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Bay Leaves - What do they add to a meal. |
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#1 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Aug 2004
Posts: 993
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Bay Leaves - What do they add to a meal.
Ok, so i've seen loads of recipes say to add a bay leaf during cooking and then take it out. I'm assunimg this adds to the flavour, am I right? What sort of flavour does it add and would food taste so much different if you didn't add it.
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#2 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 1,194
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As Gordon Ramsay once said on an episode of Kitchen Nightmares "stick one in your mouth and tell me it doesnt add something"
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#3 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Fort William
Posts: 22,296
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A slight bitterness and richness. Somehow stews are just better with it.
Favourite is bayleaf mash. Boil a bit of milk up with a few bay leaves in it, then leave it to cool. Boil your tatties as normal with a few bay leaves in the water. Remove all bayleaves and mash as normal, using the bay leaf milk instead of butter. Salt and pepper (both freshly ground of course) to taste. |
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#4 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Jul 2005
Posts: 17,127
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If you don't know what a bay leaf tastes like, then it's going to be all but impossible to describe it to you. All you can do is try it and see what you think of it.
For such a small thing, it certainly makes a vast difference. |
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#5 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: May 2011
Posts: 96
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I've only recently began to use bayleafs in a spanish chorizo stew and it does make a difference - and in a good way. Although I do need to remember to add TOO many chilli flakes to the dish
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#6 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Apr 2007
Posts: 10,268
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If you're using dried bay break them in 2 to release more of the flavour.
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#7 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: May 2007
Posts: 164
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i made a bechemal sauce for a fish pie and was using milk i'd infused with, amongst other things, a couple of dried bay leaves. i noticed there was a little one left in as I was stirring it so picked it out and, without thinking, licked the sauce off it....
![]() never to be repeated! and bizarrely I now seem to have bay leaf awareness powers and can detect one a mile off in any sauce, stew, casserole, whatever.
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