Posted on 03/23/2008 11:36:40 PM PDT by nw_arizona_granny
Americans finding soaring food prices hard to stomach can battle back by growing their own food. [Click image for a larger version] Dean Fosdick Dean Fosdick
Home vegetable gardens appear to be booming as a result of the twin movements to eat local and pinch pennies.
At the Southeastern Flower Show in Atlanta this winter, D. Landreth Seed Co. of New Freedom, Pa., sold three to four times more seed packets than last year, says Barb Melera, president. "This is the first time I've ever heard people say, 'I can grow this more cheaply than I can buy it in the supermarket.' That's a 180-degree turn from the norm."
Roger Doiron, a gardener and fresh-food advocate from Scarborough, Maine, said he turned $85 worth of seeds into more than six months of vegetables for his family of five.
A year later, he says, the family still had "several quarts of tomato sauce, bags of mixed vegetables and ice-cube trays of pesto in the freezer; 20 heads of garlic, a five-gallon crock of sauerkraut, more homegrown hot-pepper sauce than one family could comfortably eat in a year and three sorts of squash, which we make into soups, stews and bread."
[snipped]
She compares the current period of market uncertainty with that of the early- to mid-20th century when the concept of victory gardens became popular.
"A lot of companies during the world wars and the Great Depression era encouraged vegetable gardening as a way of addressing layoffs, reduced wages and such," she says. "Some companies, like U.S. Steel, made gardens available at the workplace. Railroads provided easements they'd rent to employees and others for gardening."
(Excerpt) Read more at dallasnews.com ...
http://www.henriettesherbal.com/blog/pd-herbal-oils-2.html
PD: Herbal oils 2
Posted October 16th, 2006 by Blog - Henriette
* Salves
A few more different herbal oils.
Here are the herbal oil recipes of the last two days of recent product development:
E) Calendula oil
1.5 l cold-pressed organic safflower oil
102 g dried calendula flowers
Let sit on a waterbath for 1.5 hours, let cool, strain by wringing oil’n’herb through cheesecloth. They got 13.5 dl calendula oil.
So I’d told them to put in the oil first, and add the herb later, to avoid mounds of barely oily dried herb in that bowl.
Dunno what this group did, but they had a mound of dried calendula flowers in the bowl, with the oil coming up to a little more than half of it.
That’s bad if you don’t have any more oil to add to the herb.
It’s good if you do have the oil needed to cover the herb, if you actually need that particular herbal oil.
They added more oil - it’s easy to find a use for a little more calendula oil.
F) Calendula-meadowsweet oil
7 dl cold-pressed organic sesame oil
18.7 g dried calendula flowers
27 g dried meadowsweet flowers
Let sit on a waterbath for 1.5 hours, let cool, strain by wringing oil’n’herb through cheesecloth. They got 6.5 dl of their infused herbal oil.
G) Ache oil
7 dl cold-pressed organic sesame oil
40 g dried basil
11 g dried oregano
1 tablespoon dried powdered ginger
Let sit on a waterbath for 1.5 hours, let cool, strain by wringing oil’n’herb through cheesecloth. They got 5 dl of their infused herbal oil.
H) Refreshing oil
1 l cold-pressed organic safflower oil
100 g dried lanceleaf plantain
45 g dried peppermint leaf
Let sit on a waterbath for 1.5 hours, let cool, strain by wringing oil’n’herb through cheesecloth. They got 7 dl of their infused herbal oil.
I) Chickweed oil
5 dl cold-pressed organic sesame oil
100 g fresh chickweed
a pinch of sodium benzoate
Let sit on a waterbath for 1.5 hours, let cool, strain by wringing oil’n’herb through cheesecloth. They got 5.5 dl of their infused herbal oil, which included water, which is why there’s more liquid than the oil they started with - and which is why the sodium benzoate.
J) Calendula - lavender oil
6 dl extra cheap clear overprocessed rapeseed oil
1 dl cold-pressed organic wheatgerm oil (for the vitamin E)
25 g dried lavender flowers
12 g dried calendula flowers
Let sit on a waterbath for 1.5 hours, let cool, strain by wringing oil’n’herb through cheesecloth. They got 6 dl of their infused herbal oil, which should go rancid as slowly as the others, cos it includes that wheatgerm oil.
—
Related entries: PD: Herbal oils 1 - PD: Herbal salves 1 - PD: Herbal salves 2 - Herbs in salves - Cat: Salves
LOL I know what you mean! One thing leads to another, and before you know it, I’ve got another dozen craft projects going! Working on flannel pj bottoms for my sil’s bday next week.
Got to go meet my new nephew this weekend. He’s a doll baby.
I wish more of our older folks would do this, write out all the stuff they’ve learned/found so we can all benefit. There’s so much knowledge being lost as our older folks die. Thank you for doing all this!
Granny,
I learned as a child that sour milk is fine when used in anything cooked. Not only cake or bread or whatever, but even in sauces such as white sauce or gravy. Not clabbered, mind you, although I’d use those in biscuits in a heartbeat!
http://www.henriettesherbal.com/blog/warming-salve.html
Warming salve.
Posted December 9th, 2004 by Blog - Henriette
* Brassica nigra
* Capsicum annuum
* Piper nigrum
* Salves
* Sinapis alba
* Zingiber officinale
This warming salve is very good for cold days and nights.
I made a warming salve last week. Here’s the how-to:
Pour 1.3 l oil (I used cold-pressed safflower oil) into the top bit of a waterbath, add 100 g powdered ginger (I zapped mine with the blender), add 100 g powdered cayenne, add 50 g powdered mustard, leave on heat for 1.5 hours, let cool.
Photo: Waterbath 2.Pic: Some small ginger pieces float in the cayenne-red oil in the waterbath.
Put a sieve onto a bowl, put an industrial-sized coffee filter into the sieve, pour as much of your oil’n’herb mess into the sieve as will fit, let drip overnight. If you top up the mess in the sieve with what’s left in your waterbath bowl you can finish your salve the next day; if you didn’t you’ll just have to wait until your oil has dripped through the coffee filter, which possibly takes another night.
Photo: Filtering.Pic: Leftovers after 2 days of dripping.
Then measure your oil (I got 1 liter), add beeswax (1:8, that is, 125 g), melt on full heat, and pour into jars. Let cool, add lids, label.
I got the original warming oil recipe from the UK herb society pages, back when Rene Burrough ran the site and Chris Hedley and Non Shaw were regular contributors. When I first saw it I just shook my head: is anybody crazy enough to actually make this? But hey, this was Chris Hedley, one of the best herbalists I know, so I gave it a try with a small test batch. It was very nice: put some oil (or salve) on your skin, and wonder 15 minutes later why just that spot is so warm.
The original proportions for Non’s hot oil, as given on the Jan 1998 herbmonger page, were:
25 g (1 oz) cayenne pepper
30 ml (2 T) mustard powder, Sinapis alba
15 ml (1 T) ginger powder, Zingiber officinale
10 ml (2 tsp) ground black pepper, Piper nigrum
300 ml (10 fl oz) vegetable oil
Photo: Zingiber officinale 3.Photo: Capsicum annuum 4.Pic: Cayenne powder and cut’n’sifted ginger.
They said to double infuse for a stronger oil - I haven’t found that necessary, my recipe is hot enough for me. And I really dislike recipes where you mix grams with tablespoons, ‘cos then you can’t tell the proportions of different ingredients at a glance.
Salves are less messy, and you can use less of them for the same zing, so I made this into a salve. Which I’ve made every winter — it’s a very popular xmas gift.
One caution: wash your hands after applying the warming salve (to cold feet, to the chest and back if you have a cough, or just to warm your bones). If you don’t, and you rub your eyes or touch other sensitive mucous membranes, it’s going to hurt. For quite a long time.
‹ Verbena tinctureupWater mimosa ›
* Blog - Henriette’s blog
This sounds like a dangerous
On December 9th, 2004 JIM (not verified) says:
This sounds like a dangerous product. Make your enemy’s day by hiding some in his/her tube of KY!
Seriously though, does it actually make you feel warmer? It’s actually just stimulating pain receptors rather than providing any actual heat, isn’t it?
* reply
Yes, this salve actually
On December 9th, 2004 Henriette says:
Yes, this salve actually warms - it enhances the peripheral blood supply. It really is very nice.
Though I agree, it’s not the first choice for KY — that is, not unless both of you are convinced practising masochists.
* reply
I have several
On December 9th, 2004 Susan (not verified) says:
I have several friends/family members who are seriously sensitive to cayenne. Could this be made without the cayenne? Are there other ingredients that could add to the warming quality without hurting those capsacin-sensitive folk? Thanks for the great blog!
* reply
Yes, you can make it with
On December 9th, 2004 Henriette says:
Yes, you can make it with ginger, mustard and black pepper. I’ve never made it without cayenne myself - please let me know how it turns out!
http://kudzubasketry.blogspot.com/
Kudzu picking permit
If you live near or south of the Mason Dixon line, you are likely to be familiar with kudzu. You know, it’s that stuff that, when you’re driving down the highway, sort of looks like a big green blob, covering fields, trees, houses—anything in it’s path! Kudzu is a good idea gone bad. It was brought into this country in the 1800’s, and was promoted as a fast growing, low maintainance, privacy fence. Growing more than 18 inces a day in the summertime heat, it lived up to expectations. By the 1920’s, farmers were trying to grow it as livestock feed. Someone else decided to grow it for erosion control. Lumber companies even tried to grow it as a cover crop! In short, kudzu was planted from Pennsylvania to Texas, and is covering everything in its path. Many states now consider kudzu an invasive species —others, a noxious weed, and have forbidden planting it under most circumstances. Recently, I tried picking kudzu in Hot Springs National Park. I was stopped by a ranger who asked me what I was doing. After explaining that am a weaver, baskets, blah, blah, I was told that I need to apply for a permit to pick kudzu in the park...that a certain percentage of my profits from weaving would be given to the park...WHAT??? for a noxious weed? I guess I’ll let that little patch of kudzu be their problem...someday it may eat the whole park!
posted by Neil at 9:59 AM 2 comments
Sunday, September 11, 2005
Kudzu, Pueraria montana: Preparing kudzu vines for weaving baskets
Harvesting:
Although kudzu can be harvested anytime of year, July through the first frost are the prime times to pick kudzu’s long, tough runners. It’s best to find a field with long runners on the ground, as it’s quite difficult—and dangerous—to pull kudzu out of trees. After the summer solstice, the fast growing green kudzu vines begin to get fibrous, making them durable!
