Say I have a bunch or basil, thyme, oregano, parsly or sage. I want to give it a slight drying, then i want to package it in a small, 4oz mason type jar.
How do i get it to seal without degrading the herbs? Heat could be a detriment to the process unless , slow and low.
Cut whole stems of the herbs and hand them upside down in bunches in an airy place, out of direct sunlight until the leaves are crispy and can be crumbled away from the stems - then strip them onto a sheet of paper and curl it to tip the leaves into the jars.
You want to be really sure that they’re fully dry, or they will go mouldy in the jar.
I dry herbs and wild mushrooms for storage and I have lost them to residual moisture before - so I now use empty Douwe Egberts instant coffee jars - and stuff the lid with silica gel sachets (details here)
Some herbs are better frozen than dried.
Roesemary, sage, thyme, oregano and other ‘twiggy’ herbs usually dry pretty well - in fact, some are intensified by drying, if it’s done properly.
Basil, Parsley, coriander/cilantro, chives and other moist ‘leafy’ herbs don’t dry so well, unless you have access to freeze-drying equipment. For these, it’s often recommended to chop them up finely, pack into ice cube trays and top off with cold water, then freeze them - they can be turned out into a bag and stored in the freezer, so you get your ice cube tray back.
Thank you Mange… The info was useful, thats why i post here.
I heated my jars in the oven to 185 degrees F… cooled them a bit… to about 120F. Inserted herbs i wanted to save and loosely tightened lid. Placed in freezer to “pull the seal” tight.
all is well…
again, thanks.
I’m a little confused - if you fully dry the herbs, the jars shouldn’t need to be sterilised (although it wouldn’t harm) - this, and the term ‘slight drying’ you used in the thread starter, makes me wonder if you’re trying to package the herbs in a moist state - are you?
You can also freeze the herbs in olive (or other veg) oilinstead of water. Serious Eats considered it better in their taste test than water-frozen herbs, FWIW.
I would dry them thoroughly (I’ve used my oven for bunches of mint – very low and spent most of a day). That was years ago, and I still have maybe a tablespoon left. Never got moisture in the jar, so still good. I read somewhere to seal the jar, then check it every day for condensation – if there isn’t any, hooray! You can try leaving the leaves as whole as possible before storing (a bit hard as they get crumbly).
I’ve tried freezing herbs in oil, but it didn’t freeze as solid as water, which made it a bit messy and not quite what I wanted.