Drying Herbs and Freezing Herbs
The abundance of an herb garden can be overwhelming at times. There is only so much pesto one can make and being wasteful is so not cool. The best thing to be done is to preserve those herbs for later use. Drying herbs is very easy and, once dried, they keep for a while. Crumble them up and store them in small bags or glass jars.
Freezing herbs is also easy to do. Some herbs like basil lend themselves better to freezing because of the moisture content of the leaves. To dry these a dehydrator is recommended. If you don’t have one, then freezing makes sense. Sure, you can go buy a dehydrator, but it seems like a large investment for just herbs. I don’t know about you, but I can’t make that much beef jerky to justify the cost either. You can dry the herbs in the oven, too, but that seems like a bit much and if you are not careful your dried herbs will have a nice roasted note to them.
Drying herbs is simple. Just hang them upside down in little bunches held together with rubber bands and hang inside a bag. I like to use the bags that my grocery store’s deli uses to package bread. You know, the kind covered with tiny holes. These allow for air to move in and out well enough to dry the herbs, but still protect them from the elements (I admit I could do a better job dusting). The bag also acts as the catch all should the leaves break as they dry. It will take a few days depending on the internal weather conditions. You can use a brown bag with some holes punched in it, too
For freezing, I simply clean the herbs and freeze them on a sheet pan. When they are frozen I transfer them to a ziploc bag. When I am ready to use them I collect what I need and use them straight away. Or I chop the herbs after cleaning, put them in an ice cube tray, add water then freeze. Simply defrost,drain and use as needed. The ice cube trick is nice as it makes for a simple portion system.
Salt and Sugar
If I have a lot of herbs, I also like to preserve the flavor of the herbs with salt or sugar. By packing the fresh herbs in salt or sugar, the flavor is transferred and you are left with tasty sugar and salt. The salt and sugar are powerful enough to pull the moisture and the flavor from the whole leaves. Pour salt or sugar over a bunch of fresh herbs in a glass jar. Every few days, stir it up a little with a butter knife. Continue to do this until the leaves and salt or sugar are dry and the flavor is well infused. It will be a week and a half at least.
Using sugar is perfect for herbs like mint or tarragon. The same can be said for used vanilla bean pods. A minty or liquorice sugar can be used in a any number of baking application plus coffee, tea or other hot beverages. It is absolutely delicious sprinkled on grapefruit! Go out on a sprig and try something different like sage or rosemary. Who knows what you might discover with sweet rosemary.
Another trick with sugar is to boil 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup water until the sugar is dissolved. Add a bunch of herbs and continue to boil for 10 minutes. Remove it from the heat and let it steep for a few hours. Store it in a sealed container in the fridge. Flavored simple syrups are perfect for hot beverages, toddies, or cocktails. As for choice of herbs – the sky is the limit. Even a spicy pepper syrup could be fun in tea or cocktails.
Flavored salt can be used for all kind of cooking, too like finishing a dish with an extra hit of accent flavor or even to rim cocktail glasses. Plus, homemade, flavored salt or sugar makes a great gift for your foodie friends.
You can also chop the herbs, mix them with salt, spread on a baking sheet and bake it in a low oven – 200F- until it is dry about 1.5-2 hours. Store the mix in an airtight container.
Other Dessicants
The salt and sugar act as desiccants, essentially grabbing water and making the conditions such that mold or other baddies can’t grow. It is a great preservation technique that has been used since the beginning of time. But are there other edible desiccants that can be used to grab the moisture and flavor? Two come to mind – corn meal and, one I have discovered, instant grits. I layer the herbs in the grits, stir daily, and allow them to pass on their flavor. Herby grits are delicious at either breakfast for dinner. Cook them up as directed and yum!
I hope your herb garden is plentiful!
Keep Eating! Keep Innovating!
How do you preserve your herbs? Let us know all about it in the comments or on Facebook.
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