Kudzu, as well as most weaving material, needs to be dried thouroughly, then rehydrated just enough before working with it. If green vines are weaved, the basket will be loose and not very durable. This being said, all of my early baskets were made out of green vines. If they loosened up, I’d just weave more vines into them. Also, some materials don’t shrink as much as others, so it isn’t as noticable—such as grapevine, which has minimal shrinkage. A new weaver, full of enthusiasim, doesn’t really need to burden himself with weeks—months even—of prepwork before attempting to weave a basket! He might try weaving and decide it isn’t for him. If you have the desire, just go pick some vines, and do it.
Kudzu vines can be weaved whole, green, or after drying and rehydrating, or they can be processed into finer fibers, which can be dyed. Store kudzu in loose coils (like wrapping a hose up on your arm), in a dry location. Sunlight helps change the green colored vines to a more pleasant brown.
If you’d like some guidance while experimenting with kudzu, here’s how I prepare the fibers:
At any point in this process, you can just coil the vines, dry them, and return to working with them later.
continues, with good ideas and photos... Just think, at last a way to get rich with kudzu vines.
granny
“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”
~ HD Thoreau
http://www.henriettesherbal.com/blog/cucumber-salve.html
Cucumber salve
Posted February 28th, 2005 by Blog - Henriette
* Salves
This is how you make a cucumber salve.
Or, well, this is how I make one. It’s cooling to the skin and relieves itching:
Take one cucumber, peel, grate.
Pour 1/2 l oil into the top bit of a waterbath, add the cucumber to that, add water underneath, and let the water simmer for 1.5 hours.
Strain through a cheesecloth. You’ll end up with most of the cucumber in the oil.
Pour into a large-mouthed container (a glass jar is ideal). Let the oil sit for a while, so a bottom muck (which includes all the water) forms. It takes from 4 to 7 days for the oil to clear (= no water left in it, = no mold in your oil and/or salve), but when we made a cucumber ointment the week before last, we were in a bit of a hurry, so we didn’t let it sit for all that long (= rather large risk for mold, but hey, we made, let me count, 7 different salves + other bits’n’pieces, so it’s not as if one salve that might go moldy is a big catastrophe).
Cucumber oil a few hours after straining.Pic: Cucumber oil a few hours after straining.
Here you see the oil after a few hours. A lot of the water’n’things have already separated out.
After you’ve siphoned off most of the oil on top of the water (use a syringe, they’re nifty), you can pour the rest of the oil into a glass. That’ll make for taller layers of liquid, making it easier to get even more oil off that bottom muck. Here’s the leftover oil in a glass, perhaps an hour after pouring it in there:
Cucumber oil leftovers in a glass.Pic: Cucumber oil leftovers in a glass.
After things have separated out once they easily separate again.
Once you have cleared off as much of the oil as you can get without also getting bottom muck, measure your take, and use 1 part beeswax (by weight) to 8 parts oil (by volume). Pour both into the top bit of a waterbath and let boil on full, else your beeswax won’t melt.
Once it’s all melted you can pour the lot into jars, let set, close lids, and label, in that order. Doing it that way makes for neat salve jars, with no salve all over the inside of the lid.
Me, I use a syringe to fill my jars. With the right size syringe (50 ml for 30 ml jars) it works a treat.
http://www.henriettesherbal.com/blog/egyptian-salve.html
Egyptian salve
Posted July 13th, 2005 by Blog - Henriette
* Salves
Mmmm, myrrh and calamus and rose.
In early 2004 I made an Egyptian-inspired salve. Here’s the recipe, with notes:
# 3.5 dl cold-pressed unscented oil (I like safflower)
40 g dried calamus root
50 g dried myrrh
Put calamus and myrrh in blender, let whirr until they’re broken up.
Pour herb and oil into top-part of waterbath, let sit for 1.5 hours, strain.
Smell the root’n’resin mess - mmmmm, lovely! Good for another oil, you say? Okay:
# 3.5 dl cold-pressed unscented oil
herb mess
Let sit in top-part of heated waterbath for 1.5 hours, strain.
Mix the two oils, one is marginally stronger than the other. Put aside.
# 1.5 l cold-pressed unscented oil
100 g dried rose buds, organically grown
20 g or so dried calendula flowers
Put dried rose buds into your blender, whizz it into a powder. Pour oil into the top bit of a waterbath, add roses. Add calendula, too, as much as will fit after you’ve put in the roses - a little calendula never hurt anybody.
Let sit under a lid (keeping as much scent in as possible - rose is fragile) on medium heat for 1.5 hours, strain. You’ll only have 1 l or so oil left, that rose powder really sucks up liquids.
# 1 l (or so) infused rose oil
.5 l cold-pressed unscented oil
100 g dried rose buds, organically grown
Pour your strained infused rose oil back into the top part of your waterbath, add fresh oil, add fresh powdered rose buds, let sit under a lid for another 1.5 hours, strain.
(Simple infused rose oil doesn’t have a scent. Double infused does. Mmm, does it ever.)
Mix the two oils: 1 to 2 parts myrrh-calamus to 10 parts double rose.
Add beeswax (1 part (by weight) to 8 parts (by volume) oil), put on full heat on a waterbath until the wax has melted, pour into jars, let set, close lids, label.
—
You’ll have rather a lot of myrrh-calamus oil left over,
I tried 1 part myrrh-calamus to 1 part rose at first, but the rose
disappeared completely (it’s fragile).
The next one I made, with 10 parts rose to 1 part myrrh-calamus, I thought the rose had overpowered the myrrh-calamus, but that was after I had been in the myrrh-calamus scents all day.
It’s cool. Sort of spicy, perfumey, rosey. Lovely.
The recipe I adapted this from called for cardamoms and cinnamon, too — but then, it also called for red wine and lard.
This simpler salve is nice enough. It’s not useful for anything in particular, it’s just a general scented salve with some healing properties, what with there being just a hint of calendula in it.
‹ Drying chamomileupElderflower syrup. ›
* Blog - Henriette’s blog
Well myrrh is a nice
On July 13th, 2005 darcey (not verified) says:
Well myrrh is a nice antiseptic resin, i’d put it on scrapes and sores. i like the sound of this salve. it does sound delish, and the possibilities for creativity....
could add frankinsense .... and cardamom sounds nice too.
I bet the infused oils could be mixed and used as is for bath oils, or in skin cream recipies too ...
I knew the baby was going to be one that was extra special.
So go ahead, shower him with love and make sure to keep a record of all you make him, LOL, with samples in his handmade baby book.
Making books, was always on my list.
As long as you have at least a dozen projects working, you will do well.
My danger time was the month of January, dull and bored after Christmas excitement, that was my “I wanta work with color and texture period”.
There’s so much knowledge being lost as our older folks die. Thank you for doing all this!<<<
Yes, there is much valuable information that dies each day.
This thread is the book that I planned for years.
They say you can lead a horse to water, but that you cannot force him to drink.
That is this thread, thoughts, some will be used and others will not.
Then there are other little things to know, some are surprising and others a more simple “Why didn’t I think of that?”
The salve recipes that I just posted, when a soap maker shared hers with me, a Creosote salve, good for several purposes, healing, I used it and was happy.
Then, one day my hair had just been washed and I had just applied my salve and thought ‘so, try it’, used a tiny amount on my wet hair and it worked, long hair came untangled as if by magic.
When I told Claudia, she tried it on her daughter’s kinky, long and difficult hair and it worked.
I suspect that we had just reinvented the ‘duck tail wax’ of the 1950’s that the guys used to make their hair form a ‘ducktail’ in the back, one of my brothers did that.
Claudia’s recipe, was about the same as the ones that I have posted.
And then too, after a few years, we under stand things.
Over 40 years ago, my 3 year old niece, a sweet and loving child became a raging maniac, when you washed her hair.
After her tonsils were removed, she was normal and had long lovely hair all her life.
Now that I am on the oxygen generator, to breathe, when I am forced to have my hair washed, I want to fight, yes, I mean fight.
As I can’t breathe in wet air.....or when it rains.
So now I understand why Angela fought to keep her head dry.
There are things to learn, if we will learn them.
Further note to parents: Diana had rushed Angela to the hospital several times, for a locked bladder, a very sick child.
Then came the day that she got sick when in my care, I took her to the Emergency room and a kind Iranian doctor was assigned to treat her.
He looked in her throat, and I asked, what he was doing, as she had a bladder problem.
He informed me that she had bad tonsils, take an antibiotic and get them out, that would end the bladder infections.
And when they were gone, so were her bladder problems.
Yes, there are some recipes that beg for sour milk and I have always used it.....Corn bread is one of them.
We ate bowls of clabber, when I was a kid.
I like to use beer in pancakes and biscuits, when I don’t have buttermilk or sour milk, they are so light they will float, even when made with self rising flour or a common pancake mix.
