sure.....Just fill with the herbs of choice, tie and dunk.

sounds good. tie with what? floss string?

No, but I use cheesecloth and tie with a string or tie it in a knot.

Jenny, maybe I'm just clinically paranoid, but I normally use either muslin or cheesecloth as spice bags.

And I'm sure you already know this, but for anyone interested in using coffee filters, make sure they're chlorine-free.

Sol

Now that I have a stainless tea ball, I prefer that....lots easier.
If you have lots of fresh herbs, use an unbleached filter, wet it so its easy to bunch up and tie it with..."whatever" kitchen twine, dental floss, button thread....whatever is handy and clean.

Sol, I actually never would have thought of that. Thank you. I think I'll tying it with thread- hope it works. Thank you, Lindac for your advice on wetting it first, I will try that.

Or trussing twine. Just 'cause it's sitting out and I can see it. It's bigger and easier to manipulate. One more suggestion.

:)

And the chlorine concern is what?

Not terribly concerned about its safety. Especially since, according to the apocalyptic Mayan calendar, we're all pretty much screwed anyway.

But seriously, since there are other options available, I will go with what I consider safest, to me, my family and the environment, no matter what the EPA says.

But, I suggest people do their own research, and draw their own conclusions, as I have.

Sol

I've been doing the same as LindaC for eons. My faithful old tea ball gets stuffed with whole allspice, bayleaves, peppercorns, etc. and dumped into the soup or stew pot. So easy to fish out. Just dump the innards, wash, and re-use.

For fresh herbs, I usually just throw in large stems that are easy to pick out once the dish is done.

When there's a posting "...make sure they're chlorine-free", I'm just curious about the concern. Maybe there's something I don't know about.

Considering that most restaurants use bleached coffee filters, many also use a bleach sanitizer for their food handling equipment, water treatment uses chlorine and more whether water, coffee, flatware, etc are also avoided or just coffee filters. Campers purify their drinking water with bleach tablets. I'm just wondering what you know that I apparently don't. Not trying to argue, just curious.

I like my coffee better made with filtered water and the grounds put in a chlorine-free filter. But in a pot of spicy, herb-ey well seasoned soup I doubt if I could detect any chlorine taste.....besides it would have boiled off by the time the carrots were tender.

I actually like munching on whole pepper corns that have been stewing in my soup. But, I only do that when I make soup for myself. I wouldn't serve soup with whole peppercorns to other people unless I know they like them, too.

This may be off topic, but why use the whole spice instead of grinding it up and adding it to the soup or stew? Does it impart a different flavor?

Sally

You could make a "tea bag" with the coffee filter... staple shut, and attach a string to loop around handle of pot for easy retrieval.

I have a growing collection of tea balls. A little odd, since I don't drink a lot of hot tea, and when I do... it'll be from a tea bag. Most are different sizes and shapes of the standard screw-on lid things. Do have a HUGE on... between baseball and softball size?? It's hinged. When I think about it, might not even be for tea... would have to be a massive amount. Could be for large batches of soup or stock when you want to contain things like pepper corns and bay leaves for easy removal.