The taste of almost every dish can be improved with herbs and those who always have them freshly available can consider themselves lucky. For everyone else, frozen herbs are an attractive option, and tarragon is no exception.

As the flavor of frozen tarragon fades over time, it should not be left frozen for too long, at most until next spring. Then you can already harvest the first new shoots. If you choose to freeze the time just before flowering, then the aroma is most intense and there is still a lot of flavor left when thawing.

Preparations for freezing

Harvest your tarragon on a sunny warm day, late morning or early afternoon. Then the flavorings are particularly highly concentrated. Ideally, it hasn't rained in a few days. Now cut the fresh shoots. Pay attention to undamaged leaves. They should not be pitted or discolored.

As with drying, you should remove the stems from the tarragon before freezing. Fill the cleaned leaves whole or cut into small ice cube trays, add a little water if necessary and put them in your deep freeze or freezer.

After the cubes have frozen, transfer them to larger aroma-proof freezer containers. So you always have small portions of tarragon at hand, but you don't have to search for small jars in the huge chest.

Using the frozen tarragon

You can use frozen tarragon in reheated dishes in much the same way as the fresh herb. If you are cooking a soup or stew, the tarragon does not necessarily have to be defrosted beforehand.

However, if you want to season a sauce, such as the well-known Bearnaise sauce, it is better to use tarragon, which you have frozen without water, or dry it well so that the sauce does not water down.

The essentials in brief:

  • harvest on a sunny day if possible
  • just before flowering, the aroma is more intense
  • remove stems
  • Freeze in ice cube trays

tips and tricks

So that you are prepared for all eventualities, freeze different sized portions of tarragon with and without water. So you can always defrost exactly the variant that best suits your cooking project.

UE

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