USES OF HERBS

For as long as humans have been cooking, we have been cooking with herbs. In our eternal effort to make foods more agreeable, prehistoric cooks plucked a few leaves from wild plants and added them to the fire or stew pot in a practice that was already ancient when later generations took the first bold steps towards agriculture and civilization. Herbs and spices are so fundamental and essential to the art of cooking that I often wonder if preparing food without them can properly be called cooking at all.

We are going to take a detailed look at the use of culinary herbs, with side trips into their cultivation, harvesting, drying, and storage, but first we must settle one burning issue: the proper pronunciation of the word herb. The question is, should one pronounce the h or not? Is it pronounced hurb or urb?

At the risk of incurring the wrath of many of my readers, I hereby state categorically that there is only one correct answer to this age-old question—both are correct. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, you heard it here first, both hurb and urb are correct pronunciations of the word herb. Like so many other words, the difference in pronunciation is a regional difference, so in order to avoid the scorn of your friends and family I strongly suggest you pronounce it like your parents and neighbors pronounce it.

Generally speaking, most Americans (90 percent more or less) pronounce it urb while most other English speakers prefer to pronounce it hurb. Historically, the word is descended from the Old French word herbe, and we have adopted several "h" words from French. The initial h is always silent in French, and English speakers have retained the silent h in many French words (honor, honest, hour, and heir for example) while pronouncing it in others (haste and hostel).

Linguists believe that in English the h in herb was originally silent, as evidenced by the fact that the word was frequently spelled erbe in older English texts. American colonists brought this pronunciation with them from England and have held onto it over the years. One account I have read suggests that pronouncing the initial h in England came about as a reaction to the fact that certain “lower” classes of English speakers habitually drop all initial h sounds (à la Eliza Doolittle), so cultured English speakers began pronouncing initial h sounds so as not to be confused with the rowdy masses.

To further confuse matters, Americans also say herbal with a silent h, but choose to pronounce the h in related words such as herbaceous, herbivore, and herbicide. Go figure. Regardless of how you pronounce it, rest assured that your pronunciation is correct.

Now that we have finally put to rest the eternal question of how to properly pronounce the word, let’s take a crack at defining it.

To a botanist, an herb (or a herb if you prefer to pronounce the h) is any plant that has fleshy stems and doesn’t produce woody matter. Obviously, this includes jillions of plants that have nothing to do with cooking. To the layman, an herb is any plant that is used in cooking or for medicinal purposes, and since I don’t know the first thing about the medicinal uses of plants or their curative powers, whether real or imagined, we’ll stick to the culinary herbs here.

As I have already alluded, the term herb used in the culinary sense doesn’t really have a technical definition, so different people’s definitions will vary. For the purposes of this article I will define a culinary herb as a plant whose leaves or stems are used to flavor foods. Notice that this definition excludes several herbaceous plants (such as lettuce and other salad greens) because they are foods themselves rather than a flavoring for other foods. Get it? This definition also excludes parts of plants other than the leaves and stems, including roots, tubers, seeds, flowers, and fruits. These all play major roles in the foods of the world, but they’re not in this essay.



So, you would like to grow your own fresh herbs. I don’t blame you, considering the price of fresh herbs in the supermarket. And you obviously agree with me the dried herbs are a poor substitute for the fresh thing.

Growing your own herbs is easier than you might expect. Most of them form small, compact bushes that don’t take up too much room in the garden, and most are small enough to be grown indoors in containers if you like. Following are a few general rules that apply to most of the herbs we use in our kitchens.

Keep in mind that most of the herbs we use in cooking are native to the Mediterranean, the Middle East, and other tropical and subtropical climates. Therefore, most of them require full sun and well-drained—even sandy or rocky—soil. As a general rule, culinary herbs don’t require fertilizing, and most will thrive in soils that might be too nutrient-poor for other plants.

Many of the culinary herbs are treated as annuals in northern climates, even though they may be grown as perennials in their native regions. These may be potted and brought indoors to protect them from frost, or simply replanted in the spring after the last freeze of the season. Most can be started from seeds that are readily available from garden centers and mail-order sources, but I prefer to transplant seedlings I buy at my local nurseries.

The scope of this book isn’t broad enough to cover in detail the horticultural requirements of every culinary herb. For that I suggest you buy a good book on growing herbs.

