How to use thyme in cooking to enjoy the taste of your dishes

Thyme and its history.

In fact, cooking has always been considered a strength of women. But our generation, for some reason, decided to prove the opposite. Not so long ago there was a saying that the best chefs are men. So it may be so, but cooking every day for the family and cooking only sometimes for guests and visitors are two different things. Visitors will not tell you in an insinuating voice, “But here you overdid it, fell in love, or what?” or “Pepper is not enough, when will you learn how to cook?” In restaurants, there is a clear recipe that the chef follows. It even describes the spices included in the composition, how they were added and the exact amount. So what am I talking about. Spices have never been my forte. I’ll salt the soup, then I’ll pour so much pepper into the sauce for meat that no one else will even dare to eat. And now I managed to decide to learn how to cook for my beloved and friends. According to the recipe, which was easily found in a culinary encyclopedia, thyme and a bunch of other spices had to be added to the meat. But what kind of grass is this, you need to know. And I began to search on the net and other places of accumulation of female culinary-educated individuals, how to use thyme in cooking and what kind of animal it is, in general - thyme. My search, fortunately, was crowned with quick success. Either I don’t know how to cook at all, or I’m just not educated like that, but it turns out that thyme is the same thyme that my grandmother used to treat all sorts of sores and rinsed her throat with decoction. But to add it to food, I have not tried this yet.

The history of the plant is quite long and dates back to the time of Ancient Egypt. Well, the Egyptians, with their advanced technologies, were definitely not fools. They used this plant both as a perfume, because of the strong spicy aroma, and as a spice. And dried, and chewed in its natural form. Roman soldiers, in general, drank thyme tinctures before the battle, supposedly to increase courage and courage. A kind of people's commissariat one hundred grams are obtained. The plant was spread throughout the world by none other than the monks. Well, of course, who will eat only spiritual food, meat and fish should also be eaten, but with seasonings everything will be tastier.

Applications for thyme

In addition, as in cooking, thyme can be used in other areas of life. They even make essential oils from it. And by the way, it is very useful. There is in it such a substance as thymol, and this is practically the same menthol that is used in chewing gum and toothpastes. Some even suggest that you can get rid of bad breath by chewing a little thyme. But let me tell you, I haven't tried it. For medicinal purposes, in addition to essential oil, decoctions are also used, so my grandmother rinsed her sore throat with a decoction of thyme. Well, in cooking, you definitely can’t do without this spice. Especially when cooking fatty meats, thyme will easily help digest even the largest pieces of juicy lamb or pork. Mmm. I even wanted to eat.

Well, now let's talk in more detail about thyme, the use of which in cooking, for me, is shrouded in a cloud of secrets and mysteries. Since it smells strongly, the taste is spicy and a little spicy, as I have not used it before. And now, after reading the whole pile of recipes, I want to shove it everywhere. And you can cram it into many dishes. Thyme is added to some types of baked goods. For example, black bread. I saw it in stores, but I didn’t taste it, I don’t really like it when you chew a crispy crust, but something spicy gets stuck in your teeth. Meat without thyme doesn't seem to exist anymore. It is especially worth adding this seasoning to fatty and fried dishes. And this is homemade salt, and fatty pork, lamb ribs, various pastes, ducks, geese, offal will also be much tastier if you add thyme. Well, spice can be added to vegetable dishes.

For example, sauerkraut with thyme acquires a pleasant bitterness and rich taste. If you are not satisfied with such options or you prefer a different set of seasonings for these dishes, then let me ask you, do you like smoked meats? Of course yes? Well, what, in your opinion, gives them such a delicious spicy aroma and incomparable taste. By the way, if dried thyme can be added to smoked meats and marinades, then it will be more pleasant to add fresh leaves to the meat. So, if you like to grow fresh spices or any other herb on your windowsill, then thyme, whose seeds look like small peas, can be planted in the same way. Well, in about a year, your dishes will be able to delight their eaters with a rich and fresh taste. And your kitchen will be filled with a spicy aroma.

