My dear friend Amy was both excited and overwhelmed by her herb harvest yesterday.
"WHAT DO I DO WITH ALL THIS?!"
She’s got oregano, rosemary, and basil. So I thought now would be a good time for a post on preserving herbs.
Drying
The best way to dry herbs is at room temperature. Tie them into small bouquets and hang them upside down in a cool, dry, dark place that gets some air circulation. Store them as whole leaves in an airtight container — zip plastic bag is fine, canning jars work too — and crush them when you use them. I’ve also dried them on a wire cooling rack, when I was afraid they wouldn’t get enough circulation in bunches.
In a very humid climate, you can dry herbs in the oven, but it’s really a last resort because you’ll lose more of their oils this way. Place on a cookie sheet and bake at 180degF with the door open for 2-3 hours or until they’re done.
Freezing
For stalky herbs like oregano and rosemary (and dill and thyme) you can simply put the whole stalks in zip sandwich bags and freeze them. For leafier herbs, pluck or cut the leaves first, then place in bags and freeze. Don’t worry about chopping them — they’ll be easier to chop when frozen anyhow.
Extra Credit
However, if you’re looking for something to do, or you simply want to make it easier for yourself when cooking, you can chop herbs and place them in ice-cube trays and cover with a little water or stock. When frozen, pop out of the trays and store in a big freezer bag. I do this with peppers, too: one or two of those cubes in whatever crockpot meal you’re making is delicious and a huge help.
One of my super favoritest things ever is to make pesto and freeze THAT.
Pesto pops for everyone!
Back when we used to be able to get Gulf shrimp, one of these pesto cubes thawed with a little white wine made a perfect marinade. I’ve used it on chicken too and it’s really delightful. Freezing keeps all that sunshiny flavor locked away, and when you take it out in January it’s like a little reminder that summer really will come again.
I hope this helps, Amy!
I actually meant to ask you something like this yesterday. How do you store your non-frozen, non-drying basil? We’ve been getting it in the CSA and I’ve been dutifully trimming the ends and sticking it in a glass of water, but it still wilts within 2 days. I’ve also tried plucking the leaves and putting it in the fridge, but it gets brown and slimy. I remember you had a big bin of basil in your fridge last summer, so what’s the trick?
I have the same problem with our CSA basil. The big bin we had was from our garden and it would last, at least a week and often longer. I would even pack it in plastic zip bags, stems wrapped in wet paper towels, and give some out at work days latter. Nobody had trouble with it wilting fast and those who also had CSA boxes wondered what the difference was.
I guess it has to be the difference in what goes on between the picking and it going into the fridge. Here I have the luxury of that distance only being a few feet. At the farm – I wonder how long it stays in different degrees of heat, how long it has been off the plant, etc.
I’m still going to be trying voodoo magic to see if I can get our CSA basil to stay fresh longer.
At least the animals will eat it. :)
Thank you! These are great ideas! I’m going to try all of them at some point this summer if my plants keep producing like this.
I guess I’ll need to dry the oregano on cooling racks since I didn’t realize I should cut them in long stalks. Do you think my sieve colander would work? Am I supposed to cover with a paper bag or anything? There is too much competing information on the interwebs.
As for the basil, that’s already earmarked for pesto omgrightnow. My mom will be in town next week and I’m pretty sure she’s never had pesto that’s not out of a McCormick seasoning packet. Then again, real pesto might be wasted on someone who would enjoy anything out of a McCormick seasoning packet…
YOU blew my mind. I’m pretty new to cooking and always end up throwing out herbs after just using a tablespoon or two chopped. Thank you for teaching me the ways :) Grabbing this for my second round up post :)
I have the same problem with basil not keeping. The only solution I can come up with is to make lots and lots of pesto as quickly as possible. I never thought of using the pesto in a marinade–I will definitely try that!
One of my in-laws likes to use a little curry powder as a “secret ingredient” in pesto sauce. It tastes good, but I still prefer the traditional stuff.
I think the colander would work fine. Some sites say to cover with a paper bag, but I’m most worried about air circulation (more worried than I am about making a mess, anyhow) so I don’t.
You can spoil your mom for her McCormick’s forever! Good riddance to that stuff!
The curry powder never would have occurred to me! I’ll have to try it in a small batch first. Thanks!
What a fantastic idea to freeze the pesto in the ice cube trays!!!!!
We had pesto-cube mania last summer. Really, ‘tho? I could eat fresh homemade pesto by the spoonful – all that green goodness. :)
Alton Brown’s system for drying herbs is to sandwich them between the paper filters for an AC, then strap that onto a box fan so it draws the air through. I did it with dill, though I didn’t have the filters, so I used cheesecloth instead, and despite the horrible humidity here it worked quite well.
[...] How to preserve your fresh herbs [...]
Thanks, thats quite useful stuff to know! I must admit I’m a bit useless in the kitchen, but I’m trying my best to learn. Admitting is the first step to recovery right!!? I promised to cook something for my wife this weekend for the first time – very exciting! I found some simple recipes at this website, seems to be designed exactly for people like me, which is fantastic! Anyway, thanks for your tips, I’ll be sure to bookmark your site to read more.
This looks so yummy!
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