What herbs should I buy dried vs fresh?

September 29, 2005 9:44 AM

What herbs should I buy dried vs fresh?

I like to use herbs/spices for cooking. Things like parsley, basil, bay leaves, thyme, cuming, tarragon, rosemary, oregano, ginger, black pepper, cayenne pepper, and garlic are what I have on hand. Which of these should I get dried instead of fresh? fresh herbs usually cost a lot more since they only last at most 2 weeks and I only cook for myself. From my experience, the dried oregano is decent, but the dried parsley or flaky garlic don't have any taste. Fresh parsley is actually pretty cheap so I think I'll be getting that fresh from now on. So is there a rule or table for these herbs somewhere? Or someone can tell me from personal experience? And a side question - what are some good uses for (or ways to store) fresh tarragon and parsley (other than pesto sauce) before mine goes bad?

posted by lpctstr; to home & garden (37 comments total)

Almost all green leafy herbs are better fresh, much better. They are also much more expensive and easily wasted if you do not plan well. An herb garden, even an inside one, is a great way to have a constant supply of fresh herbs.
posted by caddis at 9:55 AM on September 29, 2005

Any sort of pepper, and the cumin, you'll obviously stick with dried, and I tend to use dried thyme when I'm just doing daily cooking for myself. Buy everything else (especially the garlic! No garlic flakes!) fresh, but buy it only when you think you're going to need it -- there's no point in having all that fresh on hand if you're not going to use it.

Though you could plant an herb garden, which would solve much of the problem.

I use enough Italian parsley that I buy that fresh almost every week and just toss whatever's left when it goes bad. (Which reminds me -- buy flat-leaf Italian parsley, not the curly stuff.) Ditto with garlic, which lasts a loooong time and is cheap. Everything else just depends on what I'm cooking -- you could try to plan a few nights' meals around a particular herb if you're worried about wasting it.
posted by occhiblu at 9:58 AM on September 29, 2005

I'm going to dissent on the pepper comment. Chili peppers are much better freshed and finely diced then chili powder.

Also, fresh ginger is significantly better than the powdered kind.
posted by allen.spaulding at 10:01 AM on September 29, 2005

Fresh in Bold.
parsley, basil, bay leaves, thyme, cumin, tarragon, rosemary, oregano, ginger*, black pepper, cayenne pepper, and garlic are what I have on hand. Which of these should I get dried instead of fresh.
*Ginger can be frozen to great effect.

If you are going to dry them, realize that you have about a month's worth of flavor. After that, eh. So usually buying big things of dried herbs is wasteful too.
Oh, and I don't know about taragon. I don't use it often, and left it alone.
posted by klangklangston at 10:01 AM on September 29, 2005

I'd second Caddis' suggestion about growing your own. I was initially skeptical, but we managed to grow herbs very nicely in small pots on the inside window of our small apartment.

By the way, I've discovered that organic dried herbs are usually cheaper for some reason than the McCormick herbs you can generally buy in the grocery store. Those little glass bottles tend to be incredibly expensive.

On preview: I also second occhiblu. Fresh garlic makes an ENORMOUS difference.
posted by selfnoise at 10:01 AM on September 29, 2005

You can also freeze most store-bought herbs to keep them fresh...they don't look as nice (for garnish), but their flavor will hold up
posted by unccivil at 10:02 AM on September 29, 2005

Chili peppers are better fresh, but cayenne is really not generally something you have to worry about with that. And fresh cumin seeds are much, much better than dried ground ones (use your spice grinder!)
posted by klangklangston at 10:02 AM on September 29, 2005

The only herb I find is ok to use dried is rosemary, which is a spiky plant in the wild which can thrive in dry-ish conditions. Leafy herbs don't dry well and lose flavour.

Growing herbs indoors is not as difficult as you might think. Basil, especially, loves a sunny windowsill.

Garlic paste is usually available in supermarkets. It's much nicer than the dried stuff. But real garlic bulbs keep for ages anyway.