Mentioning the use of the plant in cooking and medicine, let's not forget about the recipes of proven housewives. So, through some forums, I managed to find out that the benefits of such an herb as thyme are simply enormous. And not just in the kitchen. If the smell of lavender irritates you, or you're just allergic to it, and the moths in the closet eat their last sweater, then you have a great and non-chemical solution. Put a sprig of thyme in the closet and let the fur-eaters prepare their suitcases.

Dishes with thyme.

Having learned thyme, the use of which in cooking is not limited to one category of dishes, it is worth showing you several recipes with its use. And let's start with the most delicious. Just don't drip saliva on the keyboard. For a snack, let's try a little France with ratatouille from Michel Guerard. To prepare it, we need sweet pepper, garlic (you can add a little, just for flavor, if you have kisses after dinner or lunch), a little onion, a few eggplants, zucchini, tomatoes, and to give that very delicious aroma we will use thyme, parsley, bay leaf and black pepper. Cut all vegetables except peppers into circles. Fry the onion in olive oil until soft, add garlic and a couple of chopped tomatoes without skin and seeds, sweet pepper, spices. Simmer this mixture until it becomes a sauce. Pour the sauce into a special container where we will cook. Then we beautifully lay out the circles of tomatoes, eggplant and zucchini and send them to the oven. When the top layer acquires a golden hue, we take out the finished dish and sprinkle it with parsley, salt, pepper and sprinkle with olive oil.

As a main course, we will serve lamb in glaze with thyme and avocado. We will need lamb, a couple of lemons, avocado, blue onion, garlic, chili pepper, for those who like it spicier, smoked peppers, honey, olive oil, ground pepper, thyme. At the very beginning of cooking, soak the peppers in hot water for half an hour. Prepare the meat marinade: mix the juice of one lemon with olive oil, ground pepper and finely chopped thyme. Pour the marinade over the meat and leave it to bask in it. At this time, prepare the glaze. We mix the zest from lemons with honey and add crushed smoked and already soaked peppers, salt, if the icing is too hard, then add a little water in which the peppers are soaked. We fry the meat on the grill, but if there is none, then we just send it to the oven, and grease it with glaze a few minutes before it is ready. We serve our dish with avocado salad (finely chop the onion, avocado, chili, garlic, tomato and a little cilantro, season with lemon juice).

Well, salivating already flowed, and the stomach turned with displeasure? Well then, at the end of the meal, you should calm him down with thyme tea. We brew ordinary black tea, add six sprigs of thyme to it. Put a sliced ​​sour green apple into glasses for mulled wine, sprinkle it with a little sugar, cinnamon and add our tea. In addition to the fact that this drink is insanely delicious, it is also useful for colds, and will pleasantly warm during the winter cold.

What can be replaced?

There are a huge number of recipes to use thyme in cooking. But what to do if it wasn’t in your arsenal of seasonings, and you need to cook exactly the same dish where you can’t do without it. So, using thyme in cooking, you should definitely know what to replace it with. If in your kitchen there was not a sprig of thyme, then you can safely replace it with oregano. The taste will hardly change from this, except that it will become a little softer.

Well, we talked about tasty and healthy food. We learned that on your windowsill you can arrange a small garden and grow any seasonings and aromatic herbs for delicious dishes. Now we can please guests and loved ones with delicious food that will be remembered not only by the stomach, but also by the tongue. And most importantly, I finally found out that thyme and thyme are the same plant and now I can use it in cooking. But it is worth remembering that the basic law of spices and other spices is not to overdo it. So let us follow him and saturate our stomachs with yummy.

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In secret...

Probably every woman is faced with the problem of overweight? Indeed, sometimes it is not easy to lose weight, look slim and beautiful, remove the sides or stomach. Diets don’t help, you don’t want to go to the gym or it doesn’t bring tangible results.

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