How to store herbs so they last

Soft herbs: treat them as cut flowers

Coriander, parsley, dill, mint and basil arrive as living stems that are still losing water. The bag they came in traps humidity against the leaves, which is how a bunch goes from fresh to black and slimy in three days.

Trim a centimetre off the stems, stand them in a jar with an inch of water, and drape the bag loosely over the top so the leaves stay humid but not wet. Change the water when it clouds. Done consistently, this takes a bunch from roughly three or four days to well over a week.

Basil is the exception that catches people out: it takes cold damage in the fridge and blackens. Stand it in water on the counter, out of direct sun, and it will keep considerably better than it does chilled.

Hard herbs want the opposite treatment

Rosemary, thyme, sage and oregano have woody stems and waxy leaves. They are not losing water fast, so standing them in a jar does little. What they need is to be kept from drying out entirely.

Wrap them loosely in a very lightly damp cloth or kitchen paper, put them in a container or bag in the fridge, and they will hold for two to three weeks.

Freeze the surplus on the day you buy it

Storage buys days. It does not solve a bunch four times larger than the recipe needed. If you know when you get home that only one meal this week wants dill, deal with the rest immediately rather than watching it decline in a jar.

Chop it, pack it into an ice cube tray with a little oil or water, and freeze. The cubes go straight from freezer to pan. It will never work as a fresh garnish again, but for anything cooked it is close to the real thing and it costs about four minutes.

The reason herbs get wasted at all

Herbs are the clearest case of the package-size problem in the whole shop. A recipe wants two tablespoons of chopped dill. The bunch on the shelf holds around eight. If nothing else in your week uses dill, three quarters of that bunch was waste at the moment you picked it up.

That arithmetic does not care how well you store it. The fix is to plan a second meal that also wants dill, so the bunch has somewhere to go.

Common questions

How long do fresh herbs last in the fridge?

Left in their bag, soft herbs like coriander and parsley typically manage three to five days. Trimmed and stood in water they commonly reach a week or more. Woody herbs like thyme and rosemary keep two to three weeks wrapped in a damp cloth.

Should basil go in the fridge?

No. Basil suffers cold damage below about 10°C and blackens. Keep it stood in water at room temperature, away from direct sun.

Is it better to freeze or dry leftover herbs?

Freezing preserves far more of the flavour of soft herbs. Drying suits woody herbs like thyme, oregano and rosemary, which hold their character well once dried.