It has been exactly one week tomorrow since I’ve gotten sick. And I think the evil little culprit is actually a tiny little seemingly harmless herb: marjoram. I don’t use it a lot in everyday cooking but it is highly used in red sauces and other “Italian” type dishes. When I started looking up information I couldn’t believe all the things I was reading about people having allergic reactions to marjoram.
Being in the same family as basil and oregano I started to get a little worried because what would a life without basil and oregano be, other than “eck!” Turns out, I’m a-ok. Apparently people who do not normally have an allergy to basil and oregano and other plants in the Lamiaceae species, when combined with marjoram an allergic reaction can take place. Which is exactly what I think happens with me. In reading all of the interesting things about marjoram I thought to myself about the places and foods that have made me sick and decided to do some investigating.
I contact my good friend Fran, at El Rancho Grande and she told me that they very RARELY use marjoram in their cooking and it’s definitely not in their pizza sauce. If anything, they sometimes use it from time to time in meat dishes (which clearly doesn’t concern me!), but only if they can get it fresh. And the baked spaghetti? You guessed it. It was made with a “new” herb mixture and the very first ingredient was marjoram.
Last week I made some Classico Burgundy Marinara Sauce with tri-colored pasta and ended up getting sick. I checked out the jar and simply “spices” was listed. I’m really going to have to watch it now. To get my pasta fix this week, Kelly lovingly made me homemade garden marinara sauce… and I did not get sick. 
From here on out, other than asking if there’s meat in this or stock in that or if things are cooked in lard, I guess I’m adding, “is there marjoram in that?” to the long list of requirements of food I ingest. But hey, I love food and I’m willing to go the extra mile to eat it! We cook at home usually 5 nights a week, I’d hate to make it 7 just because my body can’t handle it! After all, there’s so much more than meat and marjoram out there! HAH!
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Great blog! You might also want to talk with Connie Winkler – she may have some appropriate alternatives for you to consider or possibly some other typical dishes where it is used.
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