SC - Preserving sorrel

[Phil & Susan Troy]

LYN M PARKINSON wrote:
> 
> I have a question for our knowledgeable food chemists.  I want to keep my
> sorrel for use over the winter.  I'll try digging up one of the 3 plants
> for a window sill herb garden, but it occurred to me that I might be able
> to simmer a dozen of the leaves in chicken stock, and then freeze the
> stock in small amounts for use as needed.  The question is what will
> freezing do to the oxalic acid in the sorrel juice, if anything?  Do
> acids change by heat, freezing, aging, etc?  I know it would neutralize
> if I put it into milk or baking soda, etc. but that's about the limit of
> my food chemistry knowledge.  The leaves don't keep any longer than
> lettuce or spinach leaves in the refrigerator.  What would drying in a
> convection oven do to their chemicals?

Drying would probably drastically reduce the flavor of the leaves. As they
lose moisture they'll lose a lot of the chemicals that give them their flavor.

I believe it's le Menagier de Paris who speaks of making sorrel verjuice, not,
as I had originally thought, by squeezing the juice from sorrel, but by adding
sorrel to verjuice. You might try adding some leaves [plenty] to a bottle of
verjuice or white wine vinegar, and get something like the sorrel equivalent
to tarragon vinegar. 

Another thing you might try is processing leaves for freezing, just as is done
with spinach. This is, of course, assuming you have enough sorrel to make this
worthwhile and you like the results. Anyway, you might try blanching the
leaves for a second or two in boiling water (just long enough to wilt them,
really), then quickly plunging them into a bath of salted ice water. When
completely cold, drain off the water without excessively squeezing the leaves,
pack them and freeze. This might be useful for the various sorrel purees and
sauces that predominate in some French fish cookery. In fact, you might be
able to puree the leaves before freezing, if you wanted to. You  might lose
some of the tang, but I suspect not too much.

Adamantius  

- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com
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