Fresh herb primer

[JennyUptown]

Confession: I grew up in a home where fresh herbs were never used, never mentioned. My mother wasn't a confident cook (I love her tons anyway). Plus when I was growing up in a small town in PA in the 1980s, organic grocery stores and the like were nowhere to be find.

Fast forward to 2004. I live in DC and am trying to learn to cook. No easy task, but I'm having fun (for the most part) and egullet has been a fantastic resource for me to ask dumb questions, things I should know, like these:

- How long do fresh store-bought herbs generally last?

- Are they best kept in the fridge?

- Is it possible to do a self-dry thing with the herbs if I know I'm not going to use them all up immediately?

What made me ask: I bought a container of fresh thyme (my new favorite - feel free to PM me recipes that highlight this great herb), only needed and used a little. Condensation started collecting inside the package and I started to worry. Keep? Toss? Dry?

Help. Thanks.

[Larry]

When I buy my herbs I just wrap them in paper towel, spray the towel with a bit of water and keep it in one of those "breathable" salad bags in the fridge. Thyme, oregano and rosemary, will last quite long like this or you can just let them dry out and use them later. Basil, sage and dill will wilt pretty fast so you should use them within a few days. Cilantro and parsely are kind of in the middle in terms of storage, if you make sure to change the paper towel every day they should last for a good week or so. I hope this helps

[Tracy K.]

If you have a sunny spot on a windowsill, you can grow a number of the herbs quite easily. Rosemary is profoundly easy--thrives on neglect. Basil is very easy in a pot. Herbs at the grocery store have been through the same supply chain as the other produce, so it's not right off the plant.

You could also just place the herbs in a glass of water, just like you would flowers. Snip off the bottom so the plant could continue to absorb the water, again keeping them in the refrigerator. I have to admit that I'm more the put it in a bag type of person, though.

Drying is very easy. Simply spread the herbs out on a paper plate on top of the refrigerator. The fridge generates a gentle warmth up there and the herbs will dry very nicely.

[mudbug]

JennyUptown,

I agree, I highly recommend growing them yourself. You can go to most places like Home Depot, Lowes, Wal-Mart, local greenhouses (especially this time in the seasons) and buy plants which will continue to produce for you all summer (or longer) for less than the cost of buying cartons at grocery stores.

I've found that the best way to dry them is actually your refrigerator - which due to the process of refrigeration, is a form of dehydration.

Take some tuile (like wedding veil fabric, extremely inexpensive at a fabric store or fabric department or Wal-Mart). Lay your leaves on top in one layer. Loosely roll it up. This will suspend each leaf in mid air with circulation all around. Keep in a paper sack in your fridge for about a couple of weeks. This also keeps them dust free.

Your herbs are best dried by this method because it preserves the integrity of their color, shape, and flavor of the oils.

If you want to freeze dry, put them in the fridge for a couple of hours. Get dry ice from any grocery store and place it in the bottom of an empty cooler. After the herbs have cooled in the fridge, put them in a shallow bowl and then into the cooler with the dry ice. Wait about 15 minutes. Using oven mits, remove the bowl and empty the herbs into a plastic baggie. Press out the air or use a straw to suck the air out of the baggie and seal. You may now store your flash frozen herbs in the freezer.

[itch22]

If you have a sunny spot on a windowsill, you can grow a number of the herbs quite easily. Rosemary is profoundly easy--thrives on neglect. Basil is very easy in a pot. Herbs at the grocery store have been through the same supply chain as the other produce, so it's not right off the plant.

I've started this recently. My basil is thriving in the window, but my chives... my poor, poor chives... I could be charged with crimes against herb-kind if anyone saw the condition of my chives...

[HKDave]

Another method for preserving leafy herbs like basil is to chop them up with a little olive oil, then freeze. The oil helps herbs retain their colour and flavour, and you don't have to dry them first this way. Plus chopped they take up less space in my tiny freezer.

In Canada I used to buy a couple of big garbage bags full of basil from a grower at very low prices when it was in season, give it a quick chop in a food processor with the oil, freeze in ice cube trays, then wrap the cubes in plastic and ziploc. Fresh basil year round for cheap... just unwrap a cube when needed.

But in Hong Kong fresh basil costs about the same as crack, so we've got the plant on the windowsill, and it just gets used for insalata caprese and other dishes that really need it fresh. I've converted to rocket, instead of basil, for my pestos - it's great!

- Hong Kong Dave

[foodgeek]

I actually keep my fresh herbs in the friedge in ziplocks. One of the Union Sq herb vendors told me to do it, and it works.

