I love tarragon but have never been able to grow it, so you're lucky. I have a favorite recipe for a cabbage salad (a vinegar and oil dressing, not creamy slaw) that uses tarragon. If I can find it online, I'll post it. Anyway, it pairs nicely with sweet raw cabbage.

This is close to the one I use...I go easy on or eliminate sugar because I don't like sweet dressings on savory salads.

Tarragon Cabbage Salad

Ooh yes - lucky you! I love tarragon. It's really good with eggs and with chicken. I add it to chicken soup, pot pies, fricassee , etc.. I also like it with salmon. A little goes a long way, but I have only used dried, so fresh may be less concentrated.

A hint of it works for me; just never too much. You might try a search for ”ina garten tarragon” for some ideas. I know she uses it for various things.

I think tarragon is under-appreciated, and, saying that, I ran out a few months ago and haven't replaced it (I'm currently in a use-up-what-I-have phase with my spices). I really like it with eggs, chicken salad and fish. And I agree that a little goes a long way.

With that amount, I would make a batch of tarragon vinegar.

Garden grown tarragon (yours looks like mine) is great in egg salad or a soufflé. It lends a diiferent flavor profile to meatloaf. If you're into herbs in ice cream, I think it works better than many. A little is nice with cut strawberries. It can make or break a blueberry pie with lemon juice.

My very favorite is to take an overgrown stem, like 2.5-3 feet, fold it up, and put it in the cavity of a big (unstuffed) turkey, and that in a big roaster with a bottle of wine.

Thanks!

Do I uncork the wine bottle?

::snicker:: Yup! A headless dead turkey can't read the label. Go for a cheap but palatable white, not sweet but not tannic. Pour the whole thing over the turkey, which is best sitting on a low rack in the roaster. Roast low and slow. Baste if/when you think of it.

@carolb_w_fl_coastal_9/10, fresh herbs generally have a stronger flavour than dried, so less fresh would be used.

Scrambled eggs with mushrooms and tarragon is very good.

I like tossing torn tarragon leaves with a vinaigrette dressed green salad.

Yes in chicken salad.

Lovely tarragon you have!

Thanks. I have no idea it was so hardy. I’m not sure why I decided to buy this herb two years ago. It is clean and healthful looking.

What I've come to find over the years is that fresh is stronger than totally dry, like the big supermarket brands, but the partly dry brands, like Penzeys, tend to be more intense because they're concentrated from less moisture. The organics run the gamut, but you can usually see how moist or dry they are.

I also understand tarragon is mostly grown from cuttings, not seed.

Also what I’ve read.

Only available in Tarragonia.

https://www.thespruce.com/tarragon-care-growing-guide-5024873

Add it to tuna or chicken salad.

French tarragon, Artemisia dracunculus, must be grown from cuttings. It is sterile and cannot be grown from seed. If you see tarragon seed for sale it will not be the genuine article. Likely to be Russian tarragon, Artemisia dracunculoides. Inferior flavour.

I did not know that it became sterile, so that explains the underwhelming flavor. Mine did not come back this year, but my sorrel is out of control. I'll buy the seedlings next time.

I'd try to make a pesto with the tarragon and freeze the rest if you like it. Would be great on chicken, fish, pasta, etc.

This recipe is absolutely delicious.

Chicken Salad Veronique

Poulet à l'estragon is a classic. Delicious and easy.

Ooh! Thanks so much for the tarragon recipes and ideas.

I think I will start by making Ina’s Chicken Salad. The video stopped as she was blending. I did not see what she did with it. So, what? Serve it on a fresh quality baguette? DARN that there are no fresh baguettes around. 😩(sticks tongue out — only syrup sweet cutesy emojies with my apple devices.)

I have never made a baguette. I’d have to drive 25 mins one way to buy a so so bagged one, thin, for I bet $6.

The ones at the grocery store are blah and put into an unperferated plastic film bag.

Is it WAY complicated to bake a good baguette? Special flour? @ days of kneading by a robust cook named Marguerite or Helene? I have a KA mixer w paddle or dough hook. I have flour and some Italian or tipo 0 something flour. I have an oven. I have my own recipe for oatmeal raisin bread. Good; but not a baguette. And now, typing ”baguette,” maybe spelling it wrong, I want a pound of good pâté.

