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.

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