I've hada lot of fun with fesh thyme in veggie dishes. Even in tomato sauce. Works w/fish as well.

[Mottmott]

While it's still cool enough to roast vegetables, use thyme (fresh or dried) scattered it over them as they roast (I also like to use rosemary which works well with thyme.

It's also wonderful to scatter some of the tender fresh leaves in salads along with other.

[hillvalley]

But in Hong Kong fresh basil costs about the same as crack,

I use up leftover herbs in omlettes or tossed over pasta with some olive oil and sauteed garlic.

[balmagowry]

Another method for preserving leafy herbs like basil is to chop them up with a little olive oil, then freeze.  The oil helps herbs retain their colour and flavour, and you don't have to dry them first this way.  Plus chopped they take up less space in my tiny freezer.

But a lot of herbs can be successfully frozen without this treatment. I have a fair-sized herb garden, and except for rosemary I haven't been growing herbs indoors at all for the past few years, so I preserve a good bit for winter use. Freezing is my favorite method: it's quick and convenient and yields much better results IMO. Herbs that freeze (and defrost) brilliantly include thyme, savory, rosemary, parsley, sage, tarragon, and most especially dill. Thyme, savory and rosemary: I prep them as I would for use in cooking, i.e. just pulling the leaves/spikes off the stems. Parsley: I freeze it chopped. Sage and tarragon: I freeze the leaves, whole. Dill weed: I freeze the fronds whole, in a sort of clump; then to use it I just snip from the end of the clump. I swear it tastes absolutely as if it were fresh-picked; the others damn near that. The chopped parsley lives in a little plastic vat; the others in zip-loc bags, taking up very little freezer space. I haven't had much success in freezing hyssop or lovage or oregano whole - but I suspect those would all lend themselves well to the same olive oil treatment as basil.

I know we discussed this recently on another thread - in this forum I think - can't remember what it was called, though. Anyone? Might even have been "Freezing Herbs."

Oh, and ginger - I always keep a big hunk of ginger root in my freezer. Freezing it does change the texture a bit, and over time you'll probably get some freezer burn at the ends (easily cut off), but after cooking you wouldn't know the difference. Also, frozen ginger actually works better than fresh for some purposes; I use a lot of it in my extreme Ginger Snepps, and grating it frozen means less of the fiber ends up in the batter.

[HKDave]

I had a look for that past freezing herbs thread without success...

I've tried freezing sage and rosemary without oil before, but found they quickly went black. It could be that the stuff I'm working with here isn't as fresh as from your garden. Most western herbs here are flown in from Australia, so at best they're picked a few days ago. The only locally grown herb seems to be parsley, but that I just buy fresh - it's available year round - at the insane price of about US 50 cents for less than 1 ounce! I'd love to be able to plant a herb garden but we're on the 27th floor, facing North, with another building about 3 feet away.

I agree on freezing ginger - it keeps forever that way. I keep it in a ziploc with the air pressed out, and don't even get much freezer burn.

[bleudauvergne]

Condensation started collecting inside the package and I started to worry.  Keep?  Toss?  Dry?

Hi Jennyuptown - I'd toss it in the freezer.

Herb bouquets are easy to make and great to use when working with stocks, soups and stews of all kinds. They are bundled together to keep them from getting skimmed off while broth making or the twigs getting all over the place in a stew. The bundle is removed at the end of cooking. They really infuse wonderful flavors. You can do them fresh or make up a bunch and let the whole bouquets dry out and use them dry. Instead of trying them up, you can use a big tea ball to hold them in. I make up different bouquets depending on what I'm cooking.

I wonder if you could also make up herb bouqets, spray em with pam, and toss them in the freezer ?? It's worth an experiement!

Bouquet garni: Parsley, thyme, bay leaves - it's the generic bouquet which I use in most everything.

I embellish the bouquet garni with sage when I am cooking pork, and when I make turkey broth.

Add Rosemary and mint sprigs to the bouquet - to go with with lamb.

Basil (note basil doesn't dry well in my experience) to just about everything, including chicken, for a special flavor. Basil is just amazing tossed fresh with pasta, olive oil, pine nuts, and tomatoes, with parmesean grated over.

I like to add dill to my fish stock and sometimes bundle this around a carrot when I'm making fish stock.

Tarragon can have a very distinctive flavor so I use it sparingly and most often with chicken.

When thyme is young and tender, I use it and the flowers fresh in salads. Basil is leaves are also very good in salads.