PS I absolutely agree w the commenter who said to TEAR, not cut, the chicken. YES! The dressing clings to the torn, frayed edges. For maximum flavor, tear the chicken (or whatever other protein choice for you salad). But I will welcome any chicken. The roasting strikes me as a much mote flavorful cooking method.

I have a lot of tarragon to experiment with.

One site, the Spruce?, said that tarragon is a short-liver perennial. Maybe I should try propagating it. I’ve heard that lobster and tarragon play well, but I would be reluctant to experiment with freshly cooked lobster. I am wild about lobster.🦞

Good choice on Ina’s Chicken Salad. One of her videos shows her serving it on leaves of butter lettuce, and another one shows her making sandwiches on whole grain bread. I think some fruit as a side would be nice.

Sorry, I’m not a bread baker; anything that appeals to you would be good. The whole grain bread looked tasty with the salad.

Can.you get part baked baguettes in the freezer section of your supermarkets? They're not perfect but passable in an emergency.

Thanks for the great idea, floral_uk. I never knew there was such a thing. That sounds appealing to me.

I think baguettes are one of those foods that show that it is not just the ingredients but the skill and technique can produce something entirely different than something else that starts with the same ingredients. Even artisanal bakers in the US who otherwise excel with other types of bread struggle with it, and the industrial ready-to-bake products are not even good. (In the US, I tend to get Acme)

I think if you eat enough lobster to go looking for new recipes for it, tarragon might be nice, but the French tarragon in my garden is definitely too powerful. Other, tamer, kinds might be better

Re baguettes, they're not hard to make, but any specialty bread takes experimentation and iteration to get just the way you want it. Baking a baguette is easy. Baking the baguette you're dreaming of takes practice and good note-taking, unless dumb luck lands the just right recipe in your lap. Don't get discouraged. Make notes on the good and bad, and try again.

I haven't used this recipe, but it reads well as a starting point: https://www.culinaryexploration.eu/blog/Authentic-French-Baguettes

There are many many recipes out there. Remember, every oven and every baker are different. That's why developing your own version might work best. Skip recipes that have weird ingredients. You don't need sweetener, and sugar or honey will make it taste wrong. If you need to feed your yeast, give it some of the flour, but you shouldn't need to, especially since it starts with a poolish (preferment--flour, water and yeast in a bowl, sitting and getting to know each other). Some recipes call for malt. Malted barley (non-diastatic) is a very nice addition to bread, and you can buy flour with it already in, but the legal definition of baguette in France is flour, water yeast and salt, and I think baguettes with malt tasty funny, the way bagels with no malt don't taste like real bagels. Some recipes call for oil, which is downright weird. It makes the crumb softer, which is opposite of what a baguette is.

You can use all or part sourdough starter. If you don't want to make your own, you can get dry granules of the Oregon Trail starter, or I can send you some of mine. Starter is flour water and wild yeast, so not weird. The advantage is that it retards staling, which is a big issue with baguettes, and predates commercial yeast (which is a different strain) by the whole of bread culture minus a couple hundred years.

A note about flour: The above recipe is European and their flour is different. For an authentic baguette, I'd recommend King Arthur unbleached bread flour, but KA recommends their unbleached AP, which has 1% less protein (this is different than the listing in the nutrition which is inaccurate for baking because of rounding error). The crumb will be slightly different if everything is exactly the same. The differences can pretty much be resolved with different amounts of water. More protein will give you more chew, less will give you more lace. 1% won't make a big difference, but 3% will. If you really want it to be more like French, use whole wheat for 5% of the flour. I mentioned KA because it's easily available in stores and online, and they're reliable. In other flours, look for something around 12% protein and a normal grind.

An alternative which might work a lot better for you, since I know you have some limitations, is the par baked frozen kind. There are some good ones on the market, and you can keep some on hand. The finish baking, at home, seems silly for many par baked breads, but the crust is key to a baguette, and it doesn't last, so doing just that part will give you a better baguette than the long drive to the bakery.

Good luck!

Thanks so much!

Gooster, I agree about that same ingedients with different results. Even when I give a recipe and detail the instructions to a person, the results are different. Subtleties if technique amd touch or oven.

pilllog, thanks so much. I will save your comments and may try this. I will also look for the frozen pre-baked.

Here is a photo of a Mainer 1950s baguette:

No one made baked own. They were too busy catching lobsters, mackerel; digging clams and potatoes.