Now I use the dehydrated buttermilk powder from Walton Feed.com in all the baking that I did, before I had to quit.
When I made cheese I also used the whey that remained in breads and gravies.
Forgive the short answers, as it is a weak arm day.
http://www.henriettesherbal.com/faqs/culi-4-1-vinegar.html
4.1 Vinegars.
* Vinegar
Also see at least 2.4.3 Chive Vinegar and 2.9.3 Mint Vinegar.
Best of the herbal forums: http://www.henriettesherbal.com/archives/best/1996/vinegar.html
Best of the herbal forums: http://www.henriettesherbal.com/archives/best/1996/dill-dip.html
Best of the herbal forums: http://www.henriettesherbal.com/archives/best/1996/nasturtiums.html
Best of the herbal forums: http://www.henriettesherbal.com/archives/best/1996/vinaigrette.html
From: adawson.ehs.eduhsd.k12.ca.us
Hmm...I have made many herbal vinegars for my own home use and have always used cidar vinegar. This, for me, has always seemed quite sufficient and is very economical. Is there any reason why cidar vinegar is not acceptable? Have I unknowingly been commiting a culinary crime? Also, I have found bay leaf and rosemary to produce a very well flavored vinegar.
From: HerbalMuse.aol.com
Not at all...I use either apple cider vinegar, or white vinegar, depending on what kind of herb/flower is to be infused.
From: christopher.gn.apc.org (christopher hedley)
I use cider vinegar.
How about Rosemary vinegar which can be used as a hair rinse as well as in cooking and Garlic vinegar which is a good general antiseptic as well as excellent salad dressing.
Good looking labels are an important final touch.
After asking about uses for a combination of parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme I got the following reply:
From: kate.netway.net (Kate Blacklock):
It makes great flavored vinegar!
From: mrooney.mrooney.pn.com (Michael Rooney)
Basically, if you like it as an herb, put a good sized sprig of it in some white vinegar and wait a couple of months and try it. This works with sage (don’t leave it too long), oregano, tarragon, thyme (may have to leave it longer) and chives that I can think of.
rosa-glauca-1.jpg
Rose petal vinegar
From: Baker.325.magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Gwen Baker):
1 c rose petals
3 whole cloves
2 c white wine vinegar
Trim away white part of rose petals. Wash and drain thoroughly. Slightly bruise petals and place with cloves in a wide mouth canning jar. Place vinegar in a medium saucepan bring to a boil. Pour vinegar over petals, cover at once with metal lids, and screw bands tight. Let stand at room temp for 1 week. Strain vinegar into decorative jars, discarding rose petals. Seal jars with a cork or other airtight lid. Makes 2 cups.
From: Silkia.aol.com
Herbed Vinegars
Cayenne Vinegar
Put from a 1/4 to 1/2 ounce of the best cayenne pepper into a bottle. Pour on it a pint of strong vinegar. Cork it closely, and shake it well every 23 days. It may remain any length of time but will be ready in about 2 weeks.
Celery Vinegar
Add to a pint of boiling vinegar a few grains of cayenne pepper, or 1/2 oz peppercorns, a teaspoon of salt and 2 C white portion of the roots and stems of fresh celery, sliced thin. Let boil 2-3 mins, turn into a stone jar and close tightly as soon as cold. It may be strained off and bottled in 3-4 weeks with out injury.
Chili or Capsicum Vinegar
Put an oz of chilies or capsicums into a pint of vinegar, cover closely and let stand 2 weeks. After straining the vinegar will then be ready to use.
Cucumber Vinegar
First wipe then without paring, slice young cucumbers into a stone jar. Pour on sufficient boiling vinegar to cover. Add a t of salt and 2/3 the quantity of peppercorns to 1 1/2 pints of vinegar. The mixture may remain thus for a month, or even two months if well protected from the air. It should then be strained, allowed to settle, and poured quite clear into small dry bottles, which should be tightly corked. A mild onion may be mixed with the cucumbers, if it is desired.
Horseradish Vinegar
On 4 oz of young and freshly scraped horseradish pour a quart of boiling vinegar, and cover closely. The vinegar should be ready in 3-4 days. But the mixture may remain for weeks or months before straining. An oz of shallot, minced may be substituted for one oz of horseradish if the flavor is preferred.
Mint Vinegar
Slightly chop or bruise the young leaves of freshly gathered mint pack in bottles, filing nearly to the neck, pour in vinegar to; cover the mint. In 50 days strain off and bottle for use.
Nasturtium Vinegar
Loosely fill a quart jar with clean nasturtium flowers. Add a finely chopped shallot, a very small piece of garlic, and a piece of red pepper. Fill the jar with cold vinegar, and let stand 2 months. Add 1 t of salt, strain through several thicknesses of cheesecloth and store in sterilized jars closely sealed.
rubus-idaeus-2
Raspberry Vinegar
Crush 4 qts raspberries and cover with 4 qts mild vinegar. After 2 days strain through doubled cheesecloth and pour the same vinegar over a further 4 qts of berries. Let stand again for 2 days. Strain, measure. Add 2 # sugar for each quart of liquid, bringing slowly to boiling point. Boil 10 minutes then skim, turn into sterilized jars and seal. (Use 2-3 T in a glass of icewater for a pleasant summer drink)
Raspberry strawberry Vinegar
Use the same recipe as for Raspberry Vinegar only half the quantity for each fruit.
Shallot Vinegar
Over 46 oz shallots peeled and bruised, pour a quart of good vinegar. Cover closely and in 23 weeks vinegar may be used after straining. A few drops is sufficient flavor for sauces and dressings.
allium-cepa-1
Onion Vinegar
Same as for shallot.
Garlic Vinegar
Make the same as for shallot using only 1/2 the quantity of garlic.
Tarragon Vinegar
Strip the tarragon from the large stalks. Put into small stone jar or wide necked jar, and in doing this, twist some of the branches so as to bruise the leaves and tear them apart. Pour in enough very pale vinegar so as to cover the top. Allow to infuse for about 2 months or more. Strain into small bottles and cork.
[first, a warning, Borax is not a favorite among soap makers and if my memory is right, it is not cleared for sale, or not cleared to sell as an organic.
What ever it is, as I was learning, I decided it would not be used by me.
granny]
http://www.henriettesherbal.com/faqs/culi-4-7-potpourri.html#rose-beads
4.7 Potpourris and other non-culinary uses for herbs / flowers.
* Bath salt
* Potpourri
* Rose beads
Meaning non-culinary uses, in this culinary herbfaq.
4.7.1 Stovetop potpourri
From: (Jeffrey Clayton):
My favorite potpourri recipe is:
dried orange peel, dried pine needles, dried mint, cinnamon sticks (broken into pieces), cloves
This is a stove top potpourri — the kind you put in water and simmer.
Aromatherapy says this combination of scents is supposed to keep colds away.
4.7.2 Dry potpourri
From: (Mandy Haggith):
I’ve been making pot-pourri since I was about 7 and still use the same method I used then - shoe boxes under the bed. I find that the number one ingredient is rose petals, best of all from wild dog roses, but any smelly rose will do. You’ll need MASSES of rose petals. Lavender is also wonderful. Pick the flowers (and herb leaves) when they’re warm and dry and smelly, stick them loosely in the shoe boxes (either mixed up or not, depending on what you want to do with them) and stir them with a warm dry hand a couple of times a day (or more). The petals will gradually dry out and you can use them in pot-pourri recipes after a few weeks. Under the bed is a good place because it is usually pretty dry, it’s dark (so the petals keep some of their colour) and the smell of the drying petals gives you sweet dreams! I find the airing cupboard is too hot and dries the leaves out too fast leaving them shrivelled and not so sweet smelling.
From: (christopher hedley)
Ideas for Christmas:
Potpourris made by mixing 20 drops of essential oils into 2 teaspoons of Orris root powder added to a couple of handfuls of dried flowers - remember you can use aromatic woods as well.
4.7.3 Drying flowers whole for potpourri
From: (Diana Politika):
If you want to dry the peony intact, either bury it in silica gel or use a 50/50 mixture of borax and cornmeal. Leave it buried for about 2 weeks and then tilt the container to get the mix to shift off the flower. Silica works best, but the other is a lot cheaper. If using the borax mix, use a small soft paintbrush to get all the dust off. I’ve used many of these in arrangements and everyone goes nuts over them.
From: (gwen baker):
When drying flowers using silica be careful. It can speed the drying process, but it can also cause discoloration and leave a residue behind. In about the same amount of time the flowers can be dried naturally. Silica does allow you to keep a flower whole or to preserve a shape. There is also a liquid ( I think it is a glycerine) that will preserve greenery and keep it soft and flexible.
4.7.4 Bath salts
From: (christopher hedley)
Bath salts made by mixing 10-15 drops of essential oils ‘personally selected’ in 2 teaspoons of baking soda, mixed well with 3 handfuls of sea salt.
From: Ken Fitch
[granny sez, way too much borax]
Here is my recipe for bath salts. It is simple and great:
Mix 2 cups Borax, 1/8 cup Sea Salt, and 1/8 cup White Clay together. Use a fork or fingers to thoroughly mix. Shake in about an ounce of essential oil. Cover with a cloth for at least an hour. Mix the bath salts again to distribute the oil. Store in glass.
I hope you enjoy. You can experiment with various essential oils, or pick up a book on aromatherapy for some recipes.
From: (donna):
To one box of epson salt mix 1/2 cup baking soda, 12 drops of lavender essential oil, 3 drops each of red and blue food coloring. Add a scoop to the bath water after the tub is filled, not during filling.
From: JoAnne Hildebrand
While running warm water in the tub, add 1/2 cup baking soda. After filling the tub, add a few drops of essential oil to the water, allowing it to float on top where you can most enjoy the fragrance.