To store fresh herbs you can chop them up, put them in an ice-cube tray, top up with water and freeze, then just add an ice-cube or two to the recipe when needed.
posted by essexjan at 10:06 AM on September 29, 2005

I've found basil, thyme, tarragon, oregano, and rosemary to be good dried. You could buy cumin pods (balls? corns?) and black pepper corns instead of the pre-ground dried versions and get more mileage from grinding yourself. I've found ground ginger to be potent, but I haven't cooked with fresh ginger in awhile to compare. For garlic I buy the Sam's Club-sized jar of minced garlic and it seems to be flavorful with the added bonus of having a lot of garlic juice (and then buying fresh when I need whole cloves). Of course, fresh basil and rosemary are also good for some things where the dried equivalent just doesn't cut it, usually sandwiches and salads for basil, and roasting large cuts of meats for rosemary (the stem is rather useful).

Also, I've heard that you can freeze fresh herbs, but I haven't tried this myself.

For deciding how to use particular herbs, Gernot Katzer's Spice Pages are really the definitive source on herbs.
posted by artifarce at 10:13 AM on September 29, 2005

Hot peppers of many varieties freeze well and they are easier to chop when frozen. I am much less impressed with the flavor of frozen leafy herbs, and their texture is killed. They are fine for soups and stews and other dishes where the texture doesn't matter.
posted by caddis at 10:13 AM on September 29, 2005

All herbs taste better fresh. If growing your own isn't something that interests you, maybe you could start an little herb co-op or something - share the herbs with a few other people to cut down on waste and cost.
posted by iconomy at 10:25 AM on September 29, 2005

Thanks for all the great responses.

I don't have any room or much time for growing herbs (and to be honest not that interested) so I think I'll stick with store bought.

From reading these my plan is to have these dried:
thyme, oregano, cuming, bay leaves, and peppers

and these fresh:
parsley, garlic, ginger, basil

and I'll buy these fresh when I need them since I use them sparringly:
tarragon, rosemary
posted by lpctstr; at 10:40 AM on September 29, 2005

I'm woth those who say "all herbs fresh". Spices -- generally, things that come from bark or seeds (cumin, coriander, cinnamon, allspice, pepper, crushed red pepper) hold up well for about a year - no longer, since the volatile oils which carry aroma and flavor will evaporate over time. Buy them as whole pieces and grind them yourself for best flavor.

The herbs -- plants in which you use the leaf, stem or flower as the flavoring agent -- are all best fresh. Growing herbs is incredibly easily, and will bring you this odd sense of abundance -- as much as you want! Whenever you want! No more paying $2 for the anemic bunch at the grocer. I grow basil, thai basil, several kinds of thyme, oregano, rosemary, lavender. dill, bay, several sages, cilantro, and mints. Not at all hard. And you'll find you incoporate more herbs into your cooking in your quest to use the abundance. You'll also find that there's almost no point ever using dried herbs after that, since they're practically flavorless by comparison. My main exceptions are dried oregano, rosemary, and thyme, which carries enough flavor, even after drying, to be discernible in sauces. But even then, they are pale shadows of their fresh versions.

When you grow herbs, you can freeze them easily, with good results. I pulverize mine in a food processor and freeze them in small containers. Many people use ice cube trays for this. When you need it, you can unfreeze a small amount, and you'll find the flavor is still bright, although the texture becomes mushy, because the liquid within the plant cells freezes and bursts the cell walls, breaking down the structure. One exception: cilantro. It doesn't freeze well at all.
posted by Miko at 10:48 AM on September 29, 2005

I think that cilantro, parsley, and mint are particularly horrible dried. Dried basil and tarragon are okay, but I find them both a bit bitter in their dry forms. Rosemary does well dried. Thyme and oregano and marjoram hold up surpringly well. Spices in general are better candidates for using dry than herbs. Ginger, pepper, cayenne, cumin, coriander, etc. are all okay.

I keep a jar of chopped garlic in oil in the 'fridge for when I'm too lazy to fuss with cloves. I actually keep ginger in the freezer, wrapped well, and grate (skin and all) with the microplane. Voila, fresh ginger all the time.

