Garden of aromatic plants
Photos Credit: Salagon Museum. Text : Marie Josèphe Moncorgé. Translator: Jean-Marc Bulit
Marjoram
This labiate plant (Majorana hortensis), native to Egypt and Arabia, is often confused with oregano, also called wild marjoram, a local perennial plant.
Apicius merely cites marjoram without using it in any recipe, and marjoram is not on the list of Charlemagne's capitulary, but marjoram was grown in the garden of the Menagier de Paris. It is warm and dry, one of the rare aromatic herbs of frequent use in medieval cuisine, often combined with parsley, with sage and with hysop (Maître Chiquart, Taillevent).
The recipe for hippocras in the Forme of Cury has marjoram.