I saw this trick on Alton Brown's show "Good Eats" on the Food Network.
Use several pleated NEW furnace filters, lay the herbs in the pleats, stack them up, make sure you end with an empty one and bungee them to a box fan laying on its side supported by chairs or something so the airflow is not blocked.
I've used it to dry everything in my herb bed and it works great! And FAST, maybe 2 hours tops.
I bought five filters, and I've reused them for over a year.
Store in your favorite way. Personally, I ziploc 'em, label 'em and toss 'em in the cabinet.
BTW, it's easier to cut them to the size of your storage container before you dry them, otherwise you end up crumbling some.
Hope you can use this tip,
mg
drying herbs
That Alton Brown... !! Very clever. Thanks for passing the tip along!
That is a great idea. I lost a bunch of stuff last year, maybe now I can do better.
I'd sure worry about what the herbs might pick up from the filter material. (And, I saw that show, too... love AB.)
I've never noticed any difference when I've used the filters, but if you were handy you could use screening with a frame. But I wouldn't just use window screens, the frames wouldn't be deep enough to be able to dry the herbs without crushing them. Unless you would crush them in the end, then it wouldn't really matter, lol. I think what makes it work so well is bungeeing (is that a word??) to the fan. It just cuts the drying time so much.
I love AB, his show teaches you while being intertaining. He doesn't just give you a receipe, he shows you why that receipe works the way it does. Once you understand the concept, you can experiment and not have disasters. I have enough kitchen disasters all on my own.
But I also have found that some mistakes are too much fun to only make once!
mg
Many years ago I built a solar drying box for herbs. It worked wonderfully, used NO electricity, and I loved it. I wonder if I still have any photos around? If I can find some, I shall post them here.
I saw that episode, too. He also used that method for drying beef jerkey.
Here's a fan site with a partial transcript and screenshots. Good reads! :)
http://www.goodeatsfanpage.com/Season7/Herbs/HerbalPreservation.htm
This message was edited Aug 11, 2005 10:51 PM