This is a most soothing bath. Easy too!
From: SuseB.
These are recipes I have for bath salts and herb crystals, respectively, although I have not tried making them myself as of yet:
Basic Bath Salts:
Put 1 cup rock salt in a container with a lid. Drop essential oil or fragrance oil (about 20 drops) onto salt and stir or shake well. Next add food coloring, if desired (approx. 15 drops per cup).
Herb Crystals:
1/2 c. sea salt
1/2 c. Epson salts
1/2 c. fresh herbs or flowers
1/4 c. baking soda
Blend the above in food processor. Add a few drops of food coloring. Spread mixture onto cookie sheet to dry. Add essential oil and stir well. Try several drops of spruce, lemon, patchouli, rosemary, ylang ylang and eucalyptus.
Good luck, and let me know how they come out!
4.7.5 Rose beads
The rose beads have moved to the Best of the Herbal Forums: http://www.henriettesherbal.com/archives/best/1996/rose-beads.html
4.7.6 Misc.
From: (gwen baker)
Dried herbs can also go into herb pillows and sleep pillows.
Date: Mon, 13 May 1996 23:14:44 -0400
To: The Culinary Herbs & Spices List
From: Mary Curtis
Subject: ROSE BEAD INSTR
Date: Tue, 7 May 1996 09:53:21 -0400
From: Kacey Levesque
Subject: ROSE BEAD INSTR
To: Multiple recipients of list GARDENS
ROSE BEADS
First thing to do is collect the rose petals in a brown paper bag so they don’t get crushed. Optimum time is in the morning just after the dew has dried. I guess early evening wouldn’t hurt either but I don’t know about that. You can use petals that have dropped on the ground, i.e. after a rose has ‘exploded’ as my kids say, but don’t use any brown edges of the petals. I just snip these off with scissors.
Second, The way I used to do this was with motar and pestle(sp) but now I use a mini chopper. Take the rose petals, you can mix colors as they are all going to turn to a dark shade of ebony anyway and you can mix scents too it they are compatible, and put them in the chopper dish and chop until very fine. Take out that bunch and put in a glass jar and continue chopping the rest of the petals a dish full at a time. Put them all in a glass jar and cover loosely.
Third, the next day you can chop more fresh or slightly fresh petals then add them to what is in the jar and process the whole bunch again. Continue doing this for the next few days until you get at least a cup of rose petal paste. Then start the process over with a new jar. This takes a lot of paste.
Fourth, once you’ve got the paste to the consistancy of playdough take a small amount and roll it in your hands to make a ball the size of a green pea. For this step you will also need a large sheet of cardboard, I cut up sides of cartons from grocery store, and some rustproof straight pins. Once you have made the ‘pea’ stick a straight pin through it and stick this into the cardboard but don’t let the bead touch the cardboard.
Fifth, put them in an out of the way place as they have to dry until hard. This time varies depending on the amount of humidity in the air but we have AC in the summer so it is usually no longer than 3 or 4 days for me.
Sixth, once they have dried polish them with a soft lintfree cloth, actually I have found that baby diapers work well, until they have a lustrous shine. They will be dark, depending on the color of the petals some are very black and some are a little shade of black but I have always mixed my Duets, (very pink) Don Juans, (very red), and some smelly yellow ones that I don’t remember the name of.
Lastly, I use beading thread and a small eyed needle and string them in long enough strands to go over a head, as I make them for different people, knot the thread well, put a small dab of hot glue on the knot and you are off and running. Every once in a while I polish them up with another rub with a cloth, perhaps once or twice a year, and when you wear these in the summer months the fragrance of roses is pretty strong, not like being doused with perfume but you can tell they are there.
My girlfriend’s grandmother got some made by her mother when she was a girl of 7 or 8, she is now 92, and you can still smell the fragrance of the roses.
A wonderful side benefit is that as you are making the paste your kitchen will smell like roses for most of the day until you cook something with a strong odor.
Good luck
Kacey
BTW: If you are driving through your neighborhood at the crack of dawn collecting fallen rose petals from your neighbor’s gardens, you are on litter patrol.
From: Chris Reeve
I made rose beads last year, but I cooked them in a cast iron pot to get them to turn black. Kacey didn’t mention anything about cooking them, how did she get them to turn color?
Chris (a cup of rose beads at home, still unstrung- one of my many unfinished projects!) :-)
From: “Mary Jane Horton, DC”
Not to beat a dead horse, but I’ve been sporadically reading the posts regarding rose beads and finally decided to try it; when I opened my latest issue of “Birds & Blooms” and ta da... there was an article on rose beads. Very similar direction, they spread the paste in a cast iron skillet (the cast iron helps to darken it) for 4-9 days to dry. The article says moisture content is the key. I liked the suggestion of rubbing rose oil on your hands before you roll them, and roll them about twice as big as you want them since they shrink to half the size as they dry. They can be “revived” by rubbing them with rose oil.
Sounds fun, can’t wait to gather those blossoms.
From: arien kismet del’tai
After squishing up a couple of rose heads with my little mortar and pestle and sticking them in a jar to sit ‘til I get that cupful, my question becomes: how do you keep the goo from growing mold? Mine developed gossamer white fuzz and I had to toss it out. (I live in Seattle, which is currently fairly humid.) Any advice would be really helpful, because I don’t think putting it under a layer of olive oil would do the trick...; )
From: Esther Czekalski
> how do you keep the goo from growing mold?
Refrigerate?
From: Maria del Giudice
I just had a strange thought reading all this about rose beads and basil - I wonder if the recipe would work with basil or other soft-leaf spices?!
From: Jan Gordon
Hmmm, interesting, I really love basil a lot, but I don’t know if I want to wear that delicious aroma around my neck.
http://www.henriettesherbal.com/archives/best/1996/basil-root.html
Rooting basil.
Date: Wed, 29 May 1996 13:28:00 MDT
To: The Culinary Herbs & Spices List
From: Margaret Lauterbach
Subject: Re: trout with herbs
> And yes I am using basil, but am not in the south. I just cheated, bought a large plant early and started it inside. I’ve just pinched some of the ends off so far : )
I visited a friend’s garden yesterday and noticed that in addition to the basil she had started from seeds, she had several sizeable plants. She explained she bought a bunch of basil at the grocery store, snipped off the tops for use, then put the rest in a glass of water. The topless twigs rooted, so she planted them. They didn’t flicker an anther over having been transplanted. Hmmm.
From: Madelyn Johnson
I did the same thing — rooting cuttings of basil from the store. Thai basil to be exact. I was looking everywhere for seeds or plants of this to use in Thai recipes and couldn’t find it. In desperation, I decided to try rooting some from the Thai grocery and it rooted just fine. I have a nice bunch growing now in a huge pot. Yum!
Culinary herb FAQ: http://www.henriettesherbal.com/faqs/culi-2-1-basil.html
http://www.henriettesherbal.com/faqs/culi-4-8-drinks.html
4.8 Beverages.
* Beer
* Ginger ale
* Tea
* Wine
* Zingiber officinale
4.8.1 Wine
From: (Gwen Baker) (who got it from Terry Pelley on rec.winemaking)
Rose petal wine
One day before you prepare the must you should make a yeast starter:
For one gallon of wine:
4 oz. Water
1 tsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. nutrient
Pinch of citric acid
1/4 tsp. yeast
For five gallons of wine:
2 cups water
2 tbs. sugar
1/2 tsp. nutrient
1/4 tsp. citric acid
1 package of yeast
Mix all the ingredients in an appropriate size bottle and shake to combine. Loosely cover the bottle, do not seal it tight; a cloth held in place with a rubber band will work fine. After sitting for a day this mixture should be fermenting and can be added to the must.
The must:
6 cups rose petals (fresh) whites removed
1/4 lb. chopped white raisins
5 3/4 cups sugar
2 tsp. yeast nutrient
2 tsp. acid blend
1 Campden Tablet (crushed)
Yeast - All purpose or Rhinewine
Boil one gallon of water and combine with rose petals, raisins, and sugar in your primary fermenter. Allow the mixture to cool to around 75 degrees and add yeast nutrient, acid blend and campden tablet.
4.8.2 Ginger ale / ginger beer
From: Jeff Benjamin
I normally post this to homebrewing newsgroups or mailing lists, so for those who are fermentationally challenged, here are a few notes on the recipe below:
* “Sanitized fermentation vessel” simply means a glass container, like a gallon juice jug, that has been sanitized with a dilute bleach solution. Fill the container with a mixture of two tablespoons of bleach per gallon of water. Let sit for 15 minutes, then drain. Rinsing with clean water is optional, although if you do not rinse, let air dry completely before using.
* An airlock, in this case, is used to allow CO2 produced during fermentation to escape while not letting air (and airborne bacteria) in. There are a couple of different varieties; you may remember the S-shaped ones from high school biology. You can pick up one of these at your local home-brew supply shop. If there isn’t such a shop in your area, simply cover the top of the jug with some plastic wrap and tie *loosely* with string, so that it’s not completely sealed.
* On yeast: again, you can get packages of dry ale yeast from your home-brew supply shop. The fancy varieties of liquid yeast are overkill; a 99-cent package of dry yeast (Red Star, Edme, M&F, etc.) will do just fine. Bread yeast would probably work fine, although I’ve never tried it.
* On bottling: sanitize the bottles before filling, just like the fermentation vessel. If you use any auxiliary implements, like a funnel, it wouldn’t hurt to sanitize them too. You can re-use the white plastic screw caps on the 2l PET bottles; sanitize them as well.