FWIW, if you have access to these stores, Trader Joe's has organic baguettes for a few bucks - @ least they did the last time I shopped there. They're made to crisp up in the oven. I liked them very much.

And Aldi has an organic sourdough sliced boule that I love.

Carol, I’m truly never without baguettes from TJ’s. I probably buy the ciabatta baguettes more often, both the regular and demi. Good for lots of things, including croutons.

I didn't read the whole thread so apologies if already suggested. I love fresh tarragon on yellow squash with a touch of butter. I also like tarragon in tuna salad.

That Mainer 'baguette' looks nothing like any real baguette I've ever seen. It seems to be soft.😱

As someone else has said other breads are good. Personally I usually use sourdough for sandwiches although it's hard to slice neatly. We rarely buy baguettes because they go stale so fast. Traditionally they'd be bought twice a day for this reason.

The “Maine baguette” is a squish-bread hotdog roll ;)

Good grilled for tuna salad ir lobster salad

Agree, baguettes stay fresh for only a short while — 2 hours. Sour dough bread is yummy.

I'm not a real fan of the TJ's baguettes, the crumb isn't correct, as is the case with most American-made baguettes. I do love a good sourdough -- in our general area there is a bakery that makes a terrific meyer lemon sea salt loaf.

The tarragon in tuna salad sounds good as well. I need to replant some proper tarragon, as I think the nearby sorrel stiffled it.

Sauce Béarnaise with a steak. Gorgeous. I like tarragon with lamb too.

Thanks, Islay Corbel. A very long time ago I enjoyed a steak with Sauce Béarnaise at restaurant in Boston. Delicious.

7-22-2026 Weds DH went to groc store last night and found this frozen baguette.

Here is all the info. I guess ? it is ”par cooked” —

DH is going to yry baking one that he defrosted. I will include photos from packaging and website screen shots or saved images. I have no experience baking frozen or ? par cooked breads.

What dou you think?

DH is now going to bake it and we will taste it. I

By tonight it might be stale and only good for croutons or birds. The package advises against refrigerating it, saying it will cause the bread to quickly go stale. The people at the company are pleasant.

Very humid day here, threatening T-storms, then a few nice days with low humidity.

I am looking forward to making Ina’s chicken tarragon salad. Yesterday I watched a video of Jacques Pepin making a lobster salad to which he added some chopped fresh tarragon leaves.

I bet that tarragon would do tofu a kindness. But it will want other ingredients and texture enhancements.

I like the idea of tarragon and tofu, but not so much soy sauce. Maybe balsamic vinegar, instead. Some black pepper. Could be good. ;)

So, if it's dough--raw and soft-- it's "take and bake" or similar verbiage. If it's kinda whitish to beigish but there's a crust, it's par-baked, different root but means partially baked.

It might taste good, but this one has a lot of ingredients. They call it Parisian Baguette, but these mostly aren't allowed in France. These are sold for commercial food service: Unbleached enriched flour (wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), water, yeast. Contains 2% or less of: salt, dextrose, oat hull fiber, wheat flour, monoglycerides, datem, dough conditioners (ascorbic acid, enzymes, L-cysteine hydrochloride).

Yeah I saw the ingredient list and gasped at the amount of conditioners and additives. We will soon hear back, but I think this one may last a little longer due to some of the additives. I noticed the parent company also owns La Brea, which has not so good baked baguettes. I much prefer Acme Bread, which is stocked at the corner store, and their ingredient list is organic flour, organic malted barley flour, yeast, salt, water. By the rare chance there are leftovers, I use the french revival washing trick (wet hands till dripping, rub loaf, put in oven for few minutes)

Thanks. The bread was like white baked bread. The crumb was r righ right. right. fine, homogeneous. Nothing to go out of my way for.

The person at the company was nice, helpful.

That dioes sound better, and malt is a good dough enhancer, but it's the wrong flavor! I don't know why they don't use starter. If it's fed it doesn't taste sour and it makes the bread last longer without going stale or moldy. ...Though with a real baguette, that might be half a day. :)

To revive a baguette, we wave it under the cold tap and put it in the oven or air fryer for a few minutes.

I made the Chicken tarragon (Ina’s). Very good, but the French tarragon (fresh) did not stand out much. I used quite a bit. I did not want to mix the green grapes into the salad, so served them alongside or as a layer.