When it goes wrong · Store
Herbs turn black and slimy in a few days.
Can you save it?
Reviewed for this symptom
Pick through: black, slimy leaves are discarded, and any that are still green and firm are rinsed, dried and used today. Wilted but not slimy leaves revive in iced water for ten minutes.
How to confirm the diagnosis
Observable cues, not inferred user state
- Leaves are dark, wet and translucent rather than merely wilted
- They were sealed in a bag while wet
- The stems are still firm even though the leaves have gone
Not this?
- Bread goes stale in a day in the refrigerator.
- Fried food that was crisp is soggy within minutes.
- Freezer burn: dry grey patches on frozen food.
What actually happened
Only this symptom
Sealed wet. Wash, dry properly, and store loosely wrapped in a damp cloth — damp, not wet.
The full mechanism
Shared by every store failure
Three processes degrade food and each responds to different conditions. Microbial growth is slowed by cold, by low water activity and by acid, and effectively stopped below about −18°C. Enzymatic change continues even when microbes do not — it is why cut apple browns in the refrigerator and why blanching before freezing matters, since a few seconds of heat denatures the enzymes. Physical change is the one people forget: staling in bread is starch retrogradation, where gelatinised starch recrystallises, and it happens fastest just above freezing, which is precisely why the refrigerator is the worst place for a loaf and the freezer is fine. Moisture moves too — a crisp thing next to a wet thing in a sealed box will not stay crisp, because water vapour equalises across the container.
The full Store lesson — how to tell, where to practise it, what it carries to.
Next time
Prevent this specific failure
Wash, dry thoroughly, and store loosely wrapped in a damp cloth or paper inside a container — damp, not wet — or stand soft herbs in water like flowers.
What right looks like
Shared by every store failure
- Crisp things stay crisp only with air movement — a rack or a loosely covered container, never sealed while warm.
- Anything put away warm generates condensation, and condensation is where mould starts.
- A film pressed directly onto the surface of a custard or sauce stops a skin forming; a lid across the top does not.
- Cut fruit and vegetables hold in cold water, which excludes the oxygen that browns them.