Although bay leaves have appeared in dishes for millennia, cooks and chefs are increasingly asking how much they really add to the table.
The small, green, normally dry leaves are often added to sauces, stews, soups, and rice dishes during cooking and removed before eating. Which leads to the key question: What do they actually do?
A famously passionate barrage on the punch she called them ‘*** bulls’, while celebrity chef Ina Garten, aka the Barefoot Contessa, recently admitted she doesn’t ‘know if they really do anything’.
Weed fanatics say their whistleblowers lose their subtlety. They claim that it carries a blend of eucalyptus, pine, lavender, and woody notes, and that its addition to a dish has unquestionable value.
But cynics claim that the leaf, ubiquitous in so many modern recipes, adds nothing. Given that 10 or 15 bay leaves can cost around $10 (£8), is it really worth using in your kitchen? We asked the experts to solve the question.
Bay leaves are often added to sauces, soups, and rice dishes, but many question what they add.
In December, Ina Garten, also known as the Barefoot Contessa, said she wasn’t sure how bay leaves changed the flavor of a dish.
In December, Garten said on a New Yorker podcast that she was never sure about bay leaves. “I always wonder if a bay leaf makes a difference,” she said.
“There are a couple of things I use bay leaves for and I always wanted to do without the bay leaves to see if it would make a difference and I’ve never done it so I’m not sure,” she added.
The doubts go beyond the chefs. Ethné and Philippe de Vienne have been running a tea and spice shop in Montreal for more than 20 years.
“They’re right,” Philippe said of the bay leaf cynics.
‘When it’s good, it tastes like something, but 95 per cent of the time it tastes like nothing. Usually the problem is that the bay leaf is harvested at the time of year when it is tasteless.
“Ninety-five percent of the bay leaves that are available to most people are very, very low quality.”
According to Ethné, the western market has been flooded with soft, poor-quality bay leaves, giving the herb an unwarranted bad reputation.
“Americans have been groomed to accept mediocrity,” he said.
“The ritual says to put a bay leaf in, stir the pot, so they put it in and stir, but it might as well be a blade of grass,” he said. ‘Now people are starting to wake up. It’s so neutral and soft. It’s just a waste of money.
“For so long, people have become accustomed to adulterated products that most home cooks think [bay leaf] it’s just a cooking accessory,’ he said.
“Fifty percent of ground spices sold in North America are adulterated, according to the FDA, and we think it’s not even that low,” Philippe added.
Ethné and Philippe de Vienne (left and right respectively) have been running a tea and spice shop in Montreal for more than 20 years. They say that the problem is not the laurel but the quality of the product in North America
The leaf is usually added during the cooking process. Old leaves lose their scent, and those picked at the wrong time of year never taste of anything.
Ian ‘Herbie’ Hemphill (pictured) is the CEO of Herbie’s Spices. He says the bay leaf should have flavor if it’s been dried properly and isn’t too old.
Ian ‘Herbie’ Hemphill is the Managing Director of Herbie’s Spices, a spice retailer and distributor in Australia. Since he established the company in 1997, he has written several books, including The Herb and Spice Bible.
He agreed that a good bay leaf should not be bland. “First of all, the bay leaves have a lot of flavor, they’re quite strong,” he said.
“If you’re not getting much flavor, I’d say it’s a poor quality bay leaf, it probably wasn’t dried very well, but it may also be past its expiration date.”
A good quality dried herb will keep its flavor for 18 months to 2 years, that would apply to thyme, sage, oregano, etc. If something was old, packed three or four years ago, and sat in the pantry for another year or two, chances are it has lost all of its flavor.
According to Ethné, who is from the West Indies, the West Indian variety of bay leaf is especially aromatic and has additional elements of cinnamon and cloves.
If they tried in the West Indies what they tried in other parts of the world, they wouldn’t get away with it. No one in their right mind would try to sell these adulterated herbs to the West Indians,” he said.
“But you can get great-tasting bay leaf from Greece and Turkey,” he said. You just have to know what you’re up against.
This debate is not new and was ongoing in 2016. Several chefs told The Awl that when used correctly, the leaves can provide a strong flavor.
Chef Matty Bennett of The Lucky Bee on the Lower East Side told the outlet, “People don’t realize the flavor they add.” Stale bay leaves sitting in your cupboard for months on end won’t help you at all. If you can find fresh bay leaves, that’s the way to go!’
The leaves should not only be quite fresh (just dried), but they should also be allowed to cook with the food for some time. While the flavor can be extracted in as little as five minutes, cook illustrated he suggested that they should be allowed to simmer for a full hour to extract the full flavor.
Bay leaves are the foliage of the laurel tree (pictured) and are native to the Mediterranean.
Bay leaves are the foliage of the laurel tree, small trees that were native to the Mediterranean, but were eventually brought to the New World, where they were quickly adopted.
There are several varieties of bay, as they can come from different types of bay trees, including the California bay, but the Californian leaf variant is very different aromatically.
Bay leaves are popular in many cuisines in the Mediterranean, France, India, the United States, and Mexico. They are an integral part of gumbo and Texas chili. In Jamaica, the leaves and wood of the bay tree are used to smoke meats, such as jerk chicken.
The branches of the laurel tree were made into wreaths in the ancient world and the term ‘laureate’, used to describe someone honored with an award, comes from the plant.
What most herbal experts seem to say is that if you think bay leaves are a scam and a conspiracy, buy some that have won awards to find out just how good they might be. But they would say, right?