I just did this with some Thyme that I had in the back of the fridge, but it reminded me to share one of my favorite frugal cooking tips.
How many times have you bought a bundle of herbs at the store only to need them for a few leaves of Parsley or a sprig of Rosemary and left the rest to go bad and eventually be tossed?
It used to feel like such a waste of money to buy fresh herbs until I learned a very obvious trick: before they go bad, dry the rest of your herbs out to keep them around indefinitely.
The important thing is to try and remove as much moisture from the herbs as possible before you store them, otherwise they will go bad. Also weed out any yellowed leaves or other moldy plant material, there's no flavor in these bits and they will end up ruining the rest of the batch. For some herbs, like Thyme, the drying process can happen in the fridge. Just wait around until the Thyme leaves are brittle enough to be combed off the branches.
For other leafier herbs, take a baking sheet lined with paper towel and pluck the herb off the stalks. Then arrange the leaves and let them sit in the oven for a while (keep the oven off of course, we're not trying to start a fire). After a day or two of drying out you should be left with some nice crispy leaves perfect for use in your future recipes.
Don't use a microwave for this as it will kill the flavor of the herbs. I store my dried herbs in plastic baggies or small glass containers in a cool dry cabinet. They'll keep flavor for about a year or two, they shouldn't ever go "bad" if you've preserved them correctly, they'll just lose flavor over time. Now instead of buying a $4 jar of McCormick's seasoning you can have your own version, hand-crafted, for about $1.
September 16, 2017 at 11:33AM
