Freezing Herbs

Ingredients

None

Preparation

The best guide I've seen to freezing, drying, canning, and otherwise preserving all manner of foods is _Stocking Up_ by Carol Hupping:

In it is excellent advice on freezing fresh herbs for later use.

Basically, you should blanch the herbs for a few seconds before freezing.

The Rodale Food Center did some testing, comparing herbs blanched before freezing and those not. Here were some of the results:

BASIL: Basil frozen raw darkened to a drab grayish-green and turned somewhat bitter, losing much of its lovely aroma. But when it was blanched in water before freezing, it stayed green (although darker than when fresh) and was flavorful and aromatic. Surprisingly, steam blanching was not as successful.

DILL: The blanched sample was far superior to the raw, frozen one: It was more tender, brighter green, and more flavorful. Instructions for freezing fresh herbs are to:1. Wash if visibly dirty

2. Hold by stems with tongs and dip into boiling water briefly, swishing around. Remove when color brightens.

3. Cool by holding under cold running water and blotting dry with towls or let them air cool.

4. Remove stems and either leave whole or chop

5. Lay out flat on waxed paper, roll up or fold paper if you have a small freezer. You want to freeze the herbs so they are not touching each other.

6. Freeze.

Can be used frozen or thawed in frige for a week.

Alternatively, you can freeze herbs into ice cubes. Remove stems and chop, place in trays, cover with water, and freeze. You can use pre-blanched herbs or just pour boiling water into the trays over the herbs. These herbed cubes can be used later when you are preparing stoups, just throw a frozen cube or two into the soup.

The book says that while frozen herbs won't taste or look quite like fresh ones, most will come very close.