Savory

Throumbi is the herb most often mistaken for oregano and thyme, which is unsurprising given that it grows on the same dry hillsides and is frequently picked, dried and sold in the same bunch as both. Botanically it is a savory, a separate plant with a sharper, more peppery smell, and Greek and Cypriot cooks who know the difference use it deliberately rather than as a stand-in.

Its natural partners are beans and pulses, where its pepperiness does the work black pepper does elsewhere, and cured or grilled meat: Cretan apaki, pork marinated in vinegar and smoked, is seasoned with oregano and whatever thyme or savory the household has. It also goes into the brine and oil of home-cured olives, and onto the coals under grilling meat, where a handful of dried stems scents the smoke.

Dried savory is hard to find outside Greek and Balkan shops, where it may be labelled by the Bulgarian name chubritsa. A mixture of thyme and oregano with a little extra black pepper gets close enough for most dishes. If a Greek recipe calls for thyme or savory as though the two were interchangeable, that is not carelessness: hillside bunches genuinely contain both.