What is the best way to keep fresh herbs from wilting?

Fresh herbs have a reputation for dying dramatically in the salad drawer, usually the day after you bought them for a specific recipe you then didn't cook. Most of that is avoidable. The trick is to stop treating all herbs as one thing.

Two families

Soft herbs have tender stems and leaves you can eat whole: basil, parsley, coriander, dill, mint, chervil, tarragon. They are the ones that wilt fast.

Woody herbs have tough stems and sturdier, often oily leaves: rosemary, thyme, sage, oregano, bay. They dry out slowly and are much more forgiving.

Each family wants a different home.

Soft herbs: the jar of water

As soon as you get home:

• Take off any rubber band or tie, which crushes the stems.
• Pick out yellowing or slimy bits now, before they spread.
• Trim a little off the stem ends with a sharp knife.
• Stand the bunch in a jar with a few centimetres of cold water, like flowers.

Parsley, coriander, dill and mint then go into the fridge, jar and all, with a loose bag draped over the top to stop them drying out. Change the water when it looks cloudy. Treated like this, a bunch of parsley goes from a two-day affair to a reliable part of the week.

If the fridge has no room for a jar, wrap the herbs loosely in barely damp kitchen paper and put them in a container or a loosely closed bag. Damp, not wet: soaked paper turns leaves to mush.

Basil does not want the fridge

Basil is a chilling-sensitive plant. The Rutgers agricultural extension's basil postharvest fact sheet gives its ideal storage temperature as around 55°F (about 13°C) and lists blackened leaves and lost aroma as signs of chilling injury. A home fridge is kept considerably colder than that, which fits what we see: basil goes dark and limp in there.

So basil lives on the counter, in its jar of water, out of direct sun and away from the stove. Trim the stems and change the water every day or two. It may even grow roots, which feels like a small domestic triumph.

Woody herbs: paper and the fridge

Rosemary, thyme, sage and oregano are happy wrapped loosely in slightly damp kitchen paper inside a container or bag in the fridge. Check now and then and refresh the paper if it has dried out.

They also dry well. Hang a bundle of rosemary or thyme upside down somewhere airy and dry, out of the sun, and use it once the leaves crumble. Bay leaves dry beautifully on a plate on the counter.

Wash later, not now

Wet leaves rot faster. We wash herbs just before using them, not before storing. If they came home damp or sandy, wash, dry thoroughly on a towel or in a salad spinner, and only then store.

When they start to flag

A slightly limp bunch can often be revived in a bowl of very cold water for a few minutes. If they are past saving for a salad, they are not past saving:

• Blitz soft herbs with oil, salt and something sharp into a green sauce.
• Stir them into a soup or a pot of beans right at the end.
• Chop and freeze them in olive oil in an ice-cube tray, ready to drop into a pan.
• Fry sage leaves in butter or oil until crisp and scatter them over anything.