There is a joke that gets shared in India... (When working on a group project) Some people are like Bay leaves. They are thrown first in the hot oil but at the time of eating they are thrown out (get no credit) Some people are like cilantro, they come in last (as garnish) and take all the credit.. I am sure I butchered it in translation..
Yes. Yes. Yes. Just saw one on using grated potato that said take 3 potatoes and spent about 1 minute with the woman showing you a potato in her hand. Then showed her peeling it. What happened next i have no idea.🤣
Even better yet, the rest of this video delivered so much more interesting and useful information on spices that was still related to the question. More often than not its just stalling with trivial fluff until they reveal the thing you were here for in a 5-second segment of a 10-minute video.
As an adult, whenever I tried to make stew, using what was in my head as my mother's "recipe", it was always good but never tasted quite like I expected. Then one day it hit me! Mom always added bay leaf. When I added it, my stew came out like "what mom made".....finally!
I had the same thing happen to me with grandma's gravy recipe. Having sat in her kitchen for hours on end I knew the process. I did everything like she did, used even the same flour to thicken the gravy; in the end it tasted good but something was missing. I asked dad about it and he said gran also used allspice. Tried gran's recipe with a tiny dash of allspice - kaboom! Right on point. I had somehow filtered the allspice out of the recipe because I wasn't a huge fan of it. Changed my opinion pretty quick...
@@BagznBirdz I switched from flour to corn starch as a thickener , it is much silkier , smoother and no nasty lumps . Just put 2-3 tbsp in a cup , add a bit of cold water , stir with a fork then add it to your soup , stew , gravy , cheese sauce , casserole etc . That amount works for about 5-8 cups of soup , stew etc depending how thick you like it and thickens even more once the dish is cold , I usually add some broth , stock, water or milk when reheating depending on what it is .
@@shari9721 I think gravy needs some ordinary, coarse wheat flour to get the flavor right as you first brown the flour with butter and then add liquid. I do add a little starch if the gravy doesn't thicken enough.
Told me the answer straight away, then went on to explain. Taught me new things without being condescending. Included named segments in the watch time bar at the bottom. Really clean audio and visuals. This is one of the best made youtube videos I've ever watched - good job!
We've had a bay tree in our garden for the past 20 years, I've trimmed it back multiple times. It took me until last month to click that the bay leaves for cooking are from that tree. Yes I cook. Yes I'm stupid.
I had been taught that you used bay leaves in winter dishes heavy on root vegetables because it 'freshens' the taste of the vegetable. I was living in a convent of teachers (as a student in need of housing) and had to take my turns cooking for the residents. I complained one night while making stew that they did not have any bay leaves. A few weeks later, one of the sisters had made potato soup for dinner and threw in bay leaves, making sure that my bowl contained one and they waited for my response for tasting it themselves. The real payoff was THEIR facial expressions as they tasted the soup. It does make a difference.
There appears to be 2 types of bay leaves, the euro and the Asian appear to have similar properties , the dried leaves can be added to dried rice as a weevil repellent. It also has antimicrobial properties. ?
I love this new food youtuber trend of answering the question at the beginning of the video. I'm still going to watch all the way to the end, but it feels a lot less clickbaity. Thanks Ethan!
Same. He talks fast and informative which keeps me hooked. The answer at the beginning sooths the impatient need to know, allowing you to focus on the content. I hope he does all the herbs.
It surprises me that more people don’t have a bay tree in their garden. They grow really well in pots and provide so many fresh leaves that you’ll need to cut it back at times. Even in cooler regions, they are perfectly fine throughout winter, and the leaves freeze really well, too. The fresh leaves are so much better than dried. I often take one as I’m walking past and scrunch it up. The aroma is incredible! Also worth mentioning that Indian bay leaves are different from the European variety. It’s fine to use either in most dishes, but there is definitely a difference between the two, meaning that where Indian recipes include bay leaves, they are referring to, you guessed it, the Indian variety.
I have a bay laurel I keep potted because I live where it freezes end of Oct. Through mid April. It's just a baby though, and I don't take too many leaves. Need to upside it's pot again.
Before I knew much about cooking, I learned from my grandmother that the bay leaf "brings everything else together." In my own unscientific experiments I find that it does in fact help to blend & add cohesion more than impart flavor of its own. Without it, all the flavors are there, but much more individually. With bay leaf, the flavors are identifiable, yet meld better.
My mother wasn’t the greatest cook, but she added bay leaves to every pot of spaghetti. And now I add it to most tomato dishes and when cooking pasta. I can tell when it’s missing.
Bay leaves are magic in red sauce. I usually buy canned sauce because it's easier and just adding a bay leaf while it's simmering makes such a difference in the flavor
It's too bad they're expensive. Too many people struggle with getting food at all without worrying about much more than salt and pepper. They're cheap to grow if you live somewhere warm I guess.
For split pea soup, bean soup, or any broth made with a ham bone or ham hock etc...if it tastes like it's a bit plain and missing something, the answer is usually bay leaf or thyme or both. Great video, like some other commenters, I like the dive ito a single herb/spice. So mnay otherwise decent potential cooks seem to ignore a lot of this stuff.
I live in Brazil, and we do use quite a lot of bay leafs (especially in beans). Something that people do - and I am not sure that this actually helps or not, but I also do the same - is to make a few cuts in the leaf (without chopping it - just slicing its sides, so they are still connected). From what I heard, this seems to release more flavor into the dish.
I bruise the midrib so the edge stays intact. And I count the number of leaves, because in a big pan of beef that is falling apart after four hours on the stove, you do not want any leaves left in it.
