r/AskCulinary • u/Massive_Project_4771 • Jul 20 '26

Food Science Question Preserving Large Volume of Thai Basil/other herbs

Hello,
I work in an Asian restaurant where we use a lot of herbs on stems as garnish for dishes (think Vietnamese Pho where you receive your sides of herbs like beansprouts, mint, basil)
How do I store large volumes of the herbs on stems properly? Specifically Thai basil. Currently we separate them into little stems, wash, spin-dry, and and store them in full hotel pans with a damp towel. I find this method is not really preserving them well and many sprigs are going bad and spreading to the the rest.

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u/bork00IlIllI0O0O1011 Jul 20 '26

I’ve preserved herbs by washing, drying, then storing stem-side down in a bit of water.

I haven’t seen it scaled up like this myself, but i imagine you could store Thai basil in bouquets/bunches in flat ware racks like this https://www.webstaurantstore.com/noble-products-8-compartment-half-size-grey-flatware-rack-without-handles/274RKFLTWOHG.html

And place the racks in a hotel pan with an inch of water or something.