Dear Kitchen Editors,
Sometimes when a recipe calls for fresh herbs, I'd rather save myself the trip to the store, and use some of the dried stuff I have in my pantry. How do I know how much to substitute?
Thanks,
Marisa
Good Question: Substituting Dried Herbs for Fresh
Dear Marisa,
You can definitely substitute dry for fresh, but keep in mind that in many recipes, if fresh herbs are called for, it is probably because the bright, alive flavor of a fresh herb are complementary to the recipe. However, not all is lost on dried herbs, and sometimes it makes little difference, or can even lend a new kind of flavor that you might prefer.
Dried herbs have a much more concentrated flavor, so the general rule of thumb is to use a third of the amount of dried as you would fresh herbs. Often a recipe will call for chopped fresh herbs in units of tablespoons. Since one tablespoon is equal to three teaspoons, use one teaspoon chopped dried herbs instead.
There is one more change you'll have to make when substituting fresh herbs with the dried variety. Fresh herbs are almost always added to a recipe at the end of the cooking process to avoid destroying their color and delicate flavor with heat. However, dried herbs need time for their flavor to seep into the dish, so they should be added more toward the beginning.
Comments (4)
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Another option (instead of using dried herbs) is to "preserve" fresh herbs buy chopping them up, putting them in an ice cube tray, adding water and freezing. You can grab a cube out of the freezer (stored in a freezer bag or tupperware as a space saver) and either defrost it or toss it in to whatever you're cooking (if the recipes has the flex for a bit of water).
This method certainly doesn't work with all herbs but is a nice way to keep "fresh" parsley, basil, mint, etc. around all the time.
When using dry herbs, I use less. But what I do is also use a pestle and mortar to grind the herbs a little bit. Though the flavor is more intense as Sara Kate said, I find doing this "spreads" (if that is the right word) the flavor a little bit more.
Cyril
I crush/crumble dried herbs with my fingertips.
..aren't hands just the best kitchen tools? I sometimes 'measure' in my cupped hand.
minipanda-thanks for sharing the ice cube trick. would be good to use in a soup for instance.
For years I have been using the ice cube method for garlic and ginger (each finely chopped first)and you can equate each cube to about 2 teaspoons. Fresh herbs bought in UK supermarkets are quite exorbitant and don't last long enough to justify the expense. Regarding coriander (cilantro) I buy it from Chinese or Indian supermarkets, where it is sold for about 1/5th of the price; I then wash and dry it, split it into small handfuls including the stalks, bag each handful, suck out the air and then seal the bag placing them in the 'fast freeze'section of my freezer. Especially good in carrot and coriander soup.