Bay Leaves as Culinary Herb and Uses In Cooking

         I was cooking leek and potato soup by good old fashion recipe in my Crock-Pot. The recipe calls for cloves and bay leaves. The suggestion was to tie spices in a small square of clean cloth. I instead just stick my cloves in bay leaves, so I don’t have to look for cloves in my soup. When I open the lid, as you can see in the photo below bay leaves hold the cloves and I don’t have to look for them. Of course, it is going to work only for fresh bay leaves.

     I have a bay leaf in my yard and when cold in winter just bring it inside the house. Bay leaves green all year round and I don’t have to preserve it. However, I am going to share 3 ways how to preserve fresh bay leaves, if you have fresh ones given to you by someone else or bought fresh on a market. I tried every method myself in the past. Choose dark green and not damaged leaves. Damaged bay leaves are better to use as soon as possible in cooking and good ones preserve for future use. I cooking all my life with bay leaves and the best method to preserve bay leaves is drying them on natural air, in my opinion.

 1

     Inspect for insects and wash gently from dust bay leaves, don’t break them! This step is important because very high possibility, bay leaves may have insects on them.

2

          We can dry the old fashion way in the natural air. We can leave bay leaves on branches without removing leaves. Cover with cheesecloth to protect from insects and hang upside down with a wooden clothespin in the attic or another place depending on where you live. Very important to choose a dry place, without direct sun on it. Cheesecloth is the perfect material to cover leaves because it allows air to circulate around leaves and absorbs well any moisture. The time for drying bay leaves depends on many factors and can take a week or even longer. Bay leaf is ready for storing, if we try to bend it and it is going to break. Keep in an airtight container or ziplock bag in a cabinet. I dried fresh bay leaves in the past and they keep a nice green color after drying and a nice flavor.

        We can also dry leaves separately from the branch in natural air. Place dry bay leaves on cheesecloth in one layer and cover with another layer of cheesecloth, so air circulates around the leaves. Turn around leaves sometimes to speed up the drying process.

         The natural air I prefer the most. However, you can dry bay leaves in the oven as other herbs, vegetables, or fruits. Use the lowest temperature and keep the oven door slightly open for air circulation. We can use also dry bay leaves as a dehydrator and if you have one, just follow the instruction.

3

Keep dry bay leaves in a tight container in a dark cool place where you keep all your spices.

I tried to freeze fresh bay leaves myself, just to share my experience with you. In the photo, I am holding fresh Bay leaf, and on the table previously frozen leaves.

I placed washed and dried bay leaves in a ziplock bag and push out the air. I cool off bay leaves in the refrigerator at first and then place them in the freezer. I let just for a few minutes get close to room temperature bay leaves before putting it in a hot dish. The color of the leaf is slightly discolored after freezing as you can see in the photo. The flavor is nice and pleasant but less intensive than the fresh bay leaf.

 Another way to preserve bay leaves is to keep them in a flower vase with water as I do with a bouquet of flowers. I cut the stems on the 45% angle and removed leaves from the bottom, so leaves were not contacted with water directly. Mature and dark green leaves stay fresh very well to the point I am ready to use them. So it is another way to preserve bay leaves for some period of time. A bouquet of Bay leaves is great decor for the kitchen too.

Very good to preserve bay leaves with a vacuum sealer and keep them in the refrigerator. But it is an expensive way to do it.

        I did a lot of canned food in the past when had my own garden. Handmade canned food is always a good gift to bring if someone is invited to a party or just visit. Hearts in a jar is a very nice touch. The idea to garnish for example a can of marinated pickles with bay leaves hearts is so cute. If you make canned food, you might like the idea. The bay leaf heart is so easy to make! I use kitchen shears to make this simple garnish for canned food. I cut the top of the bay leaf in the shape of a heart, the bottom of the heart already made by mother nature. Scrap from the bay leaf heart we can use in soup or other dishes, don’t throw away.

 We live in a subtropical climate and can plant Bay leaves bush in the ground. However, I like to grow my Bay Lauren leaves plants in pods. So it is easy to move around and when the weather is very cold in winter, I take it inside the house. It can happen a few times in the wintertime where we live. I spoke to some local people, they have Bay leaves bushes on the yard very successfully and they grow themselves. However, it needs to be covered in wintertime.

When to use fresh bay leaves in cooking?

I use fresh bay leaves the same way as dry ones, just be sure you use the most flavorful leaves. The most flavorful Bay leaves are older and dark green leaves. Let the light green leaves grow more and get more flavorful out of your dish.

*Check the flavor of Bay Lauren leaves when you choose plants in the nursery. I learned it from my own experience. Bay Lauren can be different and I got the plant last year without checking its flavor. I checked one leaf and it is not even close to the normal flavorful Bay Lauren bush as I usually use because it is a Bay Leaf tree.

1. Water regularly, but not too much. A plant doesn’t survive with a lot of watering.

2. A bay leaves plant grows very slow, consider it when getting a plant.

3.  Moneywise is very practical to get the plant of Bay leaves if you use often bay leaves in cooking.

4. Best Bay leaf flavor in older dark green leaves.

Bay leaf plants are available online and at local nurseries in the USA. The best price I found at our local plants nursery. I got the much older plant for almost the same money as I saw online. Online usually sells small plants because of the convenience of shipping. Of course, I prefer to buy plants at the local store option instead of online because can see my plant, and most important it possibly can be damaged when shipped. 

If you live in the USA and have a problem with your bay leaf tree (or other plants), I am going to share what I did. I took some leaves to show at a local plant nursery. Every plant nursery has a botanist and it is the right place to ask for help. They helped me to diagnose my bay leaves problem and told me what I need to do. They consult me for free and I pay only for the treatment and safe my plants.