Corduroy Orange

yo yo yo jesse,

i finally thought of a question that would probably benefit a lot of us who read your blog. it kind of takes off from your first advice column about sauteeing with pepper. i’ve never really known when the best time to add herbs to something i’m cooking (or if, and how much, this varies depending on the dish). as examples, i commonly use basil, oregano and rosemary, but i’ve never been consistent about when in the process i should add them to the pot. i could probably stand to be similarly schooled on some of the spices out there too. thanks!

justin

Deciding when to add the herbs depends in large part on whether the herbs you’re using are fresh or dried. In general, fresh herbs should be added later in the cooking process so their flavor doesn’t fade away, whereas dried herbs should be added earlier so that their flavor has a chance to develop.
As far as fresh herbs are concerned, you can usually guess, based on an herb’s general demeanor, when it should ba added relative to other herbs. Basil, for instance, is something I usually add fairly late in the process, in order to give the leaves enough time to wilt and release their flavor but not so early that they disintegrate. When it comes to fresh dill, I’d recommend not even cooking it, because it tends to collapse under the influence of heat. it makes a good garnish or adds its flavor nicely to a vegetable dip.

Rosemary, on the other hand, I’ll add a bit earlier because its small, needle-like leaves tend to stand up a bit better to cooking—though it is a good idea to chop those little suckers up a bit before you add them. Sage is another herb I’ll add earlier in the cooking process, and no more than a leaf or two of it at that: too much sage will dominate the finished product. Quite often, I’ll remove the sage leaf before I serve the dish, sort of like I’d do with bay leaves.

Speaking of bay leaves, it wasn’t until quite recently that I even realized what they taste like. They were always something I added in to a tomato sauce or something because the recipe called for it. Finally, I said to myself, “What the heck do those things really add, anyway?” and brewed myself a cup of bay leaf tea by steeping a bay leaf in a few ounces of hot water for five minutes. The result was surprisingly pleasant: sort of a citrusy, earthy flavor. I highly recommend trying a cup if you’ve never tasted a bay leaf on its own. For an even pleasanter late evening non-caffinated herbal brew, try a bay leaf and a few mint leaves combined together.

A good rule of thumb when using dried herbs is to add them with the liquid component of whatever dish you’re making. That way, they have a chance to rehydrate, stew, and release their flavor.

Have a question about a culinary concern? Email me! I’ll respond in a future post.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 13th, 2006 at 10:14 pm and is filed under Advice Column. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.