Either way. Fresh herbs taste the best, though. Harvest them in the morning if possible before the dew dries. Fresh herbs taste better because the volatile oils that give them fragrance and taste are not disappated. If a recipe calls for dried herbs and you would rather use fresh, you shuld use a little less since the flavor will be stronger. This is especially true of rosemary...a little goes along way!
Using thyme and oregano is easy...strip the thyme leaves from the stems unless the stem is still green and tender and use as is, same with oregano, although you might want to chop the leaves up a bit before use.
You can dry herbs by tying them in bunches and hanging them in dry area out of the sun, or by spreading them on a baking sheet and putting them in the oven on low until they are dry. Store dried herbs in a tightly lidded jar or bottle out of the direct sunlight. Dried herbs are best used within one year.
You can dry it for use during winter months, or you can use it fresh.
If you dry it, be sure to dry it in a place that doesn't have funky odors, even occasionally. I dried a lot of my herbs in my garage, and some batches came out great but some just reek because we had a bag of grass clippings in there for a few days. Peee-yew! :)
Sorry to contradict right off, but I'm pretty sure that you have to use more of a fresh herb if you're using it to replace a dried herb in a recipe... the reason being that dried herbs are much more compressed once the water's taken out and they're crushed.
In any case, I've just finished harvesting my herbs for the season. I chopped the oregano leaves (this works really well for basil too) and froze it with a little water in ice cube trays.... Store them in plastic bags in the freezer and you've got little cubes of 'fresh' herbs to throw in a marinara recipe or whatnot. Handy! As for rosemary, I'm pretty sure the best option is drying it (hang it to dry).
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Using thyme and oregano is easy...strip the thyme leaves from the stems unless the stem is still green and tender and use as is, same with oregano, although you might want to chop the leaves up a bit before use.
You can dry herbs by tying them in bunches and hanging them in dry area out of the sun, or by spreading them on a baking sheet and putting them in the oven on low until they are dry. Store dried herbs in a tightly lidded jar or bottle out of the direct sunlight. Dried herbs are best used within one year.
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If you dry it, be sure to dry it in a place that doesn't have funky odors, even occasionally. I dried a lot of my herbs in my garage, and some batches came out great but some just reek because we had a bag of grass clippings in there for a few days. Peee-yew! :)
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In any case, I've just finished harvesting my herbs for the season. I chopped the oregano leaves (this works really well for basil too) and froze it with a little water in ice cube trays.... Store them in plastic bags in the freezer and you've got little cubes of 'fresh' herbs to throw in a marinara recipe or whatnot. Handy! As for rosemary, I'm pretty sure the best option is drying it (hang it to dry).
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After they are completely dry, I take the leaves off the stems and put them in little air tight spice jars. They store well there for months.
Jrstraus is correct, dried herbs are stronger than fresh :)
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