I got about 20 different herbs in my garden and i use them for years... Im dying listening to her right now... Harvest-wash-dry-chop-freeze is only good if you have a shock freezer, not a normal freezer... A shock freezer freezes stuff in a matter of seconds, boiling hot water turns into a block of ice in less then a minute, in terms of herbs, the cell structure of them stays intact, thats how companies do this too. In a normal freezer the cell structure is destroyed, it will taste and smell like fresh ones, but in terms of nutritions its equally to newspaper with ketchup... You also cant treat all herbs the same, they are different, if you want to use them wayy after harvesting there are different ways to store them. It more or less boiles to 3 different ways down. Dry herbs like rosemary or lavender (herbs that you can almost "break" in pieces): They dont have much water in them from the beginning, freezeing them would destroy them, thats why you dry them, chopping comes after they dried. Either find a dry and warm place and spread them there to dry for about a week, or of you want it to be faster put them in the oven between 60-70 celsius (140-158 Fahrenheit) and put something in the door, so that it doesnt close completly and the water can escape. I usually roll up a dish towel for this. and after put them in an air tight container to use whenever you want. You can actually dry basically ony herb, some are just losing taste and smell over time, but the nutritions always stay inside this way. Watery herbs like coriander or parsley (herbs that you can crumple and they will get back to their previous form) These are the easiest ones, you can freeze them, just not chopped or naked, they have to be completly covered/submerged in water, it needs to be completly around them. The water in the herb will take longer to freeze than the water that surrounds it and therefore the water outside will "cage" the structures of the herbs, they simply dont have enough space to break. Oily herbs like basil or mint (herbs that rubbed between thumb and finger leaves traces of oily liquid with strong smell behind): First off, you can freeze them like the watery ones, but if you want to use them you have to thaw them fast(like putting them in something hot not warm etc). But the best way to have their taste-smell and nutritions at a later point is to submerge them into a neutral oil, like rapeseed oil, sunflower oil or Corn oil.
Cooking enjoyer sighted, thank you for this amazing infodump which I will squirrel away and either completely forget or bring out again in a few years.
I'd like to know where she lives where eating out is economical. I live in an urban area and eating out is expensive af especially after all this inflation.
I will say that I cook so don’t view this as coping. She lives in the Northeast. Eating out being more economical than cooking is an income thing not a region thing. For example if you were hourly of which you made 30$ an hour and you have a choice between an hour cooking an 8$ meal vs ordering a 16$ meal but working instead of cooking then ordering food would be 4$ more money in your wallet. 16-8=8
@@badart3204 That also assume you get that much money hourly, which itself is very... privileged. So yeah, maybe it is even less a "where you live", but more of a "where you work" kinda stuff. Also, you can choose to cook better for less cost or rely on subpar food for more. Lots of places I ordered tasted really... eh.
I got about 20 different herbs in my garden and i use them for years... Im dying listening to her right now...
Harvest-wash-dry-chop-freeze is only good if you have a shock freezer, not a normal freezer... A shock freezer freezes stuff in a matter of seconds, boiling hot water turns into a block of ice in less then a minute, in terms of herbs, the cell structure of them stays intact, thats how companies do this too.
In a normal freezer the cell structure is destroyed, it will taste and smell like fresh ones, but in terms of nutritions its equally to newspaper with ketchup...
You also cant treat all herbs the same, they are different, if you want to use them wayy after harvesting there are different ways to store them. It more or less boiles to 3 different ways down.
Dry herbs like rosemary or lavender (herbs that you can almost "break" in pieces):
They dont have much water in them from the beginning, freezeing them would destroy them, thats why you dry them, chopping comes after they dried. Either find a dry and warm place and spread them there to dry for about a week, or of you want it to be faster put them in the oven between 60-70 celsius (140-158 Fahrenheit) and put something in the door, so that it doesnt close completly and the water can escape. I usually roll up a dish towel for this. and after put them in an air tight container to use whenever you want.
You can actually dry basically ony herb, some are just losing taste and smell over time, but the nutritions always stay inside this way.
Watery herbs like coriander or parsley (herbs that you can crumple and they will get back to their previous form)
These are the easiest ones, you can freeze them, just not chopped or naked, they have to be completly covered/submerged in water, it needs to be completly around them. The water in the herb will take longer to freeze than the water that surrounds it and therefore the water outside will "cage" the structures of the herbs, they simply dont have enough space to break.
Oily herbs like basil or mint (herbs that rubbed between thumb and finger leaves traces of oily liquid with strong smell behind):
First off, you can freeze them like the watery ones, but if you want to use them you have to thaw them fast(like putting them in something hot not warm etc). But the best way to have their taste-smell and nutritions at a later point is to submerge them into a neutral oil, like rapeseed oil, sunflower oil or Corn oil.
Thank you for the tips ill definitely save them
wow, that was a lot of info um, I hope you're having a great day
Cooking enjoyer sighted, thank you for this amazing infodump which I will squirrel away and either completely forget or bring out again in a few years.
saving this for my collection of tips
I'd like to know where she lives where eating out is economical. I live in an urban area and eating out is expensive af especially after all this inflation.
I will say that I cook so don’t view this as coping. She lives in the Northeast. Eating out being more economical than cooking is an income thing not a region thing. For example if you were hourly of which you made 30$ an hour and you have a choice between an hour cooking an 8$ meal vs ordering a 16$ meal but working instead of cooking then ordering food would be 4$ more money in your wallet. 16-8=8
@@badart3204 That also assume you get that much money hourly, which itself is very... privileged. So yeah, maybe it is even less a "where you live", but more of a "where you work" kinda stuff.
Also, you can choose to cook better for less cost or rely on subpar food for more. Lots of places I ordered tasted really... eh.