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Herbs, Powder Of
Weigh the leaves of the dried herbs (see HERBS, DRYING AND STORING FOR WINTER USE), after they are separated from the stalks. Take two ounces of lemon-thyme, two of sweet marjoram, two of winter savoury, two of basil, four of dried parsley, and one ounce of finely-minced lemon-rind. Pound these thoroughly in a mortar, sift the powder through a wire sieve, and keep it in bottles closely stoppered for use.
A dry herb blend of the kind kept on hand before bottled mixed herbs existed. The weights are for fully dried leaf, stripped from the stalk, so buy or dry more than you expect to need.
- What the weights meanOunces here are avoirdupois weight, not fluid ounces, and they refer to dried leaf only. Two ounces of dried thyme leaf is a surprisingly large heap, something like a cup and a half loosely packed; the whole batch comes to 13 oz of herb and fills a good-sized jar.
- Scale it downA quarter batch keeps the proportions and is more realistic for one household: 15 g each of lemon thyme, sweet marjoram, winter savory and basil, 30 g dried parsley, 7 g minced lemon zest. Note the parsley is double any single herb, which keeps the blend mild and green rather than resinous.
- The lemon rind is the hingeFresh zest carries moisture and will spoil the powder. Pare the coloured rind only, with no pith, mince it fine and dry it hard — spread thin in the oven at its lowest setting, as cool as it will go — until it snaps rather than bends, before it goes near the mortar. The recipe itself specifies no drying heat.
- Winter savory and lemon thymeBoth are still grown but rarely sold dried. Summer savory is the usual substitute for winter savory and is milder; ordinary thyme plus a little extra lemon zest stands in for lemon thyme.
- Pounding versus grindingA mortar bruises the leaf and releases oil, which is the point. A spice grinder works but heats the herbs and can reduce them to dust that goes stale fast; pulse briefly and stop while there is still some texture.
- SiftingThe wire sieve catches the coarser fragments that will not powder and stay fibrous in cooking. Save what stays behind for stock or a bouquet garni rather than discarding it.
- Storage and lifeSmall jars, filled to the top, tightly closed, away from light and the stove. Dried herb powder loses aroma faster than whole leaf — expect three to four months of real flavour, not a year. If it smells of hay rather than herb, it is finished.
- Using itRoughly a teaspoon seasons a pound of forcemeat, a stuffing for poultry, or a batch of rissoles. Because it is a powder it disperses instantly and can overwhelm; add it early to fatty mixtures and taste before adding more.
A jar of herb powder was a standing item in a Victorian kitchen: the entry's own cross-reference to drying and storing herbs for winter use assumes a household that dried its own harvest. The blend's shape — thyme, marjoram, savory, basil, a great deal of parsley — belongs to the English seasoning tradition for forcemeats and stuffings, and the added lemon rind reflects a long-standing English fondness for citrus with veal, fish and poultry stuffings.