Geez, now I’ve probably made the whole operation sound like nuclear physics. Well, it ain’t. It is a little more like canning or pickling, in that there are some safety concerns, although the sanitizing is more to prevent off odors and flavors than to prevent deadly diseases. Honestly, it’s really pretty easy to do. As the homebrewers all say, “Relax, don’t worry.” Have a ginger ale.
Ginger Ale
1 gallon water
1 pound white sugar (either granulated or corn will do)
1/2 oz cream of tartar
1 oz grated ginger
1 lemon
your favorite ale yeast
Boil water, stir in sugar, cream of tartar, ginger, and zest of lemon (yellow part of peel). Cool to pitching temperature ( 75F), add juice of lemon. Transfer the whole mess to a sanitized fermentation vessel, pitch yeast, and cap with an airlock.
Bottle after 48 hours, using strong bottles (champagne or 2l soda pop bottles work well). Let condition at room temperature for 2-3 days, then refrigerate.
Helpful Hints:
* You can use more ginger (up to 3-4 oz per gallon) to get spicier ginger ale.
* The jury is still out on whether it is necessary to peel the ginger. I peel it simply because it’s easier to grate that way.
* Don’t second guess the fermentation time, and don’t be worried if the air lock is still perking after 48 hrs. If you let it go past 48 hrs, you will probably end up with somewhat flat, not-very-sweet soda.
* Please don’t use regular beer bottles. Champagne bottles are much stronger. 2l PET bottles work very well because you can squeeze them to see how carbonated they are, and relieve pressure if you’re worried.
* Make sure you store the ginger ale in the fridge. This will help minimize any unwanted further fermentation.
* Make in small quantities and drink soon. The refrigerating will *minimize* fermentation, not stop it, so eventually you will run the risk of gushers or grenades.
Ginger Beer
From Sam Waring
6 oz Ginger, fresh; bruised
3 qt Water
5 lb. Loaf sugar
1/4 lb. Honey
1/2 c Lemon juice
17 qt Water
2 Drachms essence of lemon (about 2 ts)
1 Egg
Put ginger and 3 quarts water into a very large kettle and boil for 30 minutes. Add sugar, honey, lemon juice and 17 quarts more water.
Strain through a cloth and when it is cold, add essence of lemon and egg. Let stand for 3-4 days before bottling. Yield: 1 serving.
From Sam Waring
Homemade ginger beer
1 oz Ginger, fresh; peeled & -crushed
1/3 c Lime juice
Lime peel; of 3 small
1/2 c Sugar
3 3/4 c Water, boiling
1/4 tsp. Yeast
1/4 c Water, lukewarm
Combine the crushed ginger, lime peel, juice and sugar in a jar or at least one quart capacity. Pour in the boiling water. Cover loosely and let cool to room temp. Dissolve the yeast in the lukewarm water and add. Seal the jar as tightly as possible and let stand at room temp overnight. Chill, strain and serve. Yield: 1 quart.
From: (David S Inman)
Ginger Beer on Dried Ground Ginger
This recipe doesn’t use ginger root - but it is good! First you need a starter . . .
Either Half fill a jam jar with tepid water, stir in one teaspoonful sugar and one teaspoonful ground ginger, plus one teaspoonful dried yeast; or, as above without yeast. Add one teaspoonful sugar every day and leave uncovered in jar until fermentation starts by natural yeast spores in the air. Then add one level teaspoonful ginger and one of sugar to starter and stir well each day for six days. On the seventh day strain and halve the starter (keep one half for the next batch).
To strained liquid add twelve English cups (120 fluid ounces) of cold water, three cups sugar melted in four cups boiling water and juice of two lemons. Bottle and cork (do not use screw tops, bottles might explode) and keep for four days. Result is mildly alcoholic!
4.8.3 Herbal teas
Best of the herbal forums: http://www.henriettesherbal.com/archives/best/1996/herbal-tea.html
Best of the herbal forums: http://www.henriettesherbal.com/archives/best/1996/herbal-tea-1.html
Best of the herbal forums: http://www.henriettesherbal.com/archives/best/1996/sun-tea.html
For ‘tea’ -tea (Camellia sinensis) check out the FAQ of rec.food.drink.tea. For ‘herbal’ teas look here.
From: Rick Jarvis
(On uses of cinnamon basil:)
I use cinnamon basil primarily in tea. (Not many people think of basil as a tea herb.) Cinnamon basil mixes well with mint, catnip, scullcap, etc. in bedtime teas. I use licorice basil in combination with the above herbs, and often throw in some anise hyssop. Lemon basil gets mixed into any number of lemony mixes, that also incorporate lemon balm, lemon verbena, lemon grass, and lemon catnip.
If you enjoy herb teas (actually, technically they’re infusions, because they don’t contain any real tea), try using some basil.
(after being prompted for more info:)
I do have some advice on developing your own recipes. Take an herb that seems like it would make good tea, make some tea and try it. If you like it, keep using it. After you have tried a few herbs that you enjoy, try mixing them. If there’s an herb with certain properties that you want to use (such as catnip or scullcap for a sedative effect at bedtime), but you dont like the taste, mix it with an herb you like that will mask the flavor. The important thing is to keep records of what you put into the blends that you like, so you can reproduce them when you run out.
I make most of my herb teas from dried herbs, although I do make some sun teas using fresh herbs combined with pekoe tea bags. To start, use what you have available. Experiment some, too. (I wouldn’t have thought to used flavored basil for tea until my wife tried it and we liked it.) Some of the herbs we use or have experimented with in tea are various mints, flavored basils (lemon, cinnamon, licorice), anise hyssop, lemon verbena, calamint, catmint, catnip, lemon catnip, lemon grass, chamomile, sage, pineapple sage, lemon balm, clary sage, scullcap, sweet marjoram, and thyme. There are *LOTS* of others. Have fun!
From (DGholston):
The fresh or dried leaves of pineapple sage can be used as a mild-flavored substitute for common sage in cooking or to make herbal tea.
From Paul Kentaro Matsumoto
> I am looking for recipes that use lavender flowers to make herbal teas.
A real simple and delicious recipe: a tablespoon of dried lavender, a couple sprigs of sage (fresh or dried), a couple sprigs of pineapple mint or apple mint, and just a little rosemary. Hope you like this one!
From curtis nehring bliss (nobody.nowhere)
If you want a wonderful tea with a citrussy kick that tastes great hot or cold try this:
Forgotten Harvest Herbal Tea
1 part hibiscus flowers
2 parts lemon grass
3 parts raspberry leaf
Let steep for twenty minutes. It’s a very refreshing blend when served ice cold to help you get through these summer days
From: sjahner.sojourn.com (Barbara Jahner)
* Equal parts of sage, thyme, marjoram, oregano and chamomile is nice and it will help you fall asleep too.
* Also: 5 oz dried red rosebuds, 2 oz dried balm, 1oz dried rosemary.
* Also mix in equal parts: balm leaves, rosemary, lavender, spearmint, and cloves. Personally I like a little less cloves but it’s up to you.
Enjoy!
.
http://www.henriettesherbal.com/faqs/culi-4-9-plenty.html
4.9 Recipes calling for lots of herbs.
* Mustard
* Pesto
* Spice mix
4.9.1 Gazpacho
White Gazpacho
From: (Donna Beach)
one qt buttermilk
2 tbs. cider or herb vinegar
1 tbs. sugar or honey
4-6 drops of Tabasco or one teaspoon white pepper
2 green onions
1 small sweet red bell pepper, diced
1-2 cloves garlic
2 stalks celery, cubed
1 large cucumber, Peeled & seeded
1 tbs. fresh dill chopped,
1 tbs. fresh tarragon, chopped.
Put garlic and white parts of onion into food processor and chop. Then add cuke and celery with vinegar and process till fairly smooth. Combine buttermilk, sugar and white pepper or Tabasco. Slice green parts of onion. Combine all ingredients and chill before serving. May be garnished with chopped red leaf lettuce or chopped tomatoes.
4.9.2 Pesto
Also see Using / preserving basil, 2.1.3, and Freezing your herbs, 4.4.
From: (jnilsen)
1 cup fresh Basil leaves, tightly packed
2-3 cloves garlic
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup pine nuts
1/4 cup olive oil
Process (or finely chop and mix) all but oil. Slowly add oil. Use.
From: (Donna Beach)
I never really follow a recipe when I make pesto. I usually put 4-6 cloves of garlic in the food processor with 1/4 cup of olive oil and a couple of tablespoons of herb vinegar and then chop the garlic. Then I add at least 3-4 cups packed fresh sweet basil leaves and 3-4 tablespoons of ground almonds. Some people use ground pine nuts. And 1/4 cup or more of grated parmesan cheese (I like it fresh best). All this gets processed till the basil is chopped fine.
I have seen this basic pest recipe to include one-to-several peeled tomatoes—which is a great way to use up an abundance of tomatoes from your garden.
Later in the year when there’s not as much sweet basil, you can put parsley into the mix. I have even seen a winter “pesto” made with fresh sage, but to me, it’s not pesto without fresh sweet basil, with or without the tomatoes.
From: (Ruth J Fink-Winter)
This is one of my favorite pestos.
Asian Pesto
1 clove garlic
1” piece ginger root, peeled
2 tsp. toasted sesame seeds
2 bunches cilantro, stems removed
1 tsp. soy sauce
1 tsp. mirin or apple juice
juice of 1 lime (about 3 tsp.)
1/4 tsp. Tabasco sauce
3 tsp. sesame oil (or less)
8 oz. soba noodles, cooked
Turn on food processor. With motor running, drop garlic and ginger into feed tube. Add seeds and cilantro; pulse til finely chopped. Add soy sauce, mirin or juice, and then slowly add oil in steady stream until pesto is desired consistency. Toss with hot noodles.
