Bay Leaf

Bay Leaf: History and Complete Culinary Guide

The bay laurel (Laurus nobilis) is a Mediterranean evergreen whose dried leaves are one of the most universally used flavouring herbs in European, Middle Eastern, and American cooking. The ancient Greeks and Romans held the laurel in the highest esteem: Delphic Oracle priestesses chewed bay leaves; victorious athletes, poets, and generals were crowned with laurel wreaths — the expression "rest on one's laurels" derives from this tradition, and "laureate" (as in Nobel Laureate or Poet Laureate) means "decorated with laurel." Bay leaves are always added whole to dishes and removed before serving. Their flavour is subtle when raw — even tasting a raw bay leaf gives a mild impression — but slow cooking releases their essential oils (primarily eucalyptol and linalool) into the surrounding liquid, adding an indefinable herbal depth to stocks, soups, stews, sauces, and braises that is hard to articulate but immediately missed when absent.

Culinary Uses

Bay leaves work through slow-release flavour: always add to dishes that will cook for at least twenty minutes. Essential in stocks (chicken, beef, fish), in bouquet garni, in béchamel sauce (a bay leaf steeped in the milk before making béchamel adds remarkable depth), in stews, in braises, and in pickling brines. Add one or two to a pot of rice or lentils. Use in court bouillon for poaching fish. Indian cooking uses both European bay and a different plant (tej patta, Indian bay laurel, Cinnamomum tamala) — the two have different flavour profiles. Fresh bay is more fragrant than dried; dried bay is more convenient and has a longer shelf life. Dried bay leaves should be aromatic when crushed — flavourless dried leaves are past their useful life.