Title : "Do bay leaves actually do anything?" Indians and Slavs : Wait, there are people who think otherwise? (visible confusion) Okay, I didn't expect this comment to start a literal war in the comments section lol. I mentioned Slavic and Indian cuisine (forgot about mediterranean cuisine) because I know for a fact they use bay leaves. Although both are different plant species, they DO IMPART flavor. The Indian bay leaves impart a different flavor compared to European/ Turkish bay leaves. The point of my comment was a lot of cultures have bay leaf in their cuisine because they actually do affect the dish!! It's nice to know many other countries use bay leaf as well.
My grandmother s from Trinidad (basically India in the Caribbean) and was married to a Russian. She would never leave it out (also loves to watch cooking with Boris) and it also makes a surprisingly good tea.
I have to give you a like just for how straight to the point you were. Didn't lead us on for the whole video, gave us the information we wanted up front, huge respect!
You should try bay leaves when cooking beans! It makes a HUGE difference in flavor and also helps digestion by breaking some of its compounds that would make us feel bloated afterwards
The most important ingredient when soaking and cooking beans is using organic beans. They have a thinner more tender skin and a denser more pasty texture than non organic. Also, organic beans create less gas and the gas that is created is far less offensive. I buy my beans in bulk out of a bin at a local co op grocery store.
Marcos íñiguez (sorry if I wrote you name wrong) I agree! Should we go to war? I am already converting our sardine fishing fleet for war, cod fleet wi be ready soon after!
Mediterraneans use bay leaves more because you grow them. I'm the American in Midwest and had bison today. I doubt you eat much bison because you don't raise it there.
Ⓜ Ethan: This is my first series of yours that I ever listen to that I clearly understood - meaning - you come across very clearly in your speech, your voice presentation, A+. You just don't know how much I appreciate that. The reason is, my 93-year-old ears with hearing aids usually have a problem understanding. Because of that, I had to subscribe. Thanks again.
I've learned to question a lot of things that are 'general knowledge' when it comes cooking. But thanks to a soup that I make at least 3-ish times per month, I can definitively say that the absence of bay leaf is very noticeable.
I am Zambian (southern Africa) so there's a Zambian recipe that you guys should try out with bay leaves and beans, thank me later. Boil red kidney beans until very soft and the water around the beans starts to thicken. My mom taught me to start boiling beans with ½ a cup of oil, it ends up with a smoother texture add 2 bay leaves finely diced onions Tomato puree Tomato paste salt 1tbs of sugar (the sugar cuts the acid in the beans and also gives it a really nice taste) let it boil for like 30 minutes or until it fully thickens it's DELICIOUS. it's optional, you can add fresh cilantro at the end, it will change the taste of the beans. depends on what you're in the mood for. also we usually cook this beans with some trotters (cow legs) or bones. just ask for bones from your butcher then boil the beans with the bones.
In Italy they make a tea called "canarino", with bay leaves and lemon peel, which is really a nice way of becoming acquainted with the bay leaf flavor.
I've been throwing a few bay leaves on my rice while steaming for a while. Rice takes in aromatics extremely well. I usually steam rice with salt, fresh ground pepper, fresh minced white onion, onion powder, dried oregano, (sometimes red pepper seeds) and a couple-few dried bay leaves on top. You should try it!
I love your public speaking skills and choice of words. Precise and no unnecessary filler words, thanks so much for not wasting any of the public's time. :) I grew up on textbooks, and this is my kind of language!
Bay leaf is one of the quintessential seasonings of the cuisine of my country, Portugal. It's very traditional to add one or two leaves when sauteeing onions, especially if It's a bacalhau (salted cod) dish. We also use them in wine marinades, together with garlic and salt ("vinha d'alhos"). We use them in all kinds of stews. Because portuguese cuisine usually keeps spices to a minimum, most times I can taste weather bayleaf was used or not, and it does make a difference. Of course, if a dish has a lot of overpowering spices it's harder to pinpoint a more subtle herb like bay.
I'm Brazilian too, and I never understood why people claim bay leaves don't do anything. I can immediately tell when the beans have had bay leaves added to the stew or not
We have a bay tree in our garden it's 40 years old now and going strong. We use it in many recipes and wouldn't be able to do without it. We also have a myrtle as well. You can eat everything from that, the leaves, berries and flowers. Wonderful in winter stews and roast meat dishes.
I was surprised to find out that some might actually think it makes no difference. Growing up on swabian food, there's a ton of sour recipes that ask for bay leaves and you can usually always taste it. However these recipes usually don't have too many other spices and herbs added (commonly onions, salt & pepper) so maybe in other cuisines bay leaves aren't nearly as noticable.
Thank you for actually doing the experiment instead of just repeating what everyone is saying online. Love the video, very knowledgeable and also awesome production :) much appreciated
I actually do use dried basil quite often, because fresh basil tends to dominate foods it’s added to, so the dried type allows you to have that flavor without it overtaking the other flavors.
I have a true laurel (Laurus nobilis), or "bay leaf tree," tree that is the jewel of my culinary herb garden. I swear by fresh bay leaf in my home made "bone broth" and other dishes. I was hoping there would be some discussion of (1) the true laurel leaves versus other species of leaves that are dried and sold commercially as bay leaves and (2) fresh versus dried leaves. But I very much enjoy the angle of this cooking vlog. Please keep it up!
Yes. I have one too. I give away cuttings on occasion and people are surprised at how aromatic a fresh bay leaf is. The younger branches can be used as skewers for kebab, as well.