From: (ANDREAS GUENIN)
Sundried Tomato Pesto
1/2 cup blanched sundried tomatoes
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 Tbs. tomato paste
3/4 cup olive oil
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
2 cloves of garlic
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
Combine everything except the oil in a food processor, and then slowly add the olive oil while pureeing to the proper consistency.
From: (Gregory R. Cook)
For a low fat (or no fat) alternative, cut down (or eliminate) the olive oil and add fresh squeezed lemon juice until you get the right consistency. Personally, I like to use a little bit of olive oil for the texture. Also, walnuts are often substituted for pine nuts.
From: DonW
Pesto (Sorrel-Chive Herb Paste)
1 c Sorrel
4 tbs. Shallots; finely minced
4 tbs. Pine nuts; ground
3 tbs. Parsley; chopped
3 tbs. Chives; chopped
Grated peel of 4 oranges
1/4 Onions, red; chopped
1 tbs. Mustard, dry
1 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. Pepper, black
1 pn Pepper, cayenne
3/4 c Oil. olive
Wash the sorrel and dry it well, by hand or in a salad spinner. Chop the sorrel coarsely, and again squeeze away any liquid. Blend the sorrel, shallots, pine nuts, parsley, chives, orange peel and onion in a food processor or blender. (If using a blender, make sure these ingredients are already finely chopped.) Add dry mustard, salt, pepper and cayenne, and mix again. SLOWLY drizzle in the oil while the blade is moving. Transfer to tempered glass jars and store in refrigerator (for up to 8 to 10 weeks) or in the freezer for up to a year.
NOTES: Sorrel’s peak season is summer, although you can find hothouse sorrel year round in some stores. You may reduce the amount of orange peel by 1/4 or 1/2 if you’d like to emphasize the sorrel or other flavors. Walnuts or almonds may be substituted for the pine nuts.
From (Mary A. Flesch):
Yet another pesto idea. I am always trying to lower the fat in my diet, so last summer I tried “Rosie’s Pesto” from “In the Kitchen with Rosie” (Oprah’s cook) mostly because it had no oil in it (1 1/2 c fresh basil leaves, 2-5 garlic cloves to taste, 1/4 c pine nuts, 1/4 c fresh parmesan and 1/4 cup lemon juice). However, I only had bottled lemon juice (BIG MISTAKE, I highly recommend fresh) and it turned out way too lemon-y. So I diluted it with ricotta, and it turned out excellent over fettucini! I think it would also be a good mixture to stuff manicotti with. The mixture was approximately 1 tablespoon pesto to 1/4 c manicotti.
> ... pesto turning brown ...
From: Xiaoyan Ma
I grow sweet basils to make pesto. But for some reason my pesto always turns brown (the surface only) within 2 minutes.
This is the recipe I have:
1/2 cup chopped basil
3 tbs. parmesan cheese
4 tbs. olive oil
2 tbs. pinenut
1 clove of garlic
salt
I put 3 times of each ingredient into the blender and blend it for 2 minutes then store the pesto in a jar. I have tried a few times, the same thing happens each time. The pesto tastes good but looks awful. When I mix the pesto with pasta, the whole thing turns brown right away. Can someone tell me what causes the problem?
From: (Stavros Macrakis)
Pesto (like guacamole) turns brown by oxidation. One way to prevent oxidation is to pour a thin layer of oil on top, or cover with plastic wrap (touching the pesto).
Your pesto will probably also turn out better if you use a mortar and pestle instead of a blender. In fact, even a food processor seems to work better than a blender. And the traditional cheese to use is not parmesan, but pecorino sardo (Sardinian ewe’s milk cheese).
Unfortunately, good pecorino sardo is hard to get in the US, so you might have to substitute pecorino romano, also known as just “romano”.
> I would like to hear from others about alternatives for using pesto.
From: (Wendi L Gardner)
I grow lots of basil and make tons of pesto. what to do with all of that pesto? yes pasta, yes bread, but other fun things to do with pesto...
* smash it into cream cheese (the ratio of pesto to cream cheese that I prefer is 1:3, but you can go more or less, obviously.) add garlic, some plumped (blanched) sun dried tomatoes, whatever else you fancy - yum!
* toss pesto with white beans and vidalia onions, serve this concoction hot on a bed of fresh spinach.
* mix pesto with vegetable broth, toss in whatever veggies you have in the fridge and some macaroni, (I like broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, and rotini for this) and you have soup.
* find the juiciest beefsteak tomato you can...slice in half, slather with pesto, broil till bubbly. messy, but with a good quality tomato-— more than worth the mess!
* fill mushroom caps with pesto plus a cheese (the pesto cream cheese mixture in #1 is good for this) sprinkle with bread crumbs and broil.
From: (Sarah G.):
* Pesto and potatoes: On baked potatoes, swirled into mashed potatoes, mixed into homefried potatoes, used as a dipping sauce for French fries.
* Make soup and swirl a spoonful into each bowl before serving.
* Blend the pesto with vinegar and oil, or your favorite vinaigrette, and use as salad dressing
* Make into soup... sautee some veggies, add broth and pesto, and simmer for pesto soup.
* Thin it and use as a marinade for tofu, potatoes and veggies, then grill.
* Use it for garlic bread filling (or is that what you meant?) Or you could use it to smear over homemade bread before it comes out of the oven as a glaze
* Sliced ripe tomatoes layered on a plate with pesto, and fresh waterpacked mozzarella.
* It’s easy to make a dairy free pesto. Instead of using cheese, either use a mild flavored miso paste or SoyMage pretend grated cheese, which is completely vegan (no casein). I usually just leave the cheese out altogether, letting the flavor of the basil, garlic, olive oil and nuts show through.
From: (Jennifer Norris)
I make a potato salad with it. Instead of the usual mayonnaise, I add pesto. Besides potatoes, I add fresh snap peas, green onions, and if I want to make it a really substantial meal, black beans. Gets rave revues....
From: MiKe McClain
Uses for pesto not mentioned: I put it in omelettes, quiche and deviled eggs, mac and cheese, and gravies. I also mix a tps. of pesto with 3-4 Tbs. mayo for a sandwich spread.
From: Matthew Shapiro
Black Bean Pesto
a terrific, easy-to-make, savory dip for chips, served warm.
1 can black beans
garlic cloves (as anti-vampiric as you like)
dried basil (you can use fresh, but use more)
romano cheese (or the sardo cheese, if you can get it)
black walnuts, heated dry in a pan until fragrant
juice of 1/2 to 1 lemon
fresh ground pepper
a little salt, to taste*
olive oil
Preheat oven to 250-degrees.
Combine black beans (including water), garlic, basil, cheese, walnuts, lemon juice, pepper and salt, and add a little olive oil to get it started. Process and through the hopper, slowly add more olive oil until the mixture just turns creamy.
Pour out dip into oven-safe (like Corningwear) baking dish and pop in the oven. Bake until the top isn’t wet anymore, and the inside is warm to hot. Serve with your favorite corn chips.
*Watch out with the salt addition. The corn chips and the cheese may make it all salty enough without adding more.
I wasn’t real specific about the amounts of basil and nuts and such because it’s adaptable to anyone’s taste or existing favorite pesto recepie, and I don’t normally measure them out. Note, too, that it’s easy to except the cheese and make this a great vegan recepie.
4.9.3 Miscellaneous
Potatoes with Tarragon
From: (Donna Beach)
one large onion
1 tbs. oil
4 medium potatoes.
1 bay leaf
3 tbs.-1/4 cup vinegar
salt & pepper to taste
one tbs. chopped fresh tarragon
Chop onion and sautee till transparent. Peel and slice potatoes, 1/4” thick. Add to onions and sautee for a couple of minutes, then add bay leaf, tarragon, salt and pepper. Add about 1/2 cup water to the skillet, bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for 30 minutes or so—till the potatoes are done. Stir from time to time to make sure they aren’t sticking and adding extra water if needed. Serve with the pan drippings.
I’ve seen a similar recipe using rosemary instead of tarragon.
> I’m seeking a recipe for ginger salad dressing (like you get at a Japanese steak house)
Ginger Dressing
From Sam Waring
2 T Ginger, fresh; peeled & -coarsely chopped
2 T Dijon mustard
2 tsp. Hoisin sauce
1 T Balsamic vinegar
1 T Soy sauce, light
Cayenne pepper; to taste
1 T Sherry
2 T Sesame oil
1/4 c Oil
Blend ingredients in blender or processor. Makes about 1 1/2 cups.
Fuvesleves (Herb Soup)
From: DonW1948.aol.com
1 tsp. Marjoram leaves
1 tsp. Thyme leaves
1 tbs. 1” pieces of Chives
1 tsp. chopped Applemint
4 tbs. unsalted Butter
1 tbs. all-purpose Flour
6 c Water
1 tsp. Salt
a pinch of black Pepper
3 Egg yolks
1 tbs. Sour cream
3 hard Rolls, cut in half, toasted
Cook all the herbs in 2 tablespoons butter for 2-3 minutes. Sprinkle with flour, then stir and cook another 4 minutes. Set aside. Pour 6 cups of water into a pot and bring to a slow simmer. Add salt and pepper.
Mix egg yolks, sour cream and remaining butter; whip into the simmering soup. Cook soup over low heat, stirring, until it thickens. Add herbs and simmer another few minutes.
Place half of a toasted roll in a soup plate and ladle soup over it.
Notes: This recipe comes from Gyula Vasvary, master chef in the 1820’s of Hungary.
Spice rubbed Turkey
From (Mary A. Flesch):
I got this recipe from our local newspaper over Thanksgiving and used the last of my summer sage, marjoram and thyme (dried of course) to make this:
2 T dry mustard
2 t ground sage
1 t garlic powder
1 t thyme
1 t marjoram
1 t paprika
1 t salt
1 t fresh ground pepper
1/2 t ground ginger
Mix together well. Makes enough to season a 10-12 pound turkey. I think this would also be good on pork chops.
