All About Fresh Herbs

We’ve all had a bunch of basil go slimy or a clamshell of rosemary turn black, and it can be frustrating. The best way to ensure your herbs last is to wash and dry them as soon as you get them home. A salad spinner is a great way to do this, but you can also dry them between layers of paper towels. For bunches of herbs with the stems still intact, like basil and parsley, the best way to store them is in a glass of water with the stems submerged but not the leaves, changing the water every few days. You can aso wrap the herbs in damp paper towels and store them in a sealed zipper-lock bag. For hardier herbs like thyme and rosemary just skip the paper towel. And when all else fails check out our technique videos to learn how to freeze herbs and dry them in the microwave.

It can be time consuming, we admit. This is the most efficient way to deal with it: for thyme with thick and woody stems, hold a few stems at the top, and run your other thumb and forefinger down the stem to pull away the leaves and smaller, tender offshoots. Allow the leaves and tender stems to fall onto the cutting board. For thyme with tender stems, use your chef’s knife to chop the leaves and stems together, working your way down to the tough bottom portions. Discard the tough portions, then gather the leaves in a pile and use your chef’s knife to mince the thyme, rocking the knife back and forth over the leaves.

It depends on the herb! In general, delicate herbs are best chopped or minced right before you add them to a dish, but most herbs can be prepped a few hours ahead with no ill effect. There are a few exceptions, however: cilantro becomes soapy tasting if chopped in advance; basil becomes slimy and blackens once chopped; a chopped scallion (not a true herb but often used like one) starts to release a noticeably slimy residue as it sits and, like cilantro, can develop a soapy flavor, so it's best to use these three immediately after chopping.

Sometimes, but not always. When a recipe calls for delicate herbs, it’s best to stick with fresh (as well as in all recipes that use herbs raw or to finish a dish). However, if a recipe calls for hardier herbs such as rosemary, oregano, sage, or thyme, their dried form can be an acceptable substitute. Just keep in mind that ounce for ounce, dried herbs are more potent than fresh. Our testing—in which we used only newly purchased jars of herbs—indicated that using 1 part dried herb to 3 parts fresh came closest to producing flavors of equal strength.