Dried rosemary: ways to prepare spicy herbs - how to dry rosemary at home

In cooking, rosemary is used to flavor meat and poultry, fish and seafood dishes. The essential oils that this plant is rich in are used for medicinal purposes. Healing tinctures and tea are also made from the shoots of this shrub.

Since rosemary contains a large amount of essential oils, it must be dried with great care. We’ll talk about all the ways to properly dry rosemary in this article.

How and when to collect rosemary

The shoots, leaves and flowers of this plant have beneficial properties. But the most valuable is the deciduous mass.

It is necessary to collect the green parts of the plant before the bush begins to bloom. It is during this period that the pouring contains the greatest amount of useful substances and aromatic oils. Rosemary sprigs are cut 15–20 centimeters long, trying to choose the juiciest and youngest shoots.

Rosemary flowers are collected to brew teas and prepare tinctures. They are cut during the period of active flowering of the plant.The collected inflorescences must be sent for drying as quickly as possible so that they do not have time to wither.

Methods for drying rosemary

On air

The collected raw materials can be dried in a shaded and well-ventilated area or outdoors under awnings. The main task is to protect rosemary from sunlight, otherwise the greens will lose color and most of the nutrients.

The green mass is laid out on sheets of paper and dried, turning over every day. You can dry rosemary with individual leaves, but it is much easier to dry the raw material with sprigs.

You can also form small bunches of 5 to 7 branches and hang the rosemary, foliage down, on the veranda or attic.

The flowers are laid out on racks or on sieves in a single layer and dried in the shade, turning occasionally.

The natural drying method takes approximately 2 weeks.

In the dryer for vegetables and fruits

If weather conditions do not allow you to dry your greens quickly enough, you can use an electric fruit and vegetable dryer.

Green sprigs of rosemary are cut into pieces of 5–6 centimeters and laid out in one layer on the drying racks. To preserve the maximum amount of essential oils, the heating temperature should not exceed 40 degrees.

Flowers are dried in the same way, only the time to dry the inflorescences will take half as much, approximately 4 hours.

In the oven

It is highly undesirable to use this option for preparing rosemary, since the heating temperature of the oven is quite difficult to control. But if you urgently need to dry the spice, and there is no other way to do this, then the oven must be set to minimum heat.

The oven door should be slightly open and the rosemary trays should be placed on the top shelf.Drying time – 3 – 4 hours.

Alexander Maksimov will talk about the beneficial properties of rosemary and recipes for preparing medicines in his video

How to store dried rosemary

High-quality dried raw materials have a grayish-green color, a spicy, bitter taste and a bright camphor aroma.

Before placing in storage containers, the branches are freed from leaves. Dry leaves can be ground into powder using a blender, but in cooking it is best to use whole needle-like leaves.

Store rosemary for 1 year in paper or fabric bags. The room where the spice is stored should be dry and cool.