Herb Garden Dressing (uses dried, which will tide us all over til summer)
From Mindy Vinqvist
1 c dried oregano
1 c dried basil
1/2 c dried marjoram
1/2 c dried dill weed
1/2 c dried mint leaves
1/2 c onion powder
2 tbs. dried mustard
2 tsp. salt
1 tbs. freshly ground pepper
Combine ingredients, keep in sealed jar to use as needed
Dressing - 2 tbs. dried mix, 1 1/2 c extra-virgin olive oil, 1/2 c cider vinegar.
Mix and let stand 1 hour before serving. Mix again just before serving.
Can also be used dried and sprinkled over things (I recommend food things)
4.9.4 Spice mixes and herb blends
From: DonW1948.aol.com
Cajun Spice
9 tsp. Pepper, cayenne
4 1/2 tsp. Pepper, black
4 1/2 tsp. Salt, sea
6 tsp. Oregano, dried, ground
6 tsp. Thyme, dried
6 tsp. Fennel, dried
6 tsp. Cumin, ground
6 tsp. Cardamom, ground
6 tsp. Garlic powder
6 tsp. Chile powder
6 tsp. Coriander, dried
Whirl in blender or mix all together by hand and fill up jar to store.
Source: A Vegetarians Ecstasy, by Natalie Cederquist and James Levin, M.D.
From: DonW
Cajun Spice Mix
1 c Sweet paprika
1 tsp. Paprika
1 tbs. Pepper, black
1 tbs. Pepper, white
3 tbs. Pepper, Cayenne
1 tbs. Garlic powder
1 tbs. Onion powder
1 tbs. Salt
1 tbs. Rosemary
Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend together. I usually put in twice the amount of cayenne for my taste.
From: DonW
Jim Echols’ Cajun Spice
1 tbs. Paprika
1 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. Onion powder
1 tsp. Cayenne powder
1 tsp. Garlic powder
1 tsp. Crushed chilies
1 tsp. Ginger powder
3/4 tsp. Pepper, white
3/4 tsp. Pepper, black
1/2 tsp. Thyme
1/2 tsp. Oregano
Mix all ingredients together in a small bowl. Store in an airtight container. Use in preparing blackened (Cajun) trout. — A special surprise for guests at shore lunches. Also try it in hamburgers, on sauteed chicken or turkey, and on popcorn.
From Calgary Herald, by Terry Bullick (89.05.03)
From: DonW
Sazon Preparado (Prepared Seasoning)
3 medium Onions; chopped
1 green bell Pepper; seeded, chopped
1 red bell Pepper; seeded, chopped
4 large Garlic cloves; peeled, chopped
1 tbs. Oregano
1 cup Scallions; chopped, both green and white
1/2 cup Parsley; coarsely chopped
1/2 cup Coriander; chopped
1 tsp. Tabasco sauce
1 tbs. Paprika, sweet
1 c Tomato paste
1 c Oil, olive
1/2 c Vinegar, white
Salt to taste
Combine all ingredients and blend, bit by bit, to a puree in blender. Pour into saucepan and simmer, stirring constantly, for 5 minutes. Cool and bottle. Used to flavor stews, beans, rice and vegetables. Easy to make and useful to have on hand. Yield: 6 cups
From: DonW
Seasoning Mixture
2 medium Onions; chopped fine
2 tbs. Chives; chopped fine
3 Garlic cloves; crushed
1 red hot Pepper; seeded, mashed
1 tsp. Oregano
1/2 tsp. Cloves, ground
1 tsp. Salt
1 tbs. Lime juice
Mix all ingredients together thoroughly.
For suckling pig, use 1 cup rubbed well into the inside of the pig prepared for roasting. To season whole cleaned fish, gash 2-3 times on each side of backbone. Any fish or meat may be seasoned with this mixture. Cook as directed in the individual recipes. Yield: 1 cup.
From: DonW
Sweat Sauce
16 habanero chilies; stemmed, seeded
1 can Plums (17 oz)
1 can Apricots (17 oz)
1 c Pimentos
2 c granulated sugar
1 c Plum Jam
1 c white vinegar
HEAT SCALE = HOT
This is a hot, spicy sauce for meats, poultry, or fish, or add it to soups, like you would add Tabasco sauce. Place all the ingredients in a blender and puree until smooth. Simmer over a low heat for 20 minutes, stirring constantly.
From chili pepper magazine, reposted by DonW1948.aol.com
Yield: 6 servings
Here is some recipes that Denise Rounds posted to rec.food.cooking in May 96. Thanks to Karen Gann (http://www.anaserve.com/~gann/) for sending these recipes over:
Herbs de Provence
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp summer savory
1/2 tsp lavender
1/4 tsp rosemary
1/2 tsp oregano or basil 1/4 tsp sage
Herbs de Provence is made up of every herb that grows easily in the south of France. The mix is best if made with dried herbs as when used and cooking is longer than 20 minutes; fresh herbs tend to lose their flavour while dried holds it.
This blend is wonderful mixed into 1/4 lb. of butter. It is great in soups, on potatoes, on rice, pasta, fish and bread. Try it on an oiled chicken that you then bake. Or make oven fries with it! Yummm.
It is not easy to find the lavender so you may have to ask around a bit for that ingredient. You want an edible version that has not been sprayed with any chemicals.
Try preparing roasted vegetables using the Herbs de Provence blend. Cut up red peppers, green and yellow, too, eggplant, zucchini and summer squash, and leeks (shallots or any onion) into bite sized pieces. Pour some extra-virgin olive oil (just enough to oil the veggies so the herbs have something to “stick” to) over the veggies along with 2 tsp. of the herbs de provence blend (that has been crushed between your palms as you let it fall into the veggies). Stir to mix the oil and the herbs evenly. Put into a 9 x 13 inch pan in a 400 degree f. oven (or 375 F if your oven runs hot). Let roast for 15 to 20 minutes. This is delicious and impressive! And so EASY!
Fines Herbs
1 sprig fresh parsley, minced
1 sprig fresh tarragon, minced
1 sprig fresh chervil, minced
1 fresh chive, minced
Pull leaves off of herbs by pulling in the opposite direction they are growing in. Chop all finely in a food processor. Use in classic French foods. This is good in vegetable soups, potatoes, butters.
Add 2 recipes of this to 1 cup of unsalted butter. Blend and use of potatoes, rice, pasta, fish, or bread.
Bouquet Garni
3 sprigs fresh parsley
1 sprig fresh thyme
1 dried or 2 fresh bay leaf
Wrap these together with kitchen twine. Add to recipes during the cooking but be sure to remove before serving the food! Good in soups, stews, chicken and dumplings, and in goulash.
Use this to make a delicious Tuscan White Bean dish: Heat a large saucepan and add some olive oil. Add one chopped leek or some yellow onions and shallots. Saute ‘til soft and then add six cans of white beans, 5 to 6 roma tomatoes, 1-1/2 cups of chicken broth and one bouquet de garni. Cook at simmer for 1/2 hour or longer.
Garam Masala
2 tsp cardamon seeds
2 tsp coriander seeds
1-1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp peppercorns
1/2 tsp whole cloves
1/2 whole nutmeg (you will grate a part of it)
2 inch piece of a cinnamon stick, broken up
This is a northern India blend. The mixes are slightly stronger in the southern section. Bake the seeds in an oven until they are darker in colour. Use a 350-degree oven and keep close watch on them. Put the seeds and all the remaining spices into a food processor. Grind it finely.
Use this blend in vegetable stew to which you have added some apple juice or apple cider, try with potatoes, vegetable stock, over rice, in quick breads such as pumpkin and apple.
4.9.5 Mustards
Also see Using / Preserving Horseradish, 2.20.3.
From: Christel Reeve
Whole Grain Mustard
1 T. whole coriander seeds
6 T. whole mustard seeds (black and yellow)
1 T. green peppercorns
1/2 t. dried thyme
3/4 c. water
2 t. honey
1/4 c. red wine vinegar
Toast coriander seeds in dry skillet. Crush mustard seeds, peppercorns and coriander seeds in a mortar. Mix seeds, thyme and water in upper pan of double boiler. Let stand at least 3 hours. Heat water to boiling. Stir in honey and vinegar and cook 10 minutes or until desired consistency.
Herb mustard
1/4 c. black mustard seeds
1/4 c. yellow mustard seeds
1/4 c. dry powdered mustard
3/4 c. cold water
1/4 c. dry white wine
1/4 c. white wine vinegar
1 t. dried herb
1/8 t. ground allspice
Mix seeds and mustard with water in upper pan of double boiler. Let stand at least 3 hours. In another pan, mix wine, vinegar, herb and allspice and bring to a boil. Strain the liquid into the mustard and blend well. Cook in double boiler until desired consistency.
English Pub Mustard
1 c. dry mustard
1/2 c. firmly packed brown sugar
1 t. salt
1/4 t. turmeric
6 oz. flat beer or ale
Put all but beer in food processor or blender. With machine running, pour in beer in steady stream. Let sit in cool place for 2 weeks, then refrigerate.
Horseradish Mustard
1 c. dry mustard
1/2 c . powdered sugar
1/2 t. salt
1/2 c. white wine vinegar
1/4 c. oil
1 T. fresh lemon juice
1/4 t. grated lemon peel
5 T. horseradish
Blend all ingredients. Let age in cool place for 2-8 weeks, then refrigerate.