One time I did this thing where I cooked red lentils with just salt and bay leaf with the intention of adding more ingredients later, and I was shocked by how flavorful it was without adding anything else.
One of the dishes that blew away the judges on an old season of Top Chef was nothing more than a tempura fried bay leaf. It was intended that you put it on your tongue and pull the leaf out by the stem so you're only eating the infused tempura batter.
It's probably more accurate to say you don't really see any recipes that use dried basil. Like, you can get it, but I don't think it's really that popular to use. I've never had to cook with it nor had a recipe that explicitly needs it
I prefer fresh basil every time, but I use dried basil in my tomato pasta sauces. The fresh basil sauce is more flavorful faster but the difference is less pronounced the longer it cooks.
I have a small laurel bush in a vase at my home, and only use fresh bay leaves. But I usually add more than one, like, three or four. I love it with white plain rice. It also helps vegetable based dishes not smelling like farts when they are reheated, like brocolli. Put a bay leaf, and it will lessen that smell.
@@noimnotakpoppfpsheacy2526 Maybe she's trying to avoid doxxing herself. I mean there are only like 800 Carlas in for example, sweden. (No really, I checked on the swedish statistics website...)
I also feel like bay leave have tannin and might contribute to the mouthfeel of long cooked dishes. Try cooking beef with and without bay. The one with bay will have better texture.
Bay is also a source of tannins. This is one reason why they are used with cucumber pickles. The tannins lessen the breakdown of the cucumber cell walls...keeping the pickles more crunchy. 😋🥒
Super cool video. I have a bay tree so I always use them fresh. I find cooking at home with obvious smaller portions as opposed to big batch stuff during my years as a professional Chef, I can really notice them in a dish. Having said that, although I can tell a difference when I use them in a lot of dishes, I never miss it if it's not there.
I frequently use bay leaves when cooking, but mine are from the California Bay Laurel, which is different from the traditional variety that comes from Europe. There is another kind native to India, yet another that grows in the Caribbean… Might be fun to taste test the different varieties in the same dish… From Wikipedia: Bay tree can refer to: •Bay laurel (Laurus nobilis), a tree in the family Lauraceae native to Europe •Sweet bay tree (Magnolia virginiana), a tree in the family Magnoliaceae native to southeastern North America •West Indian bay tree (Pimenta racemosa), a tree in the family Myrtaceae native to the Caribbean •California bay laurel (Umbellularia), a tree in the family Lauraceae native to western North America
Have cooked with all of these and yeah, they're rubbish. I still keep dried basil around because tomato sauce isn't the same without it but it's not a patch on the fresh stuff, they may as well be two different herbs. Dried coriander leaf (aka cilantro) is at least recognisable as coriander but incredibly bland in comparison to fresh; in a pinch you can brighten it up a bit by soaking in lemon juice. Dried parsley is a complete waste of time, tastes like grass clippings.
Dried basil keeps its flavor for a long time, and for a guy who doesn't use it all that often, remember to buy fresh each time I want to use it is difficult. That being said, I did have a basil plant for a while, and it was wonderful!
I dry my own. It makes a difference but not that much. Especially in the winter, after months of snow and cold those dried herbs really come into their own.
@@johnnye87 Fresh vs dried basil is like fresh vs dried sage. It's as if the dried leaves are from a completely different plant when compared to the fresh leaves. I haven't tried dried cilantro, but I totally agree about dried parsley. Dried chives are also about like dried grass clippings as well. Hardly any flavor of anything, let alone the distinctive oniony taste of fresh chives.
I love how he doesn’t just jump to results when tasting or smelling something, he takes a couple of bites, takes his time and then comes to a conclusion
I love your videos Ethan! I live in Croatia and here we can find fresh bay leaves on the farmer's market and they are really cheap. What I like to do is buy fresh bay leaves whenever I can, leave them to dry for a few days, and grind them in my spice grinder. Properly dried bay leaves turn to powder very easily, they smell incredible and are great in any dish you would put in bay leaves anyway. .
I was raised to put bay leaves in every marinara/tomato sauce and soup, from chicken noodle to clam chowder. My family can REALLY notice the difference if I forget to put them in. They don't make it to the expiration date, LOL. But can you do this with saffron??🙏🏼
Bay leaf is an important ingredient when making Adobo, a popular Filipino dish so Filipinos always have ‘em in our kitchens. It really does make a difference when making adobo. It masks the ammoniacal scent of meat in the absence of stronger spices.
When I boil dumplings (Russian OR Chinese), I always throw in a bay leaf or two in the broth. It makes a huge difference, and if you add some butter, you can serve the dumplings in the broth. Any Russian soup or chili deserves a bay leaf. You'll know it does something because its aroma will stick to the pot/gaskets/lid and will be difficult to get out.
Super cool vid. Here in Brazil its costumary that you need bay leaves to cook beans the right way. A lot of people dont stress that much about it cause for most it doesnt seem to do that much. So a side by side comparison was a super cool experiment to watch!
PRO TIP: Most grocery stores now carry fresh bay leaves where they have other herbs. Freeze them and they last a long time and will ALWAYS impart more flavor than the dried versions. It’s like using fresh nutmeg vs the ground pencil shaving alternative.
I never used and seen a fresh nutmeg. Or do you mean using freshly grounded nuts instead of some powder. With bay leaves I know two opposing fractions: one which says fresh bay leaves are better and the other for which dried leaves are more tasty.
@@henningbartels6245 Fresh off the tree are far stronger, you cam literally use them twice. And the second time around, that previously fresh leaf will be on the level of an older dried one.
