fbpx
COOK
SHOP
Magnifying glass search icon
Baseboard page divider

How to Dry and Store Herbs

Not sure what to do with all those leftover herbs after the holidays? Dry and store them, of course. Here’s how.

Grocery shopping for the holidays can be an exhausting endeavor that often leads to over-purchasing and dreaded food waste. While it’s easy to repurpose roast turkey into turkey salad or use extra whipped potatoes to top shepherd’s pie, leftover herbs are another story…

Instead of tossing the excess, why not dry them for another use? Believe it or not, learning how to dry and store herbs at home is really not that hard.

Technically, any herb can be dried, but heartier herbs like oregano, thyme, and rosemary tend to hold on to their essential oils even after they’ve given up most of their moisture. That said, chives, parsley, and even dill are worth drying if you plan to use them within a month or so.

The biggest problem with dried herbs is that they’re usually ugly and brown. That’s because as they age, enzymes inside the leaves break down the chlorophyll. But this chemical terminator can be stopped with a quick dip in boiling water.

Here’s how we do it:

PROCEDURE

Bring a pot of water to a boil and blanch the herbs for 15 seconds. Immerse in an ice bath for 30 seconds, then drain and spin the herbs dry in a salad spinner.

Spread the herbs out as evenly as possible on three air-conditioning filters, stacking them on top of one another. Top these with one more empty air-conditioning filter. Lay a box fan on its side and set the filters on top of it.

Strap the filters to the fan with two bungee cords. Stand the fan upright, plug it in and turn it on high. Dry for 12 hours. Rotate the filters and continue drying for 12 more hours.

When dry, remove the herbs from the filters, crumble and remove the stems, and store in an airtight container in a cool, dry place. You can either keep them in separate containers or mix them to create your own custom seasoning blend. You’re welcome.

How to Dry and Store Herbs

RECIPES

Need a direction for your dried herbs? Try these appetizing applications:

Chicken Parmesan
Dried oregano and dried parsley brighten up the crisp, breadcrumb coating in our reimagined Chicken Parmesan recipe.

Meatloaf: Reloaded
Dried thyme brings earthy flavor to our smoky and saucy Meatloaf: Reloaded recipe.

Oyster Poor Boy
Dried parsley ties together a flavorful slaw that perfectly complements this fried Oyster Poor Boy sandwich.

Save

Save

How to Cut Parchment Paper for a Round Pan

Although it’s nothing more than paper dipped in sulfuric acid (which renders it all but impermeable to grease and heat) and coated in silicone (which makes Teflon look sticky), parchment paper is something I just can’t live without.

It does everything wax paper can and so much more.

It’s the ultimate cookie pan-liner: Newborn cookies fresh from the oven are amazingly vulnerable to physical mishandling. By lining your pans with parchment you can simply pull the paper off, cookies and all, allowing them to cool on racks or the counter unmarred by spoon or spatula. I use parchment paper as a makeshift sling to easily remove brownies from their pan and to shape mini-burger patties.

Even cheesecake can be easily de-panned simply by placing a strip of parchment around the inner wall and a round in the bottom of a basic cake pan. Here’s how to cut it:

Keep reading

Coffee Owner’s Manual: Reloaded

Unsurprisingly, the key to brewing a better cup of coffee at home is the way you treat your beans. Because you only get out what you keep in.

Look, I’ve got 20 years of coffee drinking on the guy who originally wrote this article. And we know a lot more about coffee today than we did a few decades ago, so it only seems right to update, repair, and renovate the groundwork for a better cup of coffee.

PURCHASING

  • Buy whole beans in small pouches — only what you’ll use in a week. Coffee beans are like wine, once the air is in, time starts ticking away. Honestly, even if you keep the bag’s factory seal intact and stash it away from heat, peak quality will begin to dissipate after three weeks.
  • Neither the refrigerator nor the freezer is an acceptable option for storing beans. Condensation is even worse for coffee beans than air contact.
  • Beware beans in open bins, where light, air, and moisture can degrade quality.
  • Depending on who you ask, there are between three and 25 roast styles. Some roasters only deal in light, medium, and dark, while others might go light, medium, medium-dark, then dark. If you go really crazy, you could say light, cinnamon, New England, American, medium or “city,” full city, French, Italian, and Spanish, which basically means burned. If you want to taste the bean, I say go light to medium. And remember, caffeine levels drop as the roast level darkens.

Keep reading

10 Knife-Buying Tips

No tools define a cook more than his or her knives. Why do you think we carry them around in rolls instead of hauling backpacks full of pots and pans? Exactly.

Pictured above are some of my personal favorites, including two Murray Carter knives, two Cut Brooklyn knives, and one very old Sabatier knife. All are made of carbon steel which can be sharpened to near light saber sharpness. They tend to discolor, however, and require more sharpening. The bottom is a good example of a nakiri, and the second from the top is a utility knife with a santoku-style tip.

Get my knife-buying tips

X

Leaving so soon?

Before you go, check out what’s new in the Alton Brown Shop!