Herbs & Spices

Bay Leaves

Bay leaves are almost always removed before serving a dish, since their leathery texture doesn't soften enough through cooking to be pleasant to eat, even after hours in a simmering soup or stew.

They release their subtle, slightly herbal, tea-like flavor slowly during a long simmer, which is exactly why they're a staple in soups, stocks, and braises rather than a quick sauté.

Turkish and California bay leaves, the two most common varieties sold in the US, differ meaningfully in strength — California bay leaves are notably more pungent and slightly minty, while Turkish bay leaves are milder and more commonly used in classic French and Mediterranean recipes.

The bay laurel tree, from which culinary bay leaves are harvested, is the same plant whose leaves formed the laurel wreaths awarded to victors in ancient Greek and Roman athletic and poetic competitions, a symbolic use entirely separate from its later culinary role.

Because bay leaves are sturdy enough to survive a long simmer without breaking down, they're commonly reused as a marker in a large batch of soup or stew — cooks fish them out and count them to make sure every leaf added at the start gets removed before serving.

Fresh bay leaves, less commonly available than dried in most US grocery stores, carry a noticeably different, slightly more bitter and menthol-like flavor than the milder, more tea-like flavor dried bay leaves develop as they lose moisture.

Indian cooking uses a related but genuinely different leaf, tej patta (Indian bay leaf, from the cassia tree), in place of true Mediterranean bay laurel in many recipes, and the two aren't interchangeable since tej patta carries a cinnamon-like aroma rather than bay laurel's more herbal, tea-like character.

Bay leaves have historically been included in a bouquet garni alongside thyme and parsley stems, a French bundling technique that keeps several long-cooking herbs together and easy to remove as a group rather than fishing out loose leaves and stems individually from a finished dish.

A bay leaf's flavor releases quite slowly, which is part of why it's a common addition to a large-batch dish like a stockpot of chili or a slow-cooked pot of beans meant to simmer for hours, contributing a subtle depth that would be barely noticeable in a quick, ten-minute sauce.

Some households follow an old superstition of hiding a whole bay leaf in a holiday dish, believing whoever finds it in their serving will have good luck for the coming year, a lighthearted tradition entirely separate from the leaf's actual culinary purpose.

Turkish and Mediterranean bay leaves sold commercially are sometimes confused with California bay leaves, harvested from an entirely unrelated tree species, which carry a much stronger, more medicinal flavor and are traditionally used more sparingly, often just a partial leaf rather than a whole one per pot.