Fresh vs. Dry

In recent posts, I mentioned the possibiliy of substituting dry herbs for fresh if they're unavailable but had no guidelines for you. Well, today, I ran across a site that sells herbs and they had quite a good explantation so I thought I'd share it with you. They also have a good description of quite a few herbs as well.

"Herbs and spices should be kept in tightly covered containers at all times and should be replaced frequently.  The secret to herbs and spices is in the aroma as well as the flavors they impart.  Heat, sunlight and air can reduce the quality of the seasonings.  If you have had herbs in your cabinets over a year, replace them with fresh ones. 

Fresh herbs require 4 times the amount of dried herbs in a recipe.  When using dried herbs,  crush or rub them in your hand before dropping them in the recipe.  This releases the oils which produce most of the flavor and aroma.

Whole herbs are a better choice than ground or powdered since they hold their flavor longer in storage.  You will either have to grind them yourself or if using the whole herb, use 1 ½ times the ground herb called for.

Do not double herbs called for when doubling the recipe.  Use only 1½ times the required amount; taste and then add more if necessary.

When using herbs, never use more than 1 strong herb per recipe.  You can add milder flavored herbs but two strong herbs in the same recipe will conflict with each other.  Also its best to limit a meal to no more than 2-3 herbed dishes and not the same herb in each."


 The above information on herbs is from Barryfarm.com. (No affiliation, just thought it clarified rather nicely the amounts needed in dry vs. fresh.) This is also a good place to locate hard to find ingredients. For example, I don't think I've ever seen a source with so many flours in my life (Teff Flour, Green Pea Flour, Mesquite Flour and Cassava Flour to name a few) and they sell in bulk. There's a lot of info on this site so have a look.