Preserving Herbs

I have three rules concerning the use of fresh herbs:

- Fresh Herb Rule #1-Always use fresh herbs if possible

- Fresh Herb Rule #2-Use frozen herbs if fresh herbs aren’t available

- Fresh Herb Rule #3-Use dried herbs only if fresh or frozen herbs aren’t available or if you find yourself adrift at sea on a small raft with nothing but dried herbs

Fresh herbs should always be used if at all possible because any attempt to preserve herbs by any means invariably results in a loss of the essential oils that give every culinary herb its unique flavor. Frozen herbs are the next best alternative, and the use of dried herbs should be considered a measure of last resort.

Fresh herbs may be obtained from your own garden or window box, from a growing number of supermarkets and produce specialists, or from your neighbor’s herb garden if you aren’t above a minor breach of culinary etiquette and misdemeanor criminal activity.

Frozen herbs, although available commercially on a limited basis, are best procured by freezing fresh herbs obtained in one of the three manners described above. Since most fresh herbs will lose their texture and color as a result of freezing and won’t typically serve as an attractive garnish, it is best to chop them prior to freezing. Many sources recommend freezing pre-measured amounts (such as 1 tablespoon, or 15 ml) in ice cube trays with just enough water to cover, and you are certainly welcome to use this method if it appeals to you. However, the water may be an unwelcome addition to your dish, especially if you are using the herbs to flavor a sauce or gravy. I recommend simply freezing the chopped herbs in plastic freezer bags or small glass jars with tightly fitting lids. Empty herb bottles from your supermarket and baby food jars are ideal. You will probably be surprised at how much of the original flavor of the herb is preserved intact by freezing fresh herbs, and they will retain most of their flavor for up to a year in your freezer.

Some fresh herbs dry better than others. Examples of herbs that are well worth the effort of drying include thyme, rosemary, oregano, marjoram, and sage. Don’t bother drying (or buying already dried) parsley, basil, chives, cilantro (coriander leaves), dill, or any of the more subtly flavored herbs. You will achieve a better taste and save considerable money by adding finely chopped sawdust to your favorite recipes. If you must dry fresh herbs for reasons of practicality or economy, hang them tied together in bunches upside down in a cool, dry, dark place. The typical coat closet makes a pretty good place to hang your herbs. Once they are dry and brittle (2 to 4 weeks for most herbs) you can then rub them between your hands over a large piece of paper or inside a paper bag to collect the dried flakes. Store these in small airtight containers, preferably in the refrigerator or freezer. Avoid the temptation to dry them in the oven, microwave, or food dehydrator because even a small amount of heat will destroy many of the essential oils and your efforts will be rewarded with large quantities of that sawdust stuff we’ve already talked about.




Most herbs are best added to a dish during the last five or ten minutes of cooking, or even as a last-minute garnish. Heat is very unkind to the essential oils that give herbs their taste, and prolonged cooking will reduce even the most pungent herb to a mere shadow of itself. Dried herbs can tolerate a little more time on the fire because they must undergo a rehydration process before they begin to lose their unique flavors, but the same rule applies–the less time they are cooked, the better.

The standard rule of thumb for substituting dried herbs for fresh is one measure of dried herbs for three measures of fresh. This is because dried herbs have lost much of their volume in the drying process, and their flavors are therefore more concentrated. Keep in mind, however, that dried herbs lose their flavor over time, and the older they are, the weaker they are. In other words, it might be necessary to substitute more dried herbs for fresh based on their age and condition. Let your taste buds be your guide.

Finally, most herb guides tell you which herbs go well with which foods, and that is something my listing of culinary herbs will not attempt to do for a couple of reasons. First is that many (or maybe even most) herbs go well with almost everything. For instance, one reference source I have lists beef, chicken, fish, shellfish, lamb, chicken, duck, turkey, liver, pork, rabbit, cauliflower, cucumbers, green beans, mushrooms, peas, potatoes, spinach, summer squash, and turnips as foods that go well with rosemary. Couldn’t the editors of this book saved themselves quite a bit of time by simply stating that rosemary goes well with practically everything?

The second reason I will refrain from such guidance is because I don’t want to give the impression that there are rules governing the use of herbs. If you like a given herb and you enjoy a certain meat or vegetable, then I bet you are going to enjoy the combination of the two, and I wouldn’t want to do anything to discourage experimentation in the kitchen. After all, that’s what great cooking and great cooks are all about.