In Indian, particularly Ayurvedic cooking, there are six tastes described - sweet, salt, sour, bitter, astringent and pungent. Ayurveda recommends that all six tastes should be in every meal although in what proportion is determined by a person's individual "dosha" and is also dependent on the seasons.
I have a bay leaf/laurel tree growing for the past several years here at my home. Surprisingly I forget to cook with it. LOL! Now I feel the need to remember to use it more.
I'm from nowhere near Cajun country but enjoy eating and learning how to prepare Cajun dishes. All my gumbos begin with homemade broth, whether chicken or shrimp. And I use fresh bay leaves in every broth I make. It ain't real gumbo if the broth comes out of a can or box!
Fun fact: we *do* make and use dried basil and spearmint, among other things, here in the Mediterranean, but they are not always used the same way as the fresh stuff is. It's not good for those uses, typically.
In Brasil, we always use bay leaves when making beans, especially black beans. When I got out to California, I cut a lot of California Bay trees and would always savor the experience of putting the clippings in the chipper, which released those amazing volatile organic compounds. I tried cooking with the California Bay and discovered I only needed about 1/3 of what I usually use to get the flavor into dishes, subbing California Bay for grocery store bay 1 to 1 led to an overpowering flavor that was less than pleasant.
I'm really surprised by the surprise, but also surprised by how subtle I'm hearing everyone say bay leaves are. I use them regularly - frequently dry ones but more recently using them fresh from the large bay tree growing over the fence from my neighbour. To me, bay leaves are highly fragrant and have a very 'elegant' flavour. hearing anyone saying that they don't have a specific flavour genuinely surprises me; either you don't really know what you're tasting for or alternatively, you're using really, really poor bay leaves. Are there different types around the world?
chug beer from a kjeldahl flask, pour wine from an erlenmeyer flask, drink shots from a graduated cylinder ... all bad things to do if people also used the glassware to mix up sodium azide.
As I have a bay tree in my backyard, I never get out of fresh bay leaves, and I dry my own, of course. Highly recommend! You can plant it on a pot and, as long as it gets plenty of sun, it will produce more than enough leaves.
@@TitoTimTravels I don't think I've ever seen fresh cilantro in a supermarket where I live 🤷 And I've definitely looked for it. The dried one I use is brown and smells kinda like citrus, so I hope the taste comes close lol
@@svogel6459 What you have there is most likely ground cilantro/coriander seeds. And yes, they are citrusy and go very well with all kinds of fish or chicken as a part of a dry rub. But leafy part is a whole new world.
Dude?! They’re one of my favorite herbs to spice up my dishes! The flavor and the aroma that these little guys give off is just too amazing to pass out IMO. I made Bechamel sauce with one of these to put on a lasagna and it turned out magnificent
I was an instructor at a Scout leaders' training one time, and I provided the ingredients for the several leaders' patrols to make stew. One leader asked me why I didn't provide celery, which I had never used. He did have his own, and I tried it myself the next time I cooked it at home. You don't need it, but you'll know when you don't add it.
Bay leaves make a huge difference in filipino-style adobos. Since there are typically no other herbs (other than pepper) used in the soy sauce and vinegar based adobos, the bay leaf really adds standout aromatics to the dish, in my opinion.
Just wondering, do you use a bit more than just a couple leaves in adobo? Most dishes seem to call for only a couple, but with it being one of the primary flavorings in the adobo do you use a few more?
@@mirozen_ I think it's up to taste but I do use a few more since the meat isn't braising for a really long time so the leaves aren't releasing a super amount of flavor. Everyone has their own recipe, obvs, but I'd say start with a lower amount of leaves. you can always work up.
One huge tip I'm surprised you didn't mention, using Bay leaves while cooking any type of beans and lentils minimizes the chances of getting bloated, it's a must!! Greetings from Croatia, where's my Mediterranian squad at? 😄🌴
Yeah so so surprising that he didn't include some random old wives tale in the five minute video about if something has flavor or not that everyone already knew the answer to.
I encourage everyone to try this for yourself. I was always second guessing if bay leaves did anything to my meals (even though they were fresh) and tasting side by side was a real eye-opener. You get a much better understanding what exactly it adds to a dish.
Years ago, going through my spices, I realized that the bay leaves were older than my teenage children. I know now that those bay leaves probably were not helping my cooking much.
Here in Argentina bay leaves are used A LOT. It really helps that many people have access to plants, they are pretty common here, so the main way it's used is the fresh leaf straight from the plant. It's used in sauces for pasta, almost every time something is boiled, in stews, soups and rices, and specially for more fatty foods and legumes. Besides taste, bay leaves improve digestion; it helps with greasy foods by fostering the bile production, and helps avoiding flatulence after eating legumes and cabbage. Oh and also bay leaves are part of a popular game: The one that gets the bay leaf on its dish, has to wash the dishes.
It's common knowledge that the bay leaf in cooking is used for the purposes of finding a bay leaf in your food halfway through eating your meal, which is part of the essential experience of any recipe that calls for a bay leaf
Most recipes from the Indian subcontinent that we see here in the UK call for Tej Patta/Indian bay leaf (Cinnamomum tamala), which have a drastically different flavour to Bay laurel leaves (Laurus nobilis) that we are more familiar with in the West. Which do you use in your Asian rice dishes?
