larry_stewart
Master Chef
I've never had either hamster food or dried alfalfa so I'll take your word for it. .
Yeah, I took one for the team on that one. Don't recommend it.
I've never had either hamster food or dried alfalfa so I'll take your word for it. .
I generally use something that has both flavor and aesthetics, like rosemary or thyme or a salt-free blend.I'll use dried Parsley just for the aesthetics of a dish, certainly not flavor.
For Christmas, DH gave me a book called "Nose Dive," about how much our sense of smell is involved in what we taste. Different volatile molecules that help us to taste foods dissipate at different rates. Soft herbs like cilantro, dill and parsley lose them quickly when they're dried. However, the volatile molecules in woody herbs like bay, oregano, rosemary, sage and thyme, which originated on hot dry hillsides in the Mediterranean, last a lot longer and even intensify as the leaves lose moisture.I had only tasted parsley fresh. as a garnish on the plate at restaurants. It was too strong as a breath freshener for me. I later tried dried parsley in cooking, and it was meh. My eldest daughter introduced me to cooking with fresh parsley, flat leaf variety. I found it delightful.
I have also found that dried cilantro to have very little flavor, while fresh, it can make the dish.
Surprisingly, I prefer dried oregano, basil, rosemary, thyne, summer savory, and sage. I lose the slight minty flavor often found in these fresh members of the mint family. Also, as I grew up cooking with the dried herbs, they are more predictable, and easier to control for me.
I used three herbs in a pasta salad a week ago and made a mistake. One of the three gave the salad a weird taste.
I used fresh chopped rosemary, Italian Oregano and Greek oregano. I am not exactly sure which herb was the offender. I even tasted each leaf outside and I think it was the Italian oregano?
Anywho, I did not use any fresh herbs yesterday when I made another pasta salad. It was much better.
I would like to know which one it was. My taste buds worked good when I noticed it, but let me down when I did a tasting outside in the garden.