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DRYING SWEET HERBS
It is very important to those who are not in the constant habit of
attending the markets to know when the various seasons are for
purchasing sweet herbs.
Take care that they are gathered on a dry day, by which means they
will have a better color when dried. Cleanse your herbs well from
dirt and dust;* cut off the roots; separate the bunches into smaller
ones and dry them by the heat of a stove, or a Dutch oven before a
common fire, in such quantities at a time, that the process may be
speedily finished. 'Kill 'em quick,' says a great botanist; by this
means their flavor will be best preserved. There can be no doubt of
the propriety of drying herbs, &c., hastily by the aid of artificial
heat, rather than by the heat of the sun. In the application of
artificial heat, the only caution requisite is to avoid burning; and
of this a sufficient test is afforded by the preservation of the
color. The common custom is, when they are perfectly dried, to put
them in bags, and lay them in a dry place; but the best way to
preserve the flavor of aromatic plants is to pick off the leaves as
soon as they are dried, and to pound them, and put them through a
hair-sieve, and keep them in well-stopped bottles.**
*This is sadly neglected by those who dry herbs for sale. If you buy
them ready dried, before you pound them, cleanse them of dirt and
dust by stripping the leaves from the stalks, and rub them between
your hands over a hair-sieve; put them into the sieve, and shake
them well, and the dust will go through.
** The common custom is to put them into paper bags, and lay them on
a shelf in the kitchen, exposed to all the fumes, steam and smoke,
&c.; thus they soon lose their flavor.
From The Cook's Oracle by William Kitchiner, MD, New York, 1829
Comment: Dr. Kitchiner's writing style frequently involves
footnotes, addenda, memoranda, "N.B"s and so many other items tacked
on at the end that the additions are sometimes longer than the basic
recipe itself. We approach that status here. That said, we include
it all because it's all perfectly true and correct, today as it was
then and ever shall be. While he refers to herbs intended for use in
cooking, as increasing numbers of people grow and gather herbs for
medicinal purposes the same rules apply to that practice.
A "hair sieve" is not a strainer made of hair (ugh!) but simply a
very fine mesh similar in size to that which is used in a common
flour sifter. Kitchens were presumed to include a range of straining
utensils from the very coarse (colander, or "cullender" as it was
frequently spelled in the period) to the very fine.
Besides "hair sieve," another term for a very fine strainer was a "tamis"
although we have not been able to determine if there is any real
difference in structure or composition of the two or if they are
just different words for the same thing. Research is a never-ending
process in the culinary history biz.
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