From the video shown above is the western bay leave, the one used in Indian cooking they are much bigger and long, can be the length of your palm. Those ones are a lot stronger in Eucalyptus note than fruity note.
cannot say what ASIANS use but yes indians use tamala ... in fact sanskrit name of c tamala is tamal-patr (patr in sanskrit means leaf) ... correct hindi spelling is taj patta (pronounced: tudge with -udge like in sludge) ... taj also means cinnamon so in hindi too it means cinnamon leaf although it may be from another cinnamon species than the tree from which indian cinnamon is made
@@Stettafire You're saying that like a lot of Brits don't insist they're not part of Europe because they're an island 😂 So is Iceland, what is their point?
So many people know of the flavor and can tell when something is not quite right with the dish because it is missing without actually knowing it is the bay leaf. I feel that bay leaf is a highly underrated seasoning for this reason.
I literally just searched for bay leaf on you tube because before seeing this i made some chicken stock and was making some rice and wanted to see if i could notice a difference with a bay leaf and..... Wow did i ever. It's amazing. I never knew because the soups and stews have quite a array of spices. It's very ready to appreciate in a rice dish. I plan on buying them regularly now. Beautiful.
There is a joke that gets shared in India...
(When working on a group project) Some people are like Bay leaves. They are thrown first in the hot oil but at the time of eating they are thrown out (get no credit)
Some people are like cilantro, they come in last (as garnish) and take all the credit..
I am sure I butchered it in translation..
No it is very clear, and true
damn good saying
Beautiful and clear.
Very true! I am a bay leaf 😅
+
It literally threw me off how you got directly to the point. Very rare with CZcamsrs nowadays. Good video :-)
Yes. Yes. Yes. Just saw one on using grated potato that said take 3 potatoes and spent about 1 minute with the woman showing you a potato in her hand. Then showed her peeling it. What happened next i have no idea.🤣
It's Chlebowski's biggest selling point for sure; that, and the lack of embellishment.
Cheers on him
I don't think that's true at all. Please follow my channel and I'll explain in more details my perception. But first RAID SHADOW---
Even better yet, the rest of this video delivered so much more interesting and useful information on spices that was still related to the question.
More often than not its just stalling with trivial fluff until they reveal the thing you were here for in a 5-second segment of a 10-minute video.
As an adult, whenever I tried to make stew, using what was in my head as my mother's "recipe", it was always good but never tasted quite like I expected. Then one day it hit me! Mom always added bay leaf. When I added it, my stew came out like "what mom made".....finally!
I had the same thing happen to me with grandma's gravy recipe. Having sat in her kitchen for hours on end I knew the process. I did everything like she did, used even the same flour to thicken the gravy; in the end it tasted good but something was missing. I asked dad about it and he said gran also used allspice. Tried gran's recipe with a tiny dash of allspice - kaboom! Right on point. I had somehow filtered the allspice out of the recipe because I wasn't a huge fan of it. Changed my opinion pretty quick...
@@BagznBirdz I switched from flour to corn starch as a thickener , it is much silkier , smoother and no nasty lumps . Just put 2-3 tbsp in a cup , add a bit of cold water , stir with a fork then add it to your soup , stew , gravy , cheese sauce , casserole etc . That amount works for about 5-8 cups of soup , stew etc depending how thick you like it and thickens even more once the dish is cold , I usually add some broth , stock, water or milk when reheating depending on what it is .
@@shari9721 I think gravy needs some ordinary, coarse wheat flour to get the flavor right as you first brown the flour with butter and then add liquid. I do add a little starch if the gravy doesn't thicken enough.
now that I see this I realize I might actually be missing some bay leaves when cooking my mom's stew as well, wtf
always use it for beans though
Same!!!
Told me the answer straight away, then went on to explain.
Taught me new things without being condescending.
Included named segments in the watch time bar at the bottom.
Really clean audio and visuals.
This is one of the best made youtube videos I've ever watched - good job!
putting the answer at the beginning and in the description 🥲
what a world
I'll have to make an 8-minute video and hide the answer in the middle next time ;)
CROSSOVER!!!
@@EthanChlebowski "Top 10 things you need to know about Bayleaves brought to you by Squarespace"
Best anime crossovers.
@@EthanChlebowski lol love it haha
We've had a bay tree in our garden for the past 20 years, I've trimmed it back multiple times. It took me until last month to click that the bay leaves for cooking are from that tree. Yes I cook. Yes I'm stupid.
Better late than never.
There must have been a ghost taking the bay leaves from that tree and leaving them in your spice cabinet.
That’s funny. That’s okay , I’m sure you were busy with life!
You are fotunate to still have live tree. They are all dead or dying here in the deep south.
When I was in Madeira we got meat grilled on skewers from a bay tree, that gave a delicious taste to the meat.
I had been taught that you used bay leaves in winter dishes heavy on root vegetables because it 'freshens' the taste of the vegetable. I was living in a convent of teachers (as a student in need of housing) and had to take my turns cooking for the residents. I complained one night while making stew that they did not have any bay leaves. A few weeks later, one of the sisters had made potato soup for dinner and threw in bay leaves, making sure that my bowl contained one and they waited for my response for tasting it themselves. The real payoff was THEIR facial expressions as they tasted the soup. It does make a difference.
love this story!
bay leaves: what every slavic mom uses when making any kind of soup-like food
THIS 😂😂😂 Pretty much every soup we make has bay leaves in the recipe
There appears to be 2 types of bay leaves, the euro and the Asian appear to have similar properties , the dried leaves can be added to dried rice as a weevil repellent. It also has antimicrobial properties. ?
My gosh they really do make soups so good. Love them in beef stew
@@lwmaynard5180 Why are you putting so many spaces between your words ?
Spezzatino, Northern Italian beef stew, is not the same without bay leaves, same goes for meat stock, boiled meats, etc ...
