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I bought some dried rosemary and discovered that it includes some tiny bits of stem along with the dried leaves. Separating out the undesirable bits using my fingers is a really tedious process. Is there an easier way?

mrog
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    Would you accept an answer along the lines of "don't bother"? A few small bits of stem won't overly affect the flavor, nor will it really be visible in the final dish if you're crushing/grinding the rosemary leaves any further. – logophobe Jun 12 '18 at 16:03
  • @logophobe That would work sometimes, but I don't always want to grind it. Nice idea for suitable occasions, though. – mrog Jun 12 '18 at 16:53
  • I've a collection of sieves with holes from 1mm to 6.25mm diameter. Made them myself from plastic buckets using a drill. They work pretty well for jobs like this. Might be simpler to try rolling your rosemary down a slanted cutting board. The round stems show roll at a lower angle than the flatter leaves. You want to wiggle the board a bit, and not overload it. Might take two or three passes to get good separation, so be sure to have something to catch the *mostly* stems as they come off the board. – Wayfaring Stranger Jun 12 '18 at 23:03
  • @WayfaringStranger Those are interesting ideas. I'm guessing the company that processed the rosemary had the sieve idea, too, because the twigs and leaves are all roughly the same size. I experimented with the cutting board idea for a while, but couldn't achieve good separation that way, either. (Although I hear the cutting board technique is perfect for separating mustard seeds because they roll so much better than the pod bits.) – mrog Jun 27 '18 at 21:49
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    @mrog Yeah, they're often used in industry. The slanted cutting board separates round from flat very well. You can buy sieve sets, but they're expensive. I used window screen for the finest, and drilled hundres of holes in the bottom of old plastic ice cream tubs to make a set up to about 1/4" (6mm). Fair amount of work, but they come in awful handy if you're gowing your own herbs, or buying in bulk and milling. – Wayfaring Stranger Jun 27 '18 at 22:34

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