My attempts to freeze herbs resulted in gross, slimy failures.
posted by desuetude at 10:53 AM on September 29, 2005

Dried mint (when used in proper quantity) can lend a good, subtle flavor. I like to use it in an onion-tomato-ground beef sauce that's served over egg noodles that have been tossed in yogurt, lemon, and garlic.
posted by rxrfrx at 10:56 AM on September 29, 2005

I've bought pre-frozen herbs before (because the grocery store was out of fresh), and they were gross and slimy in the packaging, and worked like fresh herbs in the food. Maybe you had gross, slimy successes on hand and didn't realize!
posted by mendel at 10:57 AM on September 29, 2005

I'm actually going to say "both" in the case of ginger. Each has its own uses; you wouldn't want to use dried ginger in a curry, and you wouldn't want to use fresh ginger in a batch of cookies.
posted by Johnny Assay at 11:36 AM on September 29, 2005

We've found that drying our own fresh-grown herbs (especially the seasonal ones, like basil and oregano) works really well - fresh-dried is far better than the average store-bought dried herbs. You can air-dry in a cool, dark place (a closet would work, if you put a fan in there to keep fresh air circulating), if you live in a sunny clime, you could even dry them on a sunny windowsill, or (for those of us in places such as Seattle) the home dryers work great for this.
I don't know what your climate is like, but the following are pretty easy to grow at home: basil, organo, thyme, parsley, tarragon (finding the plant is tricky, but once found it's easy), and especially rosemary. Rosemary is almost a weed in some climates - and most herbs are somewhat weed-like, in that they really like to be left alone once established (not too much water, not too picky about soil or fertilizer). It cracks me up that Rosemary is so expensive in the stores, when it is so very easy to grow in a temperate climate.
posted by dbmcd at 11:44 AM on September 29, 2005

I'd encourage you to consider some half way options, as well. I find jarred ginger to be a decent substitute for fresh, but dried ginger to be a completely different substance - it has its uses, but not the same ones as fresh/jarred.

I keep frozen garlic on hand for occasional use, and then buy fresh when I know I'm going to want a fair bit of it.

Rosemary, I find is okay dried, as long as it's not powdered (grind it when you need it), but it also lasts a long time when fresh, so there are trade-offs there.

I hate dried basil, and buy it frozen to have on hand, and fresh when I know I'm going to need it in advance. Of course, none of it ever goes to waste when I buy it fresh, because I'm perfectly content to use it whole on sandwiches if there's any going spare.

I don't think I've ever seen a fresh bay leaf.
posted by jacquilynne at 11:47 AM on September 29, 2005

I'm a big fan of squeeze-tube herbs. Most of the advantages of fresh with all the convenience of dried.
posted by solid-one-love at 11:53 AM on September 29, 2005

Dried lemongrass is worthless. It might as well be called dried lawn clippings for as much as it resembles fresh lemongrass. The fresh stuff freezes pretty well though.
posted by TimeFactor at 12:03 PM on September 29, 2005

you wouldn't want to use fresh ginger in a batch of cookies

Au contraire! I think that would be freakin' delicious.
posted by keatsandyeats at 12:06 PM on September 29, 2005

You don't mention spices in your list, but they also lose flavor if they sit around forever in ground form. Try getting a whole nutmeg and grating it yourself — you'll be amazed at how much better it tastes.

For what it's worth, though, I use ground nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves for pretty much everything. I only buy them whole for special occasions.
posted by nebulawindphone at 12:21 PM on September 29, 2005

Yeah, one of the best batches of cookies I ever made was with fresh ginger and cardomom. Oh my god, it was fantastic!
posted by klangklangston at 12:30 PM on September 29, 2005

Fresh leafy herbs will keep better if you treat them like cut flowers, trim the ends and put them in water. If basil is fresh enough it will grow roots and you can keep it on a window sill for months, adding water as necessary. However, thyme and mint both seem to keep best wrapped in a damp paper towel and sealed in a plastic bag in the fridge.
posted by cali at 1:06 PM on September 29, 2005

RE: growing. Start with rosemary. It's almost impossible to kill, and fresh rosemary is a wonderful thing. When (not if) you find yourself with an oversized rosemary plant, clip off a large spring and put it in a decorative bottle with some good olive oil, garlic, and tricolor peppercorns. Makes a great "small" gift (for dinner parties and whatnot).
posted by mkultra at 1:58 PM on September 29, 2005

My attempts to freeze herbs resulted in gross, slimy failures.

