Freezing and preserving herbs

madmum33

Not sure the dehydrator is necessary - tie the fennel in bunches and hang somewhere dark but with a good through flow of air. Leave it about a week, checking the ties aren't too loose or it'll fall out, then if it crumbles it's dry

I've heard of people drying meat in one of those gadgets.

Zed42

Sigh, well I now know that fennel tea is made from the seeds and not the leaves.

Dried fennel leaves as tea ... taste rank!!!

Which is odd, because the fresh leaves steeped as tea the other day, tasted nice

So, now I need other uses for the fennel leaves? Anyone?!

madmum33

Stop harvesting the leaves and let the fennel flower! They have huge heads of yellow flowers, and eventually you'll get the seeds you need for fennel tea

DawnW

I am not sure about dried fennel leaves, but how about freezing them? Just chop it up and freeze with a little water in ice cube trays. No good for tea as pointed out above, but fine for sauces etc, just drop the required number of cubes in from frozen. Works for other herbs as well, and retains more of the flavour than dried ones which always seem a bit like dust to me.

By the way, your dried herbs are ready when you can crumble them easily. I don't have a Tchibo dehydrator, but things like herb leaves do not take as much as 7 hours in the one I have.

Stephen_Leak

Just dry herbs in the oven whilst its cooling down after being used for cooking something else - and sell the dehydrator on eBay!

butterfly72

Hi,
I've got loads of sage leaves left over from a burnt butter sage sauce I've made for my pumpkin ravioli. Yummy! Is there a way I can preserve them to use at a later date?

thanks!

DawnW

why not freeze them? Herbs freeze ok, and you can just crumble them straight from the freezer, no need to defrost before using.

Pink.

Hi butterfly,

Fresh sage leaves will keep in the fridge for about a week.

If you want to keep them for longer than that then drying or freezing is probably the best bet.

Pink

seashore321

Put them in the oven or under the grill on a drying tray on a very low heat for about an hour then put them in a sterilised sealed jar (jam jars are fine). When you put them back into the dish to cook they absorb the juices and plump up like new. Alternatively put them fresh into ice cube trays and freeze them. They have to be fully covered by water otherwise they burn through the cold and go off. Then just drop into whatever you are cooking and they dissolve slowly.

Scrummy. :j

catznine

Herbs can really help make a meal and are wonderful to have at hand especially when on a tight budget so this year I have planted up some herbs and after all the wet and warm weather of May they are doing really well. I guess quite a few of us have done the same.

Now I have the problems of storage, I have previously dried the herbs in the microwave but have heard that freezing them is better. How do I go about this? Do they have to be put in water or can I just freeze some herbs in a ziploc bag? Also how much of the herb can I safely harvest at one time without harming the plant? Lastly any ideas for using them up? This year I am growing oregano, parsley, coriander, fennel, bay, sage, mint and thyme and so far they are all doing well.