Top Tips For Cooking With Herbs

By cooking with herbs, even your simple meals will take like you slaved in the kitchen for hours. While it’s fairly easy to cook with fresh herbs, there are some tips that will help you get the most flavor. Once you start cooking with herbs, you will love cooking with herbs… and may even enjoy your own garden!

Tips for Cooking with Fresh Herbs:

Fresh herbs are more delicate than dried and can lose their flavor if cooked too long. To enjoy the most intense flavor when cooking with fresh herbs, you can add them towards the end of the cooking time. You can also add a little of the herbs freshly chopped to your food when you are finished cooking, and put aside some for garnishing the platter as well. You will want to use more fresh herbs than dried since drying herbs concentrates their oils and flavor. A good rule is to use one tablespoon of fresh herbs for every teaspoon of dried herbs called for in a recipe.

Fresh herbs can lose their flavor rapidly and should be used as quickly after harvesting as possible. For the finest flavor when cooking with herbs that are fresh is to grow your own. If you use store bought, try to find plants that still have their bright green color and do not appear wilted. The fresher the herb plant appears, the better the flavor they will add to your food.

Cooking with herbs that have big leaves, like basil, is easy because the leaves can be torn and tossed into a sauce, soup or salad. Another technique for cooking with herbs that have large leaves is to chop the leaves in a method called “chiffonade”. This is not hard and creates pretty strings that can be added to your recipe or tossed in for attractive color and flavor.

Tips for Cooking with Dried Herbs.

Keep in mind your dried herbs have intensified aromatic oils because of the drying procedure. You need to use a reduced amount of dried than fresh, but you still want to draw out their flavor and fragrance.

A good way to release the flavor of dried herbs is to include some to the oil in your pan prior to sautéing your meat or vegetables. Another method is to soak them in the liquid that will be used for your cooking. When creating your own salad dressings, it’s a helpful idea to make them in advance (at least 15 minutes) to allow time for the flavor to infuse with the oil and other ingredients in your salad dressing or marinade.

Another tip for dried herbs is to crush them with a mortar and pestle or roll them in your hands before adding them to your cooking. Slightly crushing and breaking up the dried herbs will release their oils and add better flavor when cooking with herbs.

You want to be sure to keep your herbs, whether fresh or dried, in a way that best protects their aroma and flavor. Fresh herbs need to be used as promptly as possible. One good way to store fresh herbs is to stand them up in a container of water with the bottom of their stems in the water. Keep the leaves out of the water because they will spoil.

Be sure to check the expiration dates of any dried herbs you buy because they lose their flavor after about six months. For superior flavor and aroma, try cooking with your own fresh or dried herbs that have been harvested from your own garden.

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