I love this new food youtuber trend of answering the question at the beginning of the video. I'm still going to watch all the way to the end, but it feels a lot less clickbaity. Thanks Ethan!
you’ll love adam neely, he answers questions in the thumbnail. But it isn’t about food, it’s music.
Same. He talks fast and informative which keeps me hooked. The answer at the beginning sooths the impatient need to know, allowing you to focus on the content. I hope he does all the herbs.
@@Udontkno7 Adam Neely's anti-clickbait is legendary.
To quote Chef John about Cayenne Pepper: "You might not notice its presence, but you will notice its absence."
Cayenne pepper can actually get pretty hot.
It actually sounds like the opposite, here.
@@skyydancer67 Of course. Cayenne pepper (most of the time) is hotter than jalapenos.
this only works in small amounts in my experience, if you put more than a tiny bit of cayenne pepper in a dish it becomes pretty easily noticeable
@@Dell-ol6hb They way Chef John uses it is just a dash to add a little bit of seasoning/flavour.... but I like to use a lot more than a dash
It surprises me that more people don’t have a bay tree in their garden. They grow really well in pots and provide so many fresh leaves that you’ll need to cut it back at times.
Even in cooler regions, they are perfectly fine throughout winter, and the leaves freeze really well, too.
The fresh leaves are so much better than dried. I often take one as I’m walking past and scrunch it up. The aroma is incredible!
Also worth mentioning that Indian bay leaves are different from the European variety. It’s fine to use either in most dishes, but there is definitely a difference between the two, meaning that where Indian recipes include bay leaves, they are referring to, you guessed it, the Indian variety.
most people dont grow stuff in their gardens lol
Cool! I’m going to look into that. Great idea.
I have a bay laurel I keep potted because I live where it freezes end of Oct. Through mid April. It's just a baby though, and I don't take too many leaves. Need to upside it's pot again.
Before I knew much about cooking, I learned from my grandmother that the bay leaf "brings everything else together." In my own unscientific experiments I find that it does in fact help to blend & add cohesion more than impart flavor of its own. Without it, all the flavors are there, but much more individually. With bay leaf, the flavors are identifiable, yet meld better.
My mother wasn’t the greatest cook, but she added bay leaves to every pot of spaghetti. And now I add it to most tomato dishes and when cooking pasta. I can tell when it’s missing.
Bay leaves are magic in red sauce. I usually buy canned sauce because it's easier and just adding a bay leaf while it's simmering makes such a difference in the flavor
Yes!!!
Exactly, bay leave is so important in spaghetti.
Same story here, I can instantly tell if I forgot to put a few in ^^
Imma start adding bay leaves to pasta sauce. Why didn’t think of that before?! Thank you!! 😂
I really like this deep dive in a specific herb/spice
Didn't even get into the different types of bay leaves! 🤠 @ethan what's your po box lemme ship you CA Bay Laurel
spices make a huuuuge difference!
Oh, dude, absolutely! Ethan could go into detail on most of the herbs and spices and it would be fantastic.
It's too bad they're expensive. Too many people struggle with getting food at all without worrying about much more than salt and pepper. They're cheap to grow if you live somewhere warm I guess.
Deep?
For split pea soup, bean soup, or any broth made with a ham bone or ham hock etc...if it tastes like it's a bit plain and missing something, the answer is usually bay leaf or thyme or both.
Great video, like some other commenters, I like the dive ito a single herb/spice. So mnay otherwise decent potential cooks seem to ignore a lot of this stuff.
I live in Brazil, and we do use quite a lot of bay leafs (especially in beans). Something that people do - and I am not sure that this actually helps or not, but I also do the same - is to make a few cuts in the leaf (without chopping it - just slicing its sides, so they are still connected). From what I heard, this seems to release more flavor into the dish.
I bruise the midrib so the edge stays intact. And I count the number of leaves, because in a big pan of beef that is falling apart after four hours on the stove, you do not want any leaves left in it.
We also have grinded bay leaf (powder).
@@NickeManarin I know, but never used it, could be handy in a quick sauce, like tomato sauce. Having the taste without much time.
@@dutchman7623 k
Sure thing, no feijoada is possible without bay leaves!
Bay leaves work wonders with Onions. It's a way to help remove some of the harsh bite, at least from my experience.
Very cool.cheers
100% I love the smell of them in oil with onion.
Bay leaves and onions work really well to flavour milk before using it in a white sauce
Bay leaves work nice with fish too, especially mackerel.
My boy chefpk! Love from Singapore! Keep up the videos buddy!
Title : "Do bay leaves actually do anything?"
Indians and Slavs : Wait, there are people who think otherwise? (visible confusion)
Okay, I didn't expect this comment to start a literal war in the comments section lol. I mentioned Slavic and Indian cuisine (forgot about mediterranean cuisine) because I know for a fact they use bay leaves. Although both are different plant species, they DO IMPART flavor. The Indian bay leaves impart a different flavor compared to European/ Turkish bay leaves. The point of my comment was a lot of cultures have bay leaf in their cuisine because they actually do affect the dish!! It's nice to know many other countries use bay leaf as well.
yeah in Poland its added to every second dish , we add it to soups too and various meals.
The Indian/malabar bay leaf isn't the same as the European one as far as I know
Ah yes, the two cultures that use bay leaves
Brazilians too. Try to make a feijoada or cook beans without bay leafs. It doesn't make sense.
My grandmother s from Trinidad (basically India in the Caribbean) and was married to a Russian. She would never leave it out (also loves to watch cooking with Boris) and it also makes a surprisingly good tea.
