the word for beans, the dishes it’s used to season above all. It tastes sharp and warm, a bit like thyme with a peppery edge, and its smell comes mostly from carvacrol and γ-terpinene, two compounds it shares with oregano and thyme. In France, savory is one of the four main herbs in the Label Rouge herbes de Provence. Just don’t expect every jar to smell the same: the makeup of its oil varies a lot with the plant, where it grew and when it was cut.

At a glance

What summer savory is

Summer savory is an aromatic annual with square stems covered in fine hairs, sometimes tinged purple, and narrow gray-green leaves about 2.5 cm (1 inch) long, arranged in opposite pairs. The German dictionary Duden describes the plant (as Bohnenkraut) as having narrow, elongated leaves and small white or lilac flowers.

Its close relative, winter savory (Satureja montana), is a perennial subshrub, not an annual. You can cook with the two the same way, though winter savory is harsher and more bitter. See winter savory and summer savory vs. winter savory.

Native range

Kew’s Plants of the World Online gives summer savory’s native range as southeastern Europe to Kazakhstan and northwestern Iran. It lists the herb as native to Albania, Iran, Italy, Kazakhstan, Crimea and the northwestern Balkans, and doubtfully present in Türkiye. Kew lists it as introduced in France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Greece and several US states, among other places.¹ Britannica gives a broader native range of Eurasia and North Africa.² We go with Kew on botany but flag the difference. The often-repeated line that summer savory is “native to the Mediterranean” is too loose for either source.

Flavor and aroma

Summer savory’s flavor is delicate, sweet and spicy, with a fragrant aroma and a slightly sharp, warm taste. In a pot of beans or a stuffing it comes across peppery and thyme-like, with less of oregano’s bite.

The compounds

The flavor lives in the volatile oil, which a 2018 review puts at up to 5% of the plant on a dry-weight basis.³ Four compounds dominate most analyses, but how much of each depends on the plant, where it grew and when it was cut. The review puts the spread down to season, climate, growing practice and geography.

The same review reports a study that followed the oil through the growing season. γ-terpinene was the main component at most stages, and carvacrol took the lead (46.4%) only at the ripened-fruit stage.³ These figures come from different samples and methods, so don’t average them into one number. What it means for you: two jars of summer savory can smell noticeably different. For comparison, one Croatian sample of winter savory, distilled from flowering plants in August 2007, had 13.7% carvacrol, 11.8% p-cymene and 10.6% γ-terpinene, with only 1.9% thymol.⁵

Carvacrol and thymol are the same phenols that characterize oregano and thyme. A review of oregano chemistry notes that the name “oregano” sometimes gets applied to plants from other genera, Satureja among them.⁶

Origin and history

The English word savory goes back to Latin satureia, which the Online Etymology Dictionary calls “a foreign word of unknown origin.” The herb’s name shows up in English from the late 14th century.⁷ You’ll often read that the name comes from “satyr,” the goat-legged figure of Greek myth, because Pliny thought the herb an aphrodisiac. The etymology dictionary doesn’t support the satyr link, and we couldn’t trace the Pliny reference to an edition we could open, so we’re not repeating it.

Several other stories about savory’s history get passed around, and we couldn’t trace any of them to a source: that Romans used it as a salt substitute, that Roman armies carried it to England, that it was one of Europe’s only strong seasonings before black pepper arrived from Asia, and that Romans made a savory vinegar. Virgil is often said to have recommended planting savory near beehives. We couldn’t open a text and translation to check that, so it’s left out.

How summer savory is used

Savory is grown for its leaves, which season food, particularly poultry and stuffings.

• Beans. The German name is Bohnenkraut, built on the word for beans, and Duden defines it as a plant used as a seasoning especially for bean dishes. The reason you’ll usually hear, that savory prevents gas, has no source behind it that we could find.
• Herbes de Provence. Savory (sarriette) is one of the four main herbs in the French Label Rouge specification for herbes de Provence, at 26–27% of the blend alongside rosemary and oregano, with thyme at 19%.⁸ See herbes de Provence.
• Stuffing and poultry. This is the use Britannica singles out. See also poultry seasoning.

In the kitchen it behaves a lot like thyme and marjoram, its mint-family relatives. Add the dried leaf early to braises and bean pots, and the fresh leaf later. For more ideas, see summer savory uses and cooking with summer savory.

Buying and quality

We found no international or national quality standard for savory. When you buy dried summer savory, look for gray-green leaf that smells sharp when you rub it.

Nutrition

USDA FoodData Central lists ground savory (the entry doesn’t say which species) at 37.9 mg iron, 1,050 mg potassium, 2,130 mg calcium, 377 mg magnesium, 257 µg vitamin A (RAE) and 50 mg vitamin C per 100 g.⁹ Those figures are per 100 g of dried herb. A recipe usually uses a teaspoon or less, so savory isn’t a meaningful source of these nutrients in normal cooking.

Storage

We found no published shelf-life figure for dried savory from a regulator or standards body. The flavor lives in a volatile oil, so let your nose decide: if a pinch rubbed between your fingers smells faint, the savory has faded.

Safety and health claims

The FDA lists summer savory (as Satureia hortensis) among spices generally recognized as safe.⁴ Britannica notes that savory’s essential oils have potential antioxidant, antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory properties and that it’s been used traditionally for various ailments.² The NIH’s National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health has no fact sheet on savory.¹⁰ We make no claim that summer savory treats or prevents any condition, including the digestive and anti-gas uses often credited to it.

Substitutes and comparisons

Winter savory is the closest stand-in. It’s stronger and more bitter, so start with less. Thyme is the usual second choice. No source we found gives a tested swap ratio. See summer savory substitutes, winter savory substitutes and summer savory vs. winter savory.

Related pages

• Winter savory
• Thyme
• Oregano
• Marjoram
• Herbes de Provence