Drying Fresh Herbs
A collection of garden herbs from my patio container gardens.
Whether you grow them yourself or buy a bundle from a market, herbs impart flavors to foods that are next to impossible to mimic. A person cooking for one can enjoy the pleasures of herbs as easily as someone cooking for a large family.
Under the warm summertime sun, herbs grow at weed-like rates, and there are plenty to be had just by snipping off a few leaves or stems. You can preserve these flavor-fused clippings by one of the oldest, and simplest, means of food preservation: drying.
Drying herbs requires very work other than that done by the hands of time. There are some tricks mentioned by others to expediate this process through drying the herbs such as baking them at a very low temperature in an oven or even microwaving them. I find this practice yields uneven results. An attentive eye must discern how quickly the leafy herbs do from crisply dried to an unfixable scorched brown.
Although you can dry almost any herb, some herbs retain their signature flavor better, in my opinion, through other means. A good example of this is basil which can be very conveniently frozen.
When you dry food, herbs in this case, you are simply removing the vast majority of the water content within the food. When food is dried, it shrinks in volume. That's why a lot of grapes are needed to make raisins. Any quantity will work in drying herbs, but keep this fact in mind about how much fresh herbs you will need because you are cooking for one person. You probably don't want to lengthen your waiting time by adding more water. However, a very light sprinkling under water is the first call of order.
How to dry fresh herbs for one person
Most fresh herbs appear outwardly clean. It is a good idea to very lightly wash them under a small stream of running water to remove any unseen dust, dirt, or even tiny resident insects. This is also a time to pluck off any dead leaves, as a fresh, dead leaf won't taste any better than a dried, dead leaf. If you leave the herbs damp while hanging to dry, you may run the risk of them turning slightly moldy or off-tasting.
Next, you must dry off the washed herbs. This can be done lazily by placing them on a clean, cotton kitchen towel with a summer breeze blowing. You can take a small handful and place it in a salad spinner to hasten the removal of water. Or you could have some fun and place the herbs in the middle of the cotton towel. Gather up the four corners with the herbs now in the pouch you created, raise your hand with the towel and swing it around like a lasso! The centripetal force will pull the water to the towel.
Once the herbs have been dried off, now you will need some very advanced and technical equipment: string, rubber bands, and a coat hanger!
Choose a closet or tall cupboard or other area that is dark/shady, dry, lacks strong odors, and has somewhere to hang a coat hanger. This is where your herbs will live for the next 2 weeks or so.
A bundle of rosemary ready to be tied with string
Bundle each type of herb together near the base of the stem (cut portion) very tightly with a rubber band.
Estimate how much space your drying area has for the herbs to hang. The herbs will be like upside down trapeze artists! Each herb should hang a little higher or lower from its neighboring herbs.
Take a piece of string at a suitable length and tie it tightly around the rubber banded area. Tie the other end to the bottom bar of the coat hanger that runs from one shoulder to the other.
Hang up your herb bundles, and let nature take its course. You can check on them from time to time. Depending upon the humidity, temperature, water content of your herbs, it can take 2-3 weeks for them to thoroughly dry.
To test, a dried herb leaf should be crispy and crackle easily into very tiny parts. The stems should be stiff and crispy. There should be no soft or flexible pieces.
Tied to a coat hanger, these fresh herbs are ready to be placed in a dry, shady closet to dry.
Once the drying is completed, remove the herbs from their strings. Working with one herb at a time, Run your index and thumb down the step from tip to the cut base. The leaves should all come off with very little effort. You can leave the leaves more or less whole, or you can chop them up finely. I prefer to keep them intact as it better preserves their flavor.
Place in small, labelled jars, keep them in a cupboard, and use them within a year. Learn more about herbs and spices and how to use them.