Welcome to the summary page for FabulousFusionFood's Herb guide to Dittany of Crete along with all the Dittany of Crete containing recipes presented on this site, with 1 recipes in total.

e This is a continuation of an entire series of pages that will, I hope, allow my visitors to better navigate this site. As well as displaying recipes by name, country and region of origin I am now planning a whole series of pages where recipes can be located by meal type and main ingredient. This page gives a listing of all the Cornish recipes added to this site.

These recipes, all contain Dittany of Crete as a major herb flavouring.

Dittany of Crete, Origanum dictamnus (also known as Crete Dittany, Diktamo, Dittander, Dittany of Candie, Dictamnus, Dittany, Hop Marjoram, Spanish Hops and Hop Plant) is a prostrate herbaceous subshrub that is a member of the Lamiaceae (mint) familly of flowering plants that is native to the island of Crete in the mediterranean.

It is a tender perennial plant that grows some 20 to 30cm high and a spread of up to 40cm. It is a prostrate subshrub with arching stems that bear woolly, grey-white leaves. The leaves are discoid to ovate, grey-green in colour and are sited in pairs opposite each other. The slender arching stems and lanate leaves are covered in a velvety white down and are 13–25 mm in size. Tiny pink flowers hermaphoroditic within large purple bracts are produced in pendant heads in summer (June to August).

Dittany of Crete is widely used for food flavouring and medicinal purposes, in addition to it featuring as an ornamental plant in gardens. Both the dried leaves and dried flower heads are used to make a tea. Dittany of Crete has always been highly prized; it is gathered while in bloom in the summer months, and is exported for use in pharmaceuticals, perfumery and to flavour drinks such as vermouth and absinthe. It is said to symbolize love and was believed to be an aphrodisiac. Only the most ardent young lovers scrambled on mountainsides and the deep gorges of Crete gathering bunches of the pink blooms to present as love tokens. There are numerous deaths reported throughout the centuries by collectors of this magical herb. The locals called it erontas [Έρωντας] in the Cretan dialect which literally means 'love' for its aphrodisiac properties. Popular in Minoan Crete and Ancient Greece, it was considered a highly therapeutic plant.

The English name 'dittany' derives from the Greek diktamo [Δίκταμο]. The leaves have a pleasant, aromatic, flavour that makes the herb suited for fish and eggs. It also makes an interesting addition to salads and adds an intriguing flavour to herb pestos. It is also one of the classic flavourings for turin vermouth. Dittany is also one of the herbs mentioned in Charlemagne's list of herbs, which meant that all royal gardens had to grow it. This is one of the reasons why dittany was so popular during the Middle Ages and even into the Elizabethan age.

The essential oil derived from the leaves contains carvacrol and thymol as main constituents. Being closely related to oregano (Origanum vulgare) dittany can be used in any recipe where oregano would normally be used. Like oregano, it is one of the few herbs where the dried herb is almost as flavourful as the fresh.