Dijon mustard
2. dry white wine
1 large onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, pressed
1 c. (4 oz) dry mustard
3 T. honey
1 T. oil
2 t. salt
Combine wine, onion and garlic in a non-aluminum saucepan. Heat to boiling and simmer 5 minutes. Cool and discard solids. Add liquid to dry mustard, stirring constantly til smooth. Blend in honey, oil and salt. Heat slowly til thickened (watch fumes!) stirring constantly. Cool in covered jar. Age 2-8 weeks in cool place, then refrigerate.
Bavarian Brown Mustard
1/2 c. whole brown mustard seed
3/4 c. dry sherry
1 c. dry mustard
1/4 c. brown sugar
1/4 t. salt
Combine seed and sherry and let stand 2-3 hours. Blend until almost smooth. Add remainder of ingredients. Let age 2-8 weeks (in cool, dark place), then refrigerate. The longer you let it sit out before refrigerating, the milder it will be.
From: Sam Waring
Sweet German Mustard
1/4 c whole Mustard seeds
1/2 c hot tap Water
1/4 c cold tap Water
2 T dark brown Sugar
2 small peeled and halved Garlic cloves
2 pinches ground Cloves
5 T Dry mustard
1 c Cider vinegar
2 slices of Onion
1 1/2 tsp. Salt
1/4 tsp. ground Cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground allspice
1/4 tsp. crumbled dried Tarragon
3 T light Corn syrup
1/4 tsp. Dill seeds
Soak together the mustard seeds, dry mustard, hot water, & 1/2 cup of the vinegar for at least 3 hours. Combine in a saucepan the rest of the vinegar, cold water, onion, brown sugar, salt, garlic, cinnamon, allspice, dill seeds, tarragon & cloves. Bring to a boil, boil for one minute & cover. Let stand one hour.
Scrape soaked mustard mixture into a blender. Strain into it the spice infusion, pressing solids into a strainer to extract all flavor. Process the mustard (covered) till like a coarse puree with a definite graininess. Pour mixture into the top of a double boiler set over simmering water & cook 10 minutes, stirring often till the mixture is noticeably thicker. Remove from heat, add the Karo and pour into a storage jar. Let it cool uncovered, then cap and store. Can be refrigerated or not. Makes about 1-1/2 cups.
— Better than Store-Bought by Schneider and Colchie
[Links not checked]
http://www.henriettesherbal.com/faqs/culi-5.html
5 Sites to see.
5.1 FTP sites
I keep archives of alt.folklore.herbs, the culinary herblist, the medicinal herblist and the herbinfo list here: ftp://henriettesherbal.com/archives.
Both alt.folklore.herbs and the medicinal herblist have more traffic on medicinal herbs than on culinary herbs; for herb gardening and culinary uses the usual place to find information is rec.gardens.edible or the culinary herblist.
Lawrence London keeps archives of rec.gardens on MetaLab by ftp, or try the mirror in Japan: ftp ibiblio.org (or SunSITE.sut.ac.jp)
/pub/academic/agriculture/sustainable_agriculture/gardening/discussion-groups/rec.gardens/
There’s a lot of other newsgroup archives on MetaLab, too.
5.2 WWW pages
The only pages needed here are those with comprehensive forward links. With these you should be covered:
* Henriette’s Herbal Homepage has some links: http://www.henriettesherbal.com
* The Garden Net homepage: http://gardennet.com
* The Garden Gate: http://garden-gate.prairienet.org
* The Gardening Launch Pad: http://www.gardeninglaunchpad.com
* The Internet Chef (Real Neat Site): http://www.ichef.com
http://www.henriettesherbal.com/archives/best/1996/basil-pres.html
Preserving basil, and herbal oils and botulism.
Date: Thu, 23 May 1996 21:11:51 -0800
To: The Culinary Herbs & Spices List
From: Lynette Scribner
Subject: Re: Basil Preservation (was: Dill Preservation)
Hi Sherry!
>Thinking to the future a bit, it seems that my basil grows like a weed in the summer and I have all I can use. Then in winter, I look at the tiny bouquets of basil in the produce section of the grocery store that are marked at $1.95 and I just drool.
Something that worked for me was to puree the basil in a food processor with a little bit of water and freeze the puree into ice cube trays then pop the cubes into plastic freezer bags. The ones I froze last summer still smell fresh! I haven’t actually made pesto out of it (I forgot it was in the freezer until about 2 months ago!), but I imagine if you drained water off the thawed basil in a very fine strainer it would work just fine. Great in soups and tomato sauces!
From: Fran
> Something that worked for me was to puree the basil in a food processor
If you plan on mainly using it for pesto, puree it with oil and freeze. Then you don’t have to worry about the water. The ice cube/water method works great for adding to soups and such.
From: Jan Gordon
>Thinking to the future a bit, it seems that my basil grows like a weed in
On preserving basil: I chopped it up, put it in ziplock bags, and popped them into the freezer. As someone mentioned, it does turn dark but it tastes and smells like fresh basil.
I also pulled up a basil plant and potted it, set it in a southern window for the winter. It did just great, I had fresh basil all winter. what a treat! I did the same with chives, sage, oregano and thyme. The oregano and thyme didn’t make it but everything else is still going strong. Jan, central New York
From: “Lisa A. Eller, N8PSF”
>On preserving basil: I chopped it up, put it in ziplock bags, and popped
You could also dry it - using a dehydrator or an oven on a very low temp for a few days.
From: “Mary E. Hall”
It looks like lots of you freeze basil halfway to pesto—but it does freeze whole. I select prettiest leaves that are left when I finally give up at the end of the summer, and layer them between paper towels in a sealable container. (This year I might try wax paper or saran because the paper takes up more room in the freezer.) They turn black and won’t be so pretty for salads anymore, but still look great embedded in the top of homemade bread or pizza. And in winter it’ll amaze your friends! One warning: Put them in your deep freezer if you’ve got one, I don’t but I want to get one, now more than ever. I’ve just found out that “frost free” refrigerator-freezers “cycle up” to warmer temps every day, which cuts the life of your frozen foods. THIS we pay MORE for!?
From: Doris Tuck
>Thinking to the future a bit, it seems that my basil grows like a weed in
Wash them and stuff them into a glass jar and put in the freezer. When you need some, open the jar and scrape at the frozen basil. Almost already minced for you, that way.
From: “Chris McElrath”
I know lots of people have given their methods of preservation, but I wanted to add one more point. I chop my basil up fine, mix with olive oil, freeze in ice cube trays, put in ziplock bags, etc. like others. What I like about this method is that I can throw the cube (or 2 or 3) into my saute pan and do chicken or pasta or whatever...no other oil needed.
From: Isaacs
You have just inspired me to megabasil my garden. . .what a super idea! I’ve never thought about the oil - I’ve used only water to freeze the basil bits. I would think this could be accomplished with other herbs as well. . . cilantro and dill perhaps (maybe chervil)? I could see using the dill cubes during winter in making loaves of fresh herb bread.
From: Pat Patterson
Subject: Re: Storing Basil in oil
Please, please do not layer fresh basil in oil to store it. This is an excellent way to develop botulism toxins. Same for garlic. I would hate to see any of my friends on this list dead.
From: Fran
> Please, please do not layer fresh basil in oil to store it.
It’s OK if you freeze it!
From: Sara Anne Corrigan
Subject: Re: Storing Basil in oil
Hello; I am “renewed” to this list after having somehow been dropped about a month ago. I am a food writer for a newspaper in Southern Indiana and a 15-year veteran herb gardener/preserver/cook.
I am not a food scientist or a dietician, but I talk to those kinds of people all the time. The best information I have is that while yes, storing garlic in oil can, over the course of a week or two, even under refrigeration, cause it to develop botulism, I have never heard this reference made to basil leaves. The only cautionary note is to keep the basil covered by the oil at all times, adding more if necessary, and keeping the whole thing under refrigeration. I would be very interested in some documentation on basil leaves in oil being a food safety hazard.
I do not, however, store basil this way.
I am a pesto lover and this is how I usually preserve most of my basil: I puree the leaves with olive oil, as the first step in making pesto, then I FREEZE this puree in ice cube trays. After about two days, when the cubes are rock-hard, I carefully remove them from the trays and wrap each cube in plastic wrap then pack these little packets into a Zip-Lock freezer bag. Each cube is about 2 tablespoons. I add cubes to soups or I thaw them out and add the pressed garlic, ground nuts and grated Parmesan cheese to finish the pesto recipe. I have been doing this for years and never have had a mishap. Plus which, the basil really does keep its fresh-from-the-garden flavor. I highly recommend this procedure.
It’s good to be back on this list! So many neat recipes and good tips for growing our very favorite plants!
From: Pat Patterson
Subject: Re: Food safety
Gee, I hate to appear to be belaboring a subject, but I really do worry about oil preservation of herbs. I have been thoroughly brainwashed by the Food Safety department (especially Caroline Raab) of the Oregon State University and specifically checked with our OSU food agent on this point as I do not pretend to be an expert. This is the information I have.
Any low acid food cannot be safely preserved in oil for extended periods (this can be from over a week to over a month) without risk of botulism.
Obviously if no botulism spores are present, there will be no danger. Do you want to take that risk? People also waterbath canned beans and other low acid foods for years and that is very much condemned now. If only one person in 1000 dies, is that OK?? There are lots of great ways to preserve foods that are safe. Foods sold commercially preserved in oil either have special additives or are basically pressure canned. The high heat sealing destroys any botulism spores in the jar/can.
Well, I shall get off my soapbox now and promise not to mention this again. Each can make their own decision.
Culinary herb FAQ: http://www.henriettesherbal.com/faqs/culi-2-1-basil.html
Culinary herb FAQ: http://www.henriettesherbal.com/faqs/culi-4-2-oil.html
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