Preserving basil?

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bbq bubba

Master of the Pit
Original poster
OTBS Member
Feb 12, 2007
3,646
12
new baltimore, mi
My basil went nuts this year and i have a bunch to pick this weekend...
Any ideas how to preserve whole leaves for future use, i have some summer recipes that i would like to try this winter that requires whole leaves and i'm not wanting dried basil...........
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If you have one then pack up a couple of bunches and use your food saver. I just vacuum packed some this past weekend. It works out great and takes all the air outta the package. It only takes about 5 min to do several bags.
 
I have an italian aunt who chops it put it in ice cube trays, fills with water, when she make a fresh sauce or anything needing basil she just pops out a cube or two. Actually after frozen she put them into bag so they aren't sitting in the open.
 
I thought I was told once that you can't freeze basil, most other herbs was ok, but not basil. I could be wrong I just thought I heard that some where. But if some one has done it and it didn't turn dark, then maybe I'm wrong.
 
I vac packed some dill and froze it last summer. It sure made some good pickles this spring.
 
Haven't done it yet, but I do know that freezing things in fluid is different from freezing them by themselves. I used to add glycerin to beer yeast slurry (Trub) and freeze it for use latter. I was able to keep some rare cultures viable for over a year that way
 
To add/combine a couple comments. Wife makes pesto from our basil and has always put the mix in ice cube trays and freeze. After frozen take them out of the trays and place them in freezer bags and back into the freezer until needed.
 
Hey Bubba,
I freeze 2 or three lbs of basil every year. Wash it ,dry it in a salad spinner, get rid of the stemmy stuff as much as possible, vacpac it and just shred off as much as you want whenever you need it. I also dry some for those uses that call for dried herbs (rubs and such). Just use a dehydrator on low temp with a high fan speed. When it's dry, coarse grind it in the food processor.
 
We just pulled ours up,had three nice plants.I hang it upside down in a paper bag with holes punched in it for air circulation.I found this method in my gardening book and has always worked well.
 
Don't forget to save the seeds for next year. I haven't bough seed for years now. I've also had some interesting crosspollenation yeilds such as lettuce leaf Thai basil.
 
The seeds are still good after frost if you care to harvest them.

If you allow the plant to mature it will bolt out a seed head. If you wait until the seed head turns brown the seeds will be mature. They don't usually all mature @ once so you can make several harvests per season.

Once the heads are brown the seeds will begin to drop, so you don't want to wait too long to harvest the brown ones.

Set them aside somewhere out of the way and let them dry out well. Once dry just rub a wad of them at a time between your palms and the seeds (along with a litle plant matter) will fall out. They are then easily cleaned using a sheet pan and a playing card or something similar.

Place your goods on one end of the sheet pan. Elevate that end of the pan and while holding it elevated scoop and drop your seed pile repeatedly with the playing card. The seeds will roll to the lower end of the pand while the other stuff stays at the top end.

And no, I'm not going to admit to how I learned this seed removal technique.
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