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PARSLEY (when and how to preserve it for winter use)
Gather the sprigs of parsley in May, June, and July. Wash them well, and throw them into a saucepan of boiling water slightly salted. Let them boil for two minutes, then take them out, drain and dry them before the fire as quickly as possible, put them in a tin box, and store them in a dry place. Before using the parsley, soak it in warm water for a few minutes to freshen it.
A blanch-and-dry method for putting up parsley while it is at its best. The hinge is the drying: parsley must go from the blanching water to dry heat immediately, or it will darken, mould, or turn to hay.
- "Before the fire" means low, dry, moving heatThe original assumes an open range or a warm hearth; no temperature is given. A modern equivalent would be an oven at its lowest setting with the door propped, or a dehydrator on its herb setting. Spread the sprigs in a single layer; timing will depend on how thoroughly they were dried off first.
- Blanching time is deliberateTwo minutes in salted boiling water is brief heat, enough to check the enzymes that would otherwise dull the colour, so the dried herb keeps more of its green. Longer and the leaves go limp and lose flavour to the water.
- Get the surface water off firstDrain hard, then spin in a salad spinner or roll in a towel and press. Surface moisture left on the leaves slows the drying and steams them instead.
- Season for gatheringMay to July is when the plant is leafy and has not yet bolted. Once parsley flowers the leaves thin out and the flavour changes; the book gives no reason for its months, but this is the likely one.
- The tin boxAny airtight opaque container works; light and damp are the enemies. Crumble the leaves only as you use them, since broken leaf loses aroma fast. Keep for six months to a year.
- Check it is properly dryA leaf that bends rather than shatters still holds water and will spoil the whole box. Return anything pliable to the heat.
- Soaking to freshenThe instruction to soak in warm water suits dried parsley used as a garnish or in a sauce. If it is going into a stew or stuffing, add it dry and let the dish rehydrate it.
- StrengthDried parsley is considerably weaker than fresh. Reckon roughly a third the volume where a recipe calls for fresh, and add it early enough to soften.
Parsley was the workhorse garnish and sauce herb of the Victorian kitchen, called for in fish sauces, forcemeats, maitre d'hotel butter and the fried sprigs that finished a plate of whitebait, so a household that lost its supply from November to April lost a great deal. Preserving the garden's surplus was assumed work, done in the season and drawn on all winter. Blanching before drying is the same logic later applied to vegetables for freezing: brief heat halts the enzymes that would otherwise dull colour and flavour in storage, though the Victorian cook knew it simply as the way to keep the green. Home-dried parsley in a tin box on a dry shelf kept the herb within reach through the winter months.