How to Make a Basting Brush With Herbs

Using a wand of herbs to spread sauces on to meats and oil or butter onto breads and pastries is a deliciously easy way to add an herby taste to your favorite recipes. The wand acts like a pastry or basting brush, except it is full of flavor. You can make a large herbal basting brush to sop up the juices from your Thanksgiving turkey and spread them over the skin, or use a smaller brush made with rosemary to slather olive oil over freshly baked foccacia bread. These herbal pastry and basting brushes couldn't be easier to make. Here is how.

Difficulty:

Easy

Instructions

1. You can use any herb that you like in the brushes, and you can make brushes with a single herb or mix them together. For meats, make a barbecue basting brush with a mix of thyme, sage and rosemary. Slather honey onto pastries with a lavender brush or rub oil onto lamb with a brush made from mint. Oregano, dill, parsley, basil and winter savory all work well in the brushes too.

2. Using scissors, snip off 6-inch-long stems of each herb.

3. Wash the herbs thoroughly under running water and shake off excess water.

4. Gather the stems of the herbs together into a bundle and tie them tightly with a piece of twine. Use the herbal brush in place of a pastry or basting brush.

5. When you're done with the brush, toss it into your compost pile or yard waste bin.

Tips & Warnings

• Herbal pastry and basting brushes make fun hostess gifts.

Resources

• DigginFood