How to make Your Own Dried Herbs — simple to do and a great way to use up all the leftover fresh herbs from the season.
I love making dishes with fresh herbs. During the spring, I love using a pallet to make an herb garden. Then, in the summer, and fall, I use fresh straight from my garden all season long.
When it starts to turn cold, I bring in all the remaining herbs and tie them in bundles and make my own dried herbs. Here's how I do that.
How to Dry Fresh Herbs
Herbs such as sage, thyme, summer savory, dill, bay leaves, oregano, rosemary, cilantro and marjoram are sturdy, low-moisture herbs that do well by drying in the open — such as air drying.
Chives are best frozen. For this method, I just add them straight into a ziploc seal bag and then seal them for freshness until I need them.
Basil, tarragon, lemon balm and the mints have a high moisture content and will mold if not dried quickly. The perfect way to dry them is right in your own oven .
When you dry your own herbs, you can guarantee that they're fresh, whereas some store-bought ones may have been sitting around for a long time before you add them to your cart.
Once you dry out your herbs, you can chop them up by grinding them, use a mortar and pestle, or by doing it my favorite way — using Herb Scissors like these I got from Select Culinary.
The Select Culinary™ 5-Blade Herb Scissors is a set of five stainless steel blades on the body of the scissors. This allows you to effortless start snipping, cutting, and chopping in no time at all.
A simple snip with this is equal to five chops with a normal knife. These herb scissors five blade are equipped with a cleaning comb. It works as a protective guard and can easily free any herbs stuck to the steel.
How to Store Dried Herbs
Store the home-dried herbs in glass bottles like these. When storing, decide if you want to save the whole leaf or crumble it up. For some items such as basil or mint, it's easiest to crush the leaves. The benefit of keeping the leaves whole is you get a little more fragrance when you crush them as needed.
Recipes That Use Fresh and Dried Herbs
How do you preserve herbs?
Kathleen Bailey
Wednesday 17th of December 2014
What a great idea! I like the idea of freezing chives, but would I chop them first? That seems to make the most sense for me.
Mistee Dawn
Wednesday 17th of December 2014
I have always wanted to do this but have been intimidated. Thanks for the tips. I will definitely try it now.
Janel
Wednesday 17th of December 2014
Those scissors are incredibly cool! We grow herbs, and just attempt to dice them.
Brett
Wednesday 17th of December 2014
those herb scissors are awesome!! we grow several herbs here and my old kitchen shears aren't cutting it anymore (pun intended)
Jesica H
Tuesday 16th of December 2014
I want those scissors like yesterday!