[cjsadler]

If you have a thyme plant, what's the best way to use it in recipes and still keep it healthy? Just pluck off the leaves, leaving the stems be or trim stems off and then pluck off the leaves?

As a followup, the stems of my thyme plant are green and tender, not hard and woody. I guess this is because it's a young plant (?) Can the stems be used too?

[JPW]

If you have a thyme plant, what's the best way to use it in recipes and still keep it healthy? Just pluck off the leaves, leaving the stems be or trim stems off and then pluck off the leaves?

As a followup, the stems of my thyme plant are green and tender, not hard and woody. I guess this is because it's a young plant (?) Can the stems be used too?

Cj,

My thyme did pretty well last year in our 100 % clay Montgomery county soil in a bed with about 4 inches of store bought soil on top.

Generally herbs do best with a stem trimming as it encourages further growth.

For your thyme, I would say that the use of the tender stem is fine. It may not add as much as the leaves, but it can't hurt. This would especially be the case if your using the thyme in a thick red sauce or as part of an herb crust on a roast.

For lighter sauces/dressings I try to be more careful about not getting stems in.

[mrbigjas]

If you have a thyme plant, what's the best way to use it in recipes and still keep it healthy? Just pluck off the leaves, leaving the stems be or trim stems off and then pluck off the leaves?

As a followup, the stems of my thyme plant are green and tender, not hard and woody. I guess this is because it's a young plant (?) Can the stems be used too?

cjsadler, I don't know where you're from, but around here (Philadelphia area), thyme grows like a weed and you don't need to worry about keeping it healthy. In fact, if I were you, I'd put it in a pot rather than the ground--my mom used to have it bordering her garden and she had to mow it back with a weedwhacker several times each summer.

I've had a thyme plant and a lemon thyme plant going in my backyard for three years now, in a pot, letting it sit out there and freeze every winter, and it just keeps coming back every year stronger than ever.

[mudbug]

If you have a thyme plant, what's the best way to use it in recipes and still keep it healthy? Just pluck off the leaves, leaving the stems be or trim stems off and then pluck off the leaves?

As a followup, the stems of my thyme plant are green and tender, not hard and woody. I guess this is because it's a young plant (?) Can the stems be used too?

Trim away... This goes for almost every herb. You can trim up to 2/3 of the plant (stems, not just leaves), leaving the bottom 1/3 to still allow for photosynthesis. It encourages new growth, don't be shy.

It is likely that your plant is young if all the stems are green, it could also a trait of the specific variety, with over 400 varieties of thyme, there's room for variation. When it get's woody, that is usally "last year's growth" but new shoots will come from that woody stem.

Stems, woody or not can be used in cooking. Usually the stems are discarded as they are unpleasant to chew on...

[loper]

I've always kept fresh herbs standing up in a glass with a little water in the fridge - sometimes with a loosely covering plastic bag over them. They are, after all, cut plants, right? I cut the stems first, as you would with flowers. Asparagus too...

[balmagowry]

I had a look for that past freezing herbs thread without success... 

Found it!

Freezing Dried Herbs

I've tried freezing sage and rosemary without oil before, but found they quickly went black.  It could be that the stuff I'm working with here isn't as fresh as from your garden. 

You know, thinking it over, I realize I may be hallucinating about the rosemary. I always have some growing, so maybe I haven't ever bothered to freeze it after all. I don't really have any reason to. Sage, though, is another story. And yes, it is very, very fresh when I freeze it, and the leaves have enough oils of their own to keep it from blackening in the freezer. It doesn't come out as perfectly as dill, but it's a whole lot better than dried!

I agree on freezing ginger - it keeps forever that way.  I keep it in a ziploc with the air pressed out, and don't even get much freezer burn.

Apparently it also has to do with how frost-free your freezer is. I keep my ginger in a ziploc too, and it stays intact for a long time, but eventually the dryness of my frost-free freezer gets to the ends....

[chromedome]

A willingness to experiment and compromise is sometimes required, too. I freeze sage because, even if it comes out ugly, it *tastes* like fresh sage...and fresh sage is a whole different thing than dried. With cilantro, I tend to freeze anything I don't use the first day; just because it doesn't hold very well and if I don't use it immediately I wind up sponging green slop out of the bottom of my fridge. Although frozen cilantro doesn't do a whole lot for your plate presentation, it tastes pretty good.

Here in Alberta, the air is dry enough that I don't have to put the herbs I'm drying anywhere in particular. I can hang them pretty much anywhere except the back of my stove. If I understand correctly DC can be pretty humid, so you may need to experiment a bit to find the best place in your own digs.