Was stuck between buying fresh herbs or dried ones for my chili recipe last week

Fresh cilantro is like $2 a bunch here in Ohio but it goes bad in 3 days, so I grabbed a jar of dried for $1.50 and honestly my chili turned out fine, anyone else find dried herbs work just as good for stews?

2 comments

2 Comments

xena_rivera6322d ago

Fresh vs dried is such a different thing though lol. Dried herbs are fine for like oregano or thyme where the flavor is already pretty intense and you just need that earthy background. But cilantro specifically loses almost all its brightness once it's dried, it turns into this dusty hay flavor that doesn't pop at all in chili. Fresh cilantro right at the end gives that citrusy punch that dried just can't touch, especially with the acidity from tomatoes in the chili. I'd rather pay the extra 50 cents and just freeze the leftover bunch for smoothies or something.

spencer66421d ago

Did you catch that episode of Good Eats where Alton Brown talked about dried herbs? He basically said once you dry something like cilantro, you're just getting the memory of the flavor, not the real thing. Totally agree with you on that dusty hay taste. I've tried keeping dried cilantro on hand for convenience but it just makes everything taste flat. Fresh cilantro is worth the little extra cost and you can freeze it in olive oil for later too.