This is why I whizz them in the food processor first. I take them down to a level that's about as fine as a mince. I imagine they would be slimy if the leaves were left whole or nearly so.

I don't think I've ever seen a fresh bay leaf

Bay is really easy to grow, and fresh ones are better than the leathery things sold in the store.
posted by Miko at 2:41 PM on September 29, 2005

put it in a decorative bottle with some good olive oil, garlic, and tricolor peppercorns. Makes a great "small" gift (for dinner parties and whatnot)

...just a warning: it's not recommended that you let garlic cloves sit around in oil, because you can grow botulism this way. Sadly, I've thrown away many such gift bottles because so many people don't know this.

You can get around it by infusing garlic into the oil over gentle, low heat, then straining out the solids.
posted by Miko at 2:43 PM on September 29, 2005

People keep mentioning growing. You're in IL, right? Unless you're at the southern end, rosemary probably won't survive your winters. Sage isn't on your list, but it'll keep on keepin' on all winter long right under the snow. So will most kinds of thyme, if I'm not mistaken.

If you want to grow parsley you'll have to fight caterpillars for it.

Fresh tarragon is one of my favorite things, but dried works wonderfully with eggs for some reason. You can't grow it from seed, though, and it probably won't survive your winter either; you'll have to start little ones every spring.
posted by tangerine at 4:52 PM on September 29, 2005

rosemary probably won't survive your winters. Sage isn't on your list, but it'll keep on keepin' on all winter long right under the snow. So will most kinds of thyme, if I'm not mistaken.


I live in Maine. I grow it all. I know someone who grows herbs in Nova Scotia.

As for rosemary -- if you cut it back and bundle it, it sometimes will survive. Alternatively, for smaller/newer plants, you can dig them back up and bring them indoors for the winter.
posted by Miko at 5:20 PM on September 29, 2005

I'd take Johnny Assay's answer for ginger ("both") and apply it to thyme, garlic and probably a few others, probably including basil and sage. I actually prefer the flavor of dried thyme to fresh in many things--basting sauce(?) or marinades for chicken, salad dressing, etc.

Garlic powder is a horrible substitute in most cases, but a sprinkling on a slice of pizza can't be beat: Sure, put the fresh garlic on it, but sprinkle the dried too. Who needs close friends when you're enjoying great pizza *and* immune to vampires?

Think of 'em as different seasonings rather than one being better than the other.
posted by phrits at 7:16 PM on September 29, 2005

artifarce, I've seen cumin seeds—they look a lot like caraway (the rat turd looking things that show up in—and frequently overpower—rye bread). It's not one of those things like cardamom that can be ground, seeds, or pods, is it?
posted by phrits at 7:22 PM on September 29, 2005

As a side note if you do grow herbs, keep the ones that can crossbreed away from each other. My family had mint and basil plants and now have a large batch of masil. Masil ice cream is not good.
posted by arruns at 8:29 PM on September 29, 2005

phrits, yes, cumin seeds look like light-colored rat poop (after actually having a mouse infestation, my stomach turns at the thought!). :) Well, and I just said "seeds," but they're apparently fruit. As are caraway seeds. Celery seed? Really a seed. World view not shaken.
posted by artifarce at 8:54 PM on September 29, 2005

(but no, I've never seen 2 types of cumin, both that can be cooked with like cardamom)
posted by artifarce at 9:02 PM on September 29, 2005

Maybe you had gross, slimy successes on hand and didn't realize!

Trust me on the "gross" part. That includes taste. [shudder]
posted by desuetude at 6:33 AM on September 30, 2005

Cumin can be used whole or ground. Either way, you get best results if you toast the seeds first by throwing them into a hot skillet for a brief minute.
posted by Miko at 10:59 AM on September 30, 2005