"hey, did you forget to put bayleaves in this?" - my new favorite food critique for everything.
I have to give you a like just for how straight to the point you were. Didn't lead us on for the whole video, gave us the information we wanted up front, huge respect!
You should try bay leaves when cooking beans! It makes a HUGE difference in flavor and also helps digestion by breaking some of its compounds that would make us feel bloated afterwards
Always use them in frijoles
I use bay leaves in everything I can get away with.
The most important ingredient when soaking and cooking beans is using organic beans. They have a thinner more tender skin and a denser more pasty texture than non organic. Also, organic beans create less gas and the gas that is created is far less offensive. I buy my beans in bulk out of a bin at a local co op grocery store.
@@duffysullivan2794 *takes notes*...organic beans in...... organic farts out.....right got it
@@TiffyVella1 Yep. Stay away from those grocery store beans in the plastic bags. Hasn't been gas like they create since the trench warfare of WWI.
Ethan: Do bay leaves actually do anything?
Every Mediterranean: Is that a personal attack?
This means war!!! 😂😂
Marcos íñiguez (sorry if I wrote you name wrong) I agree! Should we go to war? I am already converting our sardine fishing fleet for war, cod fleet wi be ready soon after!
Mediterraneans use bay leaves more because you grow them. I'm the American in Midwest and had bison today. I doubt you eat much bison because you don't raise it there.
Omg yes exactly I got automatically offended when I saw the title lmaooo greetings from Croatia to other lovely Mediterranian countries 🌴🇭🇷🌴
nice one onichan!
Ⓜ Ethan: This is my first series of yours that I ever listen to that I clearly understood - meaning - you come across very clearly in your speech, your voice presentation, A+. You just don't know how much I appreciate that. The reason is, my 93-year-old ears with hearing aids usually have a problem understanding. Because of that, I had to subscribe. Thanks again.
I've learned to question a lot of things that are 'general knowledge' when it comes cooking. But thanks to a soup that I make at least 3-ish times per month, I can definitively say that the absence of bay leaf is very noticeable.
I am Zambian (southern Africa) so there's a Zambian recipe that you guys should try out with bay leaves and beans, thank me later.
Boil red kidney beans until very soft and the water around the beans starts to thicken. My mom taught me to start boiling beans with ½ a cup of oil, it ends up with a smoother texture
add 2 bay leaves
finely diced onions
Tomato puree
Tomato paste
salt
1tbs of sugar (the sugar cuts the acid in the beans and also gives it a really nice taste)
let it boil for like 30 minutes or until it fully thickens
it's DELICIOUS. it's optional, you can add fresh cilantro at the end, it will change the taste of the beans. depends on what you're in the mood for. also we usually cook this beans with some trotters (cow legs) or bones. just ask for bones from your butcher then boil the beans with the bones.
That sounds really good! Would you use palm oil or peanut oil or something?
@@MazHem palm oil and peanut oil are not common in my country. we usually use sunflower oil, Soybean oil and olive oil.
You should also try making Rajma, an Indian equivalent. You'd like it too!
I always put a bay leaf mirrin and fresh squeezed lemon in black beans
Thank you! This sounds amazing. We will be making it this week.
In Italy they make a tea called "canarino", with bay leaves and lemon peel, which is really a nice way of becoming acquainted with the bay leaf flavor.
Thank you for sharing, that looks great!
hmmmm, a new tea! thanks 🙋♀️
I use it in herbal tea. It's a great anti-inflammatory.. :)
I'd forgotten all about that tea. My mom made it when I got migraines and I liked it with a little honey. Very relaxing. She was from Campobasso.
I've been throwing a few bay leaves on my rice while steaming for a while. Rice takes in aromatics extremely well. I usually steam rice with salt, fresh ground pepper, fresh minced white onion, onion powder, dried oregano, (sometimes red pepper seeds) and a couple-few dried bay leaves on top. You should try it!
I love your public speaking skills and choice of words. Precise and no unnecessary filler words, thanks so much for not wasting any of the public's time. :) I grew up on textbooks, and this is my kind of language!
Bay leaf is one of the quintessential seasonings of the cuisine of my country, Portugal.
It's very traditional to add one or two leaves when sauteeing onions, especially if It's a bacalhau (salted cod) dish. We also use them in wine marinades, together with garlic and salt ("vinha d'alhos"). We use them in all kinds of stews.
Because portuguese cuisine usually keeps spices to a minimum, most times I can taste weather bayleaf was used or not, and it does make a difference. Of course, if a dish has a lot of overpowering spices it's harder to pinpoint a more subtle herb like bay.
Being of Portuguese descent, I use Garlic, Onions and Bay leaves wherever possible in cooking.
in Brazil they're commonly used on beans and the smell is very distinctive.
I'm Brazilian too, and I never understood why people claim bay leaves don't do anything. I can immediately tell when the beans have had bay leaves added to the stew or not
Serbia too!
In Italy too
Yum
In Greece, we practically use them with most (if not all) legume dishes.
We have a bay tree in our garden it's 40 years old now and going strong. We use it in many recipes and wouldn't be able to do without it. We also have a myrtle as well. You can eat everything from that, the leaves, berries and flowers. Wonderful in winter stews and roast meat dishes.
I was surprised to find out that some might actually think it makes no difference. Growing up on swabian food, there's a ton of sour recipes that ask for bay leaves and you can usually always taste it. However these recipes usually don't have too many other spices and herbs added (commonly onions, salt & pepper) so maybe in other cuisines bay leaves aren't nearly as noticable.
I hear life of Boris voice in my head saying "THE BAY LEAVES"
I see you are cultured as well.
Or maybe two.
Or maybe 2😂 all jokes aside his chaotic recipes are actually damn good
@@at-ge5te Boris do show us decent recipe, he just present it chaotically. 🤪
Bay leaves are his lifeblood
This is phenomenal! Helping people understand the value of herbs and spices is a big deal.
Thank you for the quick and to the point video. SO many people would stretch this out into 20 minutes. Thanks!
Dang, it was really nice having a question answered more thoroughly than I had even considered 🙌 Great work!
After decades of making it, I only recently started adding a bay leaf to my Italian red sauce. It was a heck of an improvement!
After decades of making sauce, I stopped adding bayleaf. Not one person noticed. Not one.
@@fishworks1 Fair enough. Still, I put them in my sauce and any soups or stews that I make.
Try adding an alarming amount. They elevate red sauce when used heavy handed. Most people add one bay leaf. Try adding 8.
@@fishworks1 very true, over rated, no one notices any difference either way. I also use fresh not dried, Still no difference.
I swear by bay leaves for many styles of cuisine. Throw one into your jar next time you make pickled onions- it's crazy how that flavor comes out!
Or pickled beets! Or pickled eggs!
We do pickled cauliflower and carrots, its neat!
Interesting!
I don't pickle anything. I have made condiments but the tiny quantity I need for my husband and myself means most of the work and food gets wasted.
@@MilwaukeeWoman But pickled stuff can stay forever in your refrigerator.
Thank you for actually doing the experiment instead of just repeating what everyone is saying online.
Love the video, very knowledgeable and also awesome production :) much appreciated
I actually do use dried basil quite often, because fresh basil tends to dominate foods it’s added to, so the dried type allows you to have that flavor without it overtaking the other flavors.
As a Russian/Ukrainian, just asking this question is blasphemy.
babushka beat with rolling pin for asking such question
As an Indian, this question does not exist.
@@jamessv5020 Agreed
да
Do Russians/Ukrainians even eat potatoes?
I have a true laurel (Laurus nobilis), or "bay leaf tree," tree that is the jewel of my culinary herb garden. I swear by fresh bay leaf in my home made "bone broth" and other dishes. I was hoping there would be some discussion of (1) the true laurel leaves versus other species of leaves that are dried and sold commercially as bay leaves and (2) fresh versus dried leaves. But I very much enjoy the angle of this cooking vlog. Please keep it up!
I used to have one in my (shared) garden , it got chopped down :(
Yes. I have one too. I give away cuttings on occasion and people are surprised at how aromatic a fresh bay leaf is. The younger branches can be used as skewers for kebab, as well.
Also it burns very well, even when green. Try burning some in your BBQ.
One time I did this thing where I cooked red lentils with just salt and bay leaf with the intention of adding more ingredients later, and I was shocked by how flavorful it was without adding anything else.
thank you for making a direct video. this is exactly educational with no bloat. I was pleasantly surprised
One of the dishes that blew away the judges on an old season of Top Chef was nothing more than a tempura fried bay leaf. It was intended that you put it on your tongue and pull the leaf out by the stem so you're only eating the infused tempura batter.
Any link bud tia
Wtf that's crazy
"you'll never really see dried basil" except for the massive amounts of dried basil in every grocery store ive been to
I bought some dry basil and parsley this afternoon.
It's probably more accurate to say you don't really see any recipes that use dried basil. Like, you can get it, but I don't think it's really that popular to use. I've never had to cook with it nor had a recipe that explicitly needs it
I prefer fresh basil every time, but I use dried basil in my tomato pasta sauces. The fresh basil sauce is more flavorful faster but the difference is less pronounced the longer it cooks.
@@pennyforyourthots all of my mom's italian-american family recipes use dried basil
I dry Basil that I grow, it really makes the kitchen smell nice. I also freeze it in water.
I have a small laurel bush in a vase at my home, and only use fresh bay leaves. But I usually add more than one, like, three or four. I love it with white plain rice. It also helps vegetable based dishes not smelling like farts when they are reheated, like brocolli. Put a bay leaf, and it will lessen that smell.
"Do bay leaves actually do anything?"
_Me, a South European:_ How DARE YOU ask such a question?!!!
Me, a Scandinavian: Yes, how dare you?!
@@carlawiberg6282 I read that with Greta thunberg's voice in my head
@@carlawiberg6282 Pick a country. You're not Scandinavian
@@noimnotakpoppfpsheacy2526 Maybe she's trying to avoid doxxing herself. I mean there are only like 800 Carlas in for example, sweden. (No really, I checked on the swedish statistics website...)
I always can tell when i forget to put a bayleaf in my soups and stews. Nice vid
And leave that sht in there for hours
I also feel like bay leave have tannin and might contribute to the mouthfeel of long cooked dishes. Try cooking beef with and without bay. The one with bay will have better texture.
Bay is also a source of tannins. This is one reason why they are used with cucumber pickles. The tannins lessen the breakdown of the cucumber cell walls...keeping the pickles more crunchy. 😋🥒
Super cool video. I have a bay tree so I always use them fresh. I find cooking at home with obvious smaller portions as opposed to big batch stuff during my years as a professional Chef, I can really notice them in a dish. Having said that, although I can tell a difference when I use them in a lot of dishes, I never miss it if it's not there.
“dude did you forget to put Bay leaf in this?”
That part had me on the floor! Haha
Ikr? Lol!!!
Classic quote:
"You can really see the difference especially when you're smelling for it."
He must be a Ghostbusters fan. Listen! Do you smell that?
It's those visible