Can You Freeze Oregano?

Got more fresh oregano than you can use? You can freeze it, but put the leaves into cooked food, not on top of it, since frozen herbs go limp when they thaw. Freeze them loose on a tray or in ice cubes under water, broth or oil, and use them within 3 to 6 months for the best quality.¹ With oregano, though, freezing is up against a very good alternative: it’s one of the hardier herbs that dries well,² and in one tasting of fresh against dried, chili was the one dish where tasters preferred the dried herb, which was oregano.³

At a glance

Question	Short answer
Can it be frozen?	Yes. Freezing slows the microorganisms that spoil food, though it does not kill them.¹
Best methods	Freeze loose leaves on a tray, then bag them; or freeze chopped leaves in ice cube trays under water, broth or oil.
Freezer temperature	0°F or below.¹⁴
How long	For best quality, 3 to 6 months (Ohio State). Other figures below.
Thaw first?	No. Add it frozen to cooked dishes.
Texture after thawing	Limp; not suitable as a garnish.
Oil cubes	Keep them frozen. Herbs in oil must never sit at room temperature.⁵

How to freeze oregano

Harvest and prepare. If you grow your own, Penn State says to pick herbs once the dew is off but before the sun has baked off their oils. Rinse the sprigs, then pat or spin them dry. Use the freshest oregano you’ve got. Ohio State says herbs should be frozen at peak freshness. Strip the leaves from the stems. Oregano stems are tough, and the leaves come off easily.

Method 1: tray-freeze loose leaves. Spread well-drained leaves in a single layer on a tray and freeze until firm, then move them to labeled bags or containers. Each leaf freezes on its own, so you can shake out a pinch without thawing the whole bag. Press out as much air as you can before sealing. Air hitting the surface of frozen food is what causes freezer burn.⁶

Method 2: ice cubes. Chop the leaves, pack them into ice cube trays, cover them with water, broth or oil, and freeze. NDSU suggests popping the cubes into labeled, dated bags and dropping a whole cube into soup or stew. Penn State points out two trade-offs: herbs frozen in cubes cook unevenly as the cube melts, and herbs frozen in oil hold their color better than herbs frozen plain.⁵ Water cubes suit soups and sauces. Oil cubes suit dishes that start by heating oil in the pan.

Method 3: flat in a bag with oil. Penn State’s ratio for herbs in oil is about ⅓ to ½ cup of oil to 2 cups of chopped herbs. Besides cubes or small jars, it suggests spreading a thin layer in a zip-top bag, pressing out the air and freezing it flat, so you can snap off what you need.⁵ The oil doesn’t freeze solid the way ice does, which makes it easy to portion.

Label and date whatever you freeze. Herbs give off smells in the freezer, and Penn State suggests double-wrapping strong-smelling ones in foil or using airtight glass jars.

How long frozen oregano keeps

We didn’t find a storage figure measured on frozen oregano. The named figures are for herbs or vegetables in general, and they answer different questions.

Source	What it covers	Figure
Ohio State University Extension¹	Frozen herbs, best quality	Use within 3 to 6 months; may be safe after a year or longer
Colorado State University Extension⁴	Frozen vegetables in general, at 0°F or below	High quality for 12 to 18 months; no figure given for herbs
USDA freezing fact sheet⁶	Frozen food in general	Safe almost indefinitely; storage times are for quality only
Penn State Extension⁵	Frozen herbs	No time given; label and date

You’ll often see a “use within a year” rule for frozen herbs. It falls between these figures, but we couldn’t trace it to a named source. Read all of them as quality windows. Frozen food held at 0°F doesn’t become unsafe with time,⁶ but the flavor fades.

What freezing does to oregano

Freezing makes the water in the leaves expand, which is why the herb is limp when it thaws.⁵ Ohio State calls freezing the method that keeps the most nutrients and flavor, but frozen herbs still change texture after thawing.¹

Freezer burn. Freezer burn comes from air reaching the surface of the food. It leaves food dry in spots but doesn’t make it unsafe.⁶ Tight packaging is the fix.

Food safety

Herbs in oil. Low-acid foods like herbs, stored in oil, sit in an oxygen-free environment. Oregon State explains that’s why these mixtures have to be stored correctly to prevent botulism, caused by Clostridium botulinum, a bacterium found in soil, water and air. Its rule for homemade herbs in oil: refrigerate and use within 4 days, or freeze for the long term.⁷ A 2011 review of home-prepared herbs and vegetables in oil concluded that freezing is the safest recommendation.⁸ Penn State keeps it simple: don’t store herbs in oil at room temperature.⁵ In practice, keep oregano oil cubes in the freezer until you cook with them, and treat any you thaw as a refrigerated herb-in-oil mixture with a 4-day limit.⁷

Thawed oregano. Freezing at 0°F inactivates bacteria, yeasts and molds, but once food thaws they can wake back up.⁶ Ohio State makes the same point for herbs: after thawing, microorganisms keep growing, so normal safe handling applies.¹ If you do need to thaw frozen food, the USDA fact sheet names three safe ways: in the fridge, in cold water, or in the microwave.

Using frozen oregano

Add it frozen. Penn State says not to thaw herbs before adding them to cooked dishes.
Measure it like fresh. You can use frozen herbs in the same proportion as fresh.⁵ For converting to dried, see fresh vs. dried oregano.
Cook with it. Ohio State lists soups, stews, sauces and other cooked dishes as the best uses. LSU AgCenter groups oregano with the sturdier herbs that stand up to heat, so frozen oregano can go in early in a simmer.
Skip it as a garnish. Thawed herbs are limp and generally unappealing on a plate.

For dishes, see cooking with oregano and oregano uses.

Freezing or drying oregano?

For most delicate herbs, freezing wins easily because they lose so much when dried. Oregano’s different. America’s Test Kitchen counts oregano among the hardier herbs that dry well, and in its fresh-versus-dried tasting across 24 recipes, chili was the one dish where tasters preferred the dried herb, and that herb was oregano.³ Penn State says most dried herbs keep well for a year.⁹

A sensible split: dry oregano for the spice jar, especially for chili and long-cooked tomato sauces, and freeze some fresh leaves for dishes where you want a greener flavor. See how to dry oregano.

Not yet measured

How long frozen oregano keeps its flavor. We found no storage study on frozen oregano’s aroma.
How frozen oregano stacks up against fresh and dried in a tasting.
Whether blanching oregano before freezing helps or hurts.

Preserving Herbs: Freezing and Drying (HYG-5360), Ohio State University Extension. ohioline.osu.edu · Reference work ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶
When You Should Actually Use Dried Herbs, America’s Test Kitchen. americastestkitchen.com · Publication ↩
Science: Substituting Dried Herbs for Fresh, America’s Test Kitchen. americastestkitchen.com · Publication ↩ ↩²
Preserve Smart: Freezing Herbs, Colorado State University Extension. apps.chhs.colostate.edu · Reference work ↩ ↩²
Freezing Herbs, Penn State Extension. extension.psu.edu · Reference work ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷
Focus on Freezing, USDA fact sheet (copy hosted by the North Carolina Department of Agriculture). ncagr.gov · Regulator ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵
Herbs and Vegetables in Oil (SP 50-701), Oregon State University Extension Service. extension.oregonstate.edu · Reference work ↩ ↩²
Nummer et al., Food Protection Trends, 2011. foodprotection.org · Peer-reviewed ↩
Preserving Herbs by Drying, Penn State Extension. extension.psu.edu · Reference work ↩

Also drawn on

Preserving Herbs and Vegetables (Julie Garden-Robinson, Food Wise, August 2015), NDSU Extension. ag.ndsu.edu
Flavorful Herbs, LSU AgCenter. lsuagcenter.com

Can You Freeze Oregano? Methods, Storage Time and Oil Safety