INFUSION FUSION

Did you buy a thyme bunch just to use a few sprigs in your Sunday roast chicken? Toss the rest into a jar of oil, and in a few days you’ll have a herbaceous oil that’s great to use in marinades, on roasted meat, and whisked into salad dressings. For even more flavor, add a few cloves of garlic and some red chili flake. And you can keep adding oil to the bottle, so you always have a nice flavored oil around.

Prefer the sweeter side of things? You can also infuse surplus herbs into sugar syrup, immediately upping the ante on your happy hour: with a mint syrup, you’re set for mojitos, while a tarragon-flavored syrup gives a licorice-like flavor to the classic grapefruitGreyhound cocktail.

COMPOUND BUTTER, BABY

We all know it’s amazing, but why stick with just basic butter? Another easy way to conserve extra herbs is with compound butters, and the flavor possibilities are endless. Finely chop up your herbs (or quickly pulse them in a food processor), then fold into softened butter. Try topping poached salmon with dill butter, rub cilantro butter onto grilled corn, or spread mint butter on hot biscuits with jelly.

SALTED DELIGHT

The simplest herb preservation technique—flavored salts—also stretches their flavor the longest. Spread the herbs on a sheet tray, place in an oven set to the lowest temperature, and cook until crispy and dry. When they are fully dried, combine them with salt; start with a ratio of 1 tablespoon herbs per half cup salt, and adjust to taste. Again you can try this with individual herbs like sage, marjoram, or rosemary, or use a mixture to create an all purpose herb salt. You can use this mixture basically anywhere you would salt—try it out in a dry rub for meat, tossed with popcorn, or sprinkled on top of scrambled eggs.