Q&A for How to Dry Herbs

If your container is not airtight, the herbs will lose flavor and become stale. An airtight container is recommended if you plan to use the herbs in cooking.

First, remove any damaged or dying leaves. Then tie the remaining leaves together at the stem and hang to dry in a place out of direct sunlight.

Rinse basil & pat dry. Remove leaves and lay on a paper towel. Be sure the leaves are not touching each other. Cover them with another paper towel. Place on a table or counter away from the sun. Check them about every 4 days. They should be dry in about 1 week. Once dry, crush until it is fine and store in a metal or dark spice bottle.

No. A clothes dryer will get clogged. Hang the herbs and let them air-dry.

Yes. However, some herbs have woody stems most people do not want to eat, whether they are fresh or dried. Generally speaking, if you would eat the stem fresh, then you can eat the stem dried.

Desiccants work by pulling moisture directly out of an object through complete surface contact. The herbs must be buried in the desiccant for it to work. If your large glass bowl had an airtight lid, you could maybe create a dry space for your herbs, but they would get moldy from lack of air circulation before they dried out that way. And if you just leave them sitting there, stacked in a bowl the way you have described, it would eventually air dry them, but that would not require a desiccant.

It takes anywhere from one to four hours to dry herbs in a dehydrator, depending on the thickness of the leaves and the amount you have to do. If you have a dehydrator, it most likely came with a little instruction booklet that would contain more detailed instructions on what settings and so forth to use in your particular dehydrator. If you have long since lost your instruction book, look on the website of the brand of dehydrator for more information.

Cornmeal is edible, so technically, yes. However, cornmeal is dusty and you will never be able to get it all off your herbs unless you are only drying bay leaves or something flat and strong you can rub the cornmeal off of. Having a cornmeal coating on your herbs will diminish the flavor and render the whole preserving process rather pointless.

Generally speaking, no. The process would take too long and be too dangerous to complete. If you did manage to hold the dryer on the herbs long enough for them to dry, there is still the flammability factor to account for. Most hairdryers run too hot to properly dry the herbs, so you would likely end up cooking them instead.

If you plan on using them for culinary reasons, yes. Otherwise, you may choose not to do so.

You could chiffonade them with a knife before you dry them, or crush them once dried.

Hang it in a bunch and store away from direct sunlight until the leaves have dried out. Very similar process to bay leaves.

That would likely result in little pieces falling down onto the crumb tray or coming into contact with the heating elements, which is a fire hazard. So, no, this is not recommended.

Yes, it does. If you're asking because you're preparing rose petals for use in food or tea, be sure to check that your roses are safe (pesticide-free) and suitable for culinary use.

As the entire aim of drying herbs is to preserve them, you shouldn’t need any other type of preservative. Be sure to store them in airtight containers after drying and that should be preservative enough.