Make a dish twice, once without the bay leaf. There is an obvious difference. It’s fine to not like the taste of any particular spice but saying there is none is sort of crazy?
Just smell it (not just bay leaves but whatever). If it has a smell, that aroma can be infused into cooking, though you’ll want to make sure it’s edible before just throwing it into dishes.
And you might need to sauté them for a bit (also called tempering) to infuse that aroma into oil, since it’s not all water soluable.
Ah, yeah, the kind of cooking our household does is usually pretty strong favour wise (lots of South Asian cooking), it’s probably why neither my wife or I have ever noticed it.
Maybe if when make Italian food we should use it :)
In fairness, I’m not sure anyone knows if bay leaves even do anything.
my person, it absolutely does i love them very much, they are one of my favourite spices
… what?
Make a dish twice, once without the bay leaf. There is an obvious difference. It’s fine to not like the taste of any particular spice but saying there is none is sort of crazy?
He’s joking, it’s people that don’t cook often don’t know what the difference is
I wasn’t sure myself, so i made a “tea” out of bay leaves to check, and i can confirm that they do in fact have a pretty distinct flavor.
This is smart, I don’t know when to put it in so I should get familiar with the taste
Just smell it (not just bay leaves but whatever). If it has a smell, that aroma can be infused into cooking, though you’ll want to make sure it’s edible before just throwing it into dishes.
And you might need to sauté them for a bit (also called tempering) to infuse that aroma into oil, since it’s not all water soluable.
Bay leaf does provide a subtle earthy flavour, but it is also an anti fungal. I guess your left overs will stay edible a bit longer.
It also looks exactly the same as a clove leaf. A shop sold me a bag of mis-labelled clove leafs and my Bolognese that evening tasted most strange
Ah, yeah, the kind of cooking our household does is usually pretty strong favour wise (lots of South Asian cooking), it’s probably why neither my wife or I have ever noticed it.
Maybe if when make Italian food we should use it :)
Might as well just boil up a handful of grass from the local park, about the same.