[Sca-cooks] looking for za'atar

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net>
>The difference between Mexican oregano and Greek oregano is pretty easy.
>Greek oregano (also known as wild marjoram) is Origanum vulgare.  Mexican
>oregano is Coleus amboinicius.  Majoram (or sweet majoram) is Majorana
>hortensis.  The plants are all related and are members of the mint family
>(Lamiaceae or Labiatae, depending on the text).
>
>Flatbreads and Flavors identifies zatar as thyme which would make it either
>Thymus vulgaris or a closely related member of genus Thymus (also members of
>the mint family).

Yup - more or less. But from what i've been able to determine in my
recent research - and it's as clear as mud to me - there are at least
three herbs, maybe more, that qualify as zaatar in North Africa and
the Levant. Zaatar isn't necessarily thyme or a member of the genus
Thymus. One source said it was Majorana syriansis - or something like
that - i can't refind the source to give the exact spelling of the
second word, but i know it referenced Syria.

Also, in some of my searches, i've seen zaatar written with an ayin
for the "aa", so the word probably doesn't have 3 syllables, as i've
seen it written on some website somewhere (as zahatar) - the
apostrophe between the a's doesn't seem to indicate a pause or a
glottal stop, but rather an "ayin" instead of an "alif" or a schwa
type vowel sound. But i would expect regional variations in both
pronunciation and in spelling throughout the Near East, so possibly
in some places it does, after all.

While Classical Arabic may be held up as the "standard", reality is
that everywhere people speak Arabic, they speak differently - even
more differently than USAmericans, Canadians (remember, they're
Americans, too, since they live in North America), England, South
Africa, New Zealand, and Australia (i'm sure i forgot some place).

>It also states that the thyme can be replaced by hyssop
>(Hyssopus officinalis) but that the taste is more bitter and less aromatic.

According to what i've been digging up, zaatar is sometimes called
"hyssop", but it isn't the hyssop most of us are familiar with. That
is, hyssop as most of us know it is NOT a substitute for Levantine
hyssop, from what i've been able to find out. OK, so i'm talking,
errr, writing in a circle here...

One Jewish website said that zaatar was probably the herb in the
Bible that is translated into English as hyssop, but, well, then, you
see, it isn't really hyssop, it's zaatar.

Another website speculated that zaatar was the bitter herb originally
eaten by Jews for Pesach/Passover - but, as i say, that was
speculation - although with something of a reasonable basis, if
lacking in actual evidence...

Anahita