Do Chives Go Bad?

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If you are a food lover and love to add a bomb of flavors to the food you cook, you must give this article a read. Besides spices, chives are also used as an excellent source of enhancing the taste of your meal.

Chives being smaller and tenderer are only usable from their green portion, unlike the green onions, which we may use as a whole. These are different from green onions and may be used as a perfect substitute for them. Though your chives may go bad, you can increase their shelf life by following some storage techniques we are just going to mention below.

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How To Store Chives

We just mentioned right above what a true classical taste you are going to enjoy in your meal as you add chives to it. Well, not only can you use them in your main meals, but also you may use them for garnishing and topping purposes in your salads, omelets, or any other meals cooked daily.

A deeper insight into how these can be stored is equally as important as their advantages are as these would be no more advantageous for us if we aren’t able to store and preserve them properly. By preserving them, we will enjoy them for a long time, and we don’t need to throw them in the bin.

Here are the few methods you can follow to store Chives to prevent them from getting damage;

Avoid Keeping It at Room Temperature.

If you wish to use your chives for a long duration, then what you have to do is avoid keeping them at room temperature. This will cause them to spoil quickly.

Refrigerate It

The most frequent way of preserving any food item is by refrigerating it. Refrigerating your chives will allow you to use them within a couple of days.

Use A Damp Paper Towel

There is either way of refrigerating chives. These may be refrigerated normally, or you may wrap them in a damp paper towel and enclose them in a plastic bag later in the refrigerator.

Freeze the Chives

These can also be kept in the freezer to make them last longer. Freezing them will allow a comparatively greater shelf life than refrigerating them will.

Wash Only When You Use Them

Avoid prior washing them as moisture will cause them to spoil more readily.

Can You Freeze Chives

As mentioned in the previous section, chives may also be stored by freezing. But how are you going to that in particular? Continue reading the article, and you will get to know the whole procedure which will cause your chives to be retained in terms of quality, and you will be able to use them more frequently.

For freezing them, first wash, trim and then chop them properly. Once washing is done, allow them to dry completely. Then place in freezer bags or freeze using ice cube trays with a small amount of water, and transfer them to freezer bags.

How Long Do Chives Last

How long are your chives going to last? A precise answer to that largely depends on both the quality of your chives that you buy and the storage conditions you are going to provide them thereafter. If you keep them refrigerated all the time after the purchase, they will usually last longer than the room temperature. If properly stored in the refrigerator, these will last well in quality for about 10 to 14 days.

If frozen properly, these will last not only to some ordinary days but will keep fresh for about 4 to 6 months and will be safe beyond that time as well. If you wash them before use and do not dry them completely, the moisture on your chives will cause them to go bad faster. So wash only when you intend to use them right away.

How To Tell If Chives Are Bad

So what if you provide fair enough storage conditions to preserve them, but even then, you get to know that these have gone bad. How are you going to conclude that you do not get affected after consuming them as a result of their spoilage?

Your chives’ health is the foremost thing we are concerned about, so to let you know the spoilage signs of chives you use in your meals. We are mentioning some points that will help you decide whether your chives are fresh enough to use.

Let’s have a look,

Smell: If your chives give you an off odor, throw them right away.
Color: The spoilage sign of chives is that they begin to lose their characteristic green color.
Texture: Chives that is going bad will feel soft in touch than the fresh one.
Appearance: An off appearance confirms their spoilage.

What Do Chives Look Like?

The flowers of Chives have bright and appealing purple colors. While its plants have a unique structure that forms a bulb. The Chives plant grows around 30 cm to 50 cm. The bulbs have a length of 2 cm to 3 cm and around 1 cm in width. They are slender and conical. The bulbs have a bright green color. They grow in different clusters from the root. The stems in Chives’ plant are tabular and hollow-shaped. These make them different from the others. Once the plant grows, and flowers start to form, its stiff texture converts into soft.

Where Do Chives Come From?

As mentioned above, Chives come from the Chives plant. This plant has leaves that highly resemble grass. These leaves are normally smaller and shorter than their stems. Its leaves are also hollow, terete, and tubular. That’s what sets it apart and differentiated it from garlic chives. The plant grows in cooler months and the best time to harvest it is in early spring. This flower is easy to spread. But don’t worry because it is super easy to transfer it from one location to another.

How are Chives Made?

Chives are made through plants. The process of making Chives highly resembles the process of garlic and onion, etc. You have to begin the process by planting the seed. You should sow the seeds at a distance of 2 inches with a height of ¼ inch. Then the seedlings will emerge, and the growth of the plant begins. Then wait until it gets ready to get harvested. Start harvesting it at the beginning of spring. You can keep harvesting it after every 30 to 60 days. Chives are used fresh. So, you don’ need to go through the lengthy process of drying it or converting it into the ground form. But its crushed dry form is also common. So, you have to put it under sunlight and let it dry. Then you can crush it using Molcajete.

What Does Chives Taste Like?

Chives have a mild flavor that tastes like a combination of garlic and onion. But which ingredient has the dominant taste is unclear. That’s why it is still the topic of argument among various people. However, its taste is more delicate than the other two. That’s why people mostly prefer Chives for garnishing.

How are Chives Used in Cooking?

Chives is a culinary herb. You can use it in different varieties of dishes. However, it is not as strong as onion and garlic. That’s why Chives are mostly used to garnish the dishes while cooking. You can also use it for seasoning. Moreover, some people also use it for making different sauces.

What Types of Cuisines Use Chives?

Using Chives does not demand specific cuisines. You can use it with any recipe and cuisine due to its flavor. Most people also use it in Salads, and it is very common. You can use it to make sauces for tuna, egg, chicken, cold salads, and more in other cuisines. While few liked Chives recipes are French omelet with Chives, Chive pesto, Chive crab cakes, and more.

What is a Chives Substitute?

Are you looking for some substitutes for Chives? If yes, then stop searching because we have done the work for you. We have found the best substitutes for this herb. These are green onions and scallions.

Where to Buy Chives?

Chives are available in almost every vegetable store. You can visit any store and ask for it. But if you want dry Chives, then we have some good products. We have listed some of the best-ranked products for you.

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