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Sometimes great ideas come from the least likely of places. The other morning, I was procrastinating about getting out of bed and flipping through my SnapChats when something on Erin Ireland's feed caught my eye. Instead of picking each thyme leaf individually off the stem—something that always drives me bonkers—Ireland fed the stem through the smallest hole of a pasta measurer (that old-school plastic tool with varying sized circles for portioning out raw spaghetti), which easily pulled the leaves right off.
Most recipes suggest doing this with your hands by holding the sprig of thyme at its tip, and sliding your fingers down to strip off the leaves. In my experience, this pulls the leaves off in bunches or, even worse, pulls the stem along with the leaves, which means you then have to pull each individual leaf apart. #herbfail
Ireland's tool happened to have a tiny little hole, which made it ideal for this trick. I watched as she pulled the thyme stem through the hole, the leaves popping off, almost like magic. "It was so cool!" I explained to the Epi team later that day. But no one on staff seemed to know what a pasta measurer was, because, frankly, they're a single-use tool you really don't need. (Even worse, there is actually a tool made and sold for this specific purpose: the ZipStrip Herb Zipper.)
Luckily, there's a much more useful kitchen tool that you can turn to solve your woody herb problems: a fine-mesh strainer. Simply push the end of the thyme stem through a hole and carefully but forcefully pull the stem through. The leaves will be collected in the strainer, ready to use whole or be chopped. No more annoying herb picking. #yourewelcome.
BUY IT: OXO Good Grips 8-Inch Fine Mesh Strainer, $19.95 on Amazon
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