preserving herbs in salt?

I have a recipe that mentions sage preserved in salt (as an alternative to fresh). Does anyone know how this works? I love fresh sage and dried sage is often such a let down (even the sage I grow and I dry myself loses so much of its vigor).

arcane54
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3 Comments

petitbleu
petitbleu May 9, 2012
You can also do this with spices or even spruce tips. Someone recently gave us hemlock tip salt--it's pretty amazing. It has a citrus-y note to it that was a surprise to us. Heidi Swanson had a great blog post about citrus salts: http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/citrus-salt-recipe.html
 
Lauren's P.
Lauren's P. May 6, 2012
Preserving sage or other aromatic herbs in a coarse grained salt absorbs the moisture of the herbs and lasts about six months.
Instructions: 1) Remove leaves from stems. 2) In a mason jar, add salt to create 1/2" thick layer. 3) Place the herbs on top of the salt layer. 4) Create another layer of salt to cover the leaves. 5) Keep repeating and end with a layer of salt. Tightly close jar and store in cool place. When ready to use, wash off to remove excess salt.
 
Emily H.
Emily H. May 6, 2012
I've seen recipes for herbes salées [salted herbs] that are a mix of herbs. Sort of like preserved lemons, you layer herbs, or just sage, with salt and let sit for two weeks. It seems like the perfect middle ground between fresh and dried herbs.

I first heard about it on WellPreserved.ca : http://wellpreserved.ca/2011/08/16/herbes-salees-salt-herb-preserve-recipe-and-how-to/
 
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