I’m currently baby-sitting a pot of beef stew on the stove, and I added a couple Bay leaves. I always have Bay leaves on hand, and reflexively add them to soups & stews, mainly because Mom always did, and recipes often call for it. But why?
What flavor do Bay leaves impart? Would my soups/stews come out somehow lacking, were I to omit the Bay leaves?
Is there anything that absolutely must be wedded to the flavor of Bay leaves, and if so, why?
Bay leaf do add a flavour, and a very nice one IMHO but they are nothing like as important as onion, garlic, salt, or pepper for flavouring. Just chew a piece to get an idea of what the flavour is.
Chew? I heard that if you eat them they kill you. No kidding, I was petrified of them. I’d spoon my soup around until I found anything remotely similar to a bay leaf and make sure that it was far far away from my soup.
-foxy
My mom told me something similar, and I always thought it very strange you had to add something poisonous to your soups, and you had to make sure you removed it before eating. Don’t eat the Bay leaf, it’s poisonous!
That’s part of why I started this thread.
I think me mom was playin’ wit me.
They aren’t poisonous. They are sturdy little buggers though, and they don’t soften much from cooking, and they can cut your mouth or throat.
He said chew–he didn’t say swallow. 
In some dishes bay leaves give a sort of bright taste to contrast the richness. Black-eyed peas are very much improved by adding bay leaves. They’re just a nice enough nutty/smoky flavor until bay gets in there and adds a bit of sharpness. Rosemary can do the same.
My mom always made sure to count all the bay leaves because she regarded them as a choking hazard on top of not being very pleasant to eat.
They aren’t poisonous, but the leaves are very hard and the veins in them tough. They can cut you if you chew them, and you can choke on them. I’ve also heard they can perforate things if swallowed (like swallowing a pin).
I read somewhere long ago that English housewives would share bay leaves during the WWII rationing…one precious bay leaf making the rounds of a block, especially during holiday season. Is that a myth? If it’s true, that would indicate that they last for a long long time. It seems wasteful, when I can go to the store and get a big bag of bay leaves very cheap, that I throw it/them away after every use.
Also, is it true that they repel roaches? I don’t believe everything I read, but I read that and took one of those bags and scattered them everywhere I could, out of sight (behind the oven, under the sink, in the cabinets). I haven’t seen a roach since, but I don’t know if it’s the bay leaves or the result of the last time the landlord sprayed.
The only time I’ve eaten Indian food, there was a bay leaf in my food. PACUG informed me that Indian people don’t remove them before serving, and that they liked the person eating it to get the whole dish or something like that.
Any experiences here?
It makes me happy to hear other people say that ONE bay leaf is good for a pot of soup/stew. My stepmother and her mother were apparently never informed of this. The stepmonster was a terrible cook anyway but having to pick out the huge handful (no exaggeration) of roughage was quite an experience. And the taste…OMG. I was actually frightened of beef stew until about the age of 15.
Crush one in your hand and sniff to get a feeling about the flavour. This works for nearly all herbs.
I never found one bayleaf to give enough flavour, 4 or 5 tends to be just about right for me.
The ‘poison’ question.
This comes from the use of the word laurel to name several different plants. Laurel is the common name of several different plants some of which are poisonous. This has lead to such confusion. Bay leaves (AKA Sweet Laurel, Bay Laurel) are quite safe, but don’t eat the leaves of any other laurel. Here is a good cite for this info.
As for choking, they are hard to chew and digest, like lime leaves, lemon grass, curry leaves, rosemary sprigs, and whole spices. Try and pick them out before serving, especially if you are serving to Children, old people or the infirmed. Dried bay leaves have a good flavour but are especially nasty to swallow so generally be careful to only use whole dried bayleaves and pick them out, or wrap broken dried bay leaves with other herbs inside a bouquet garnie (sp) which is inside a muslin cloth that is tied up.
That’s good information. Shoot, now I want to grow my own!
I suspected bay leaves had a sort of rosemaryish flavor, but just adding one to a whole pot of soup seems like it wouldn’t do anything. OTOH, it would never occur to me to dump a whole handful of leaves into something. I’ll usually add one leaf, if it’s a whole, good sized leaf, otherwise I might add two or three, if they’re small or broken.
To tell the truth, I think I add bay leaves to soups more as a good luck charm, than flavor. But at least now I know it is actually adding flavor to it, too.
I’ve always eaten them (and curry leaves in curries)–I didn’t realise you were supposed to pick them out!
I’ve cut the inside of my mouth twice eating popcorn but never eating these ‘additions’
Where did you get that? 
And is it “infirmed” or “infirm”? Pull over and show me your dictionary.
Are they always dried? There is of course a great deal of difference in dried and fresh herbs.
I used fresh Bay Laurel leaves a couple of times when we lived the Bay Area. They tend to grow alongside redwoods, for some reason. They smell lovely when you pick them, but I found them to be a little too pungent in cooking. I think the kind you buy dried are a different species and have a more subtle flavor.
Well, duh. That’s why it’s called the Bay Area.
BTW, why can’t seagulls fly over bays?
Here I was going to mention that I thought it was hysterical last night when someone told me bay leaves were poisonous and that’s why we take them out of food before eating. I’d never heard that before but apparently it’s a common belief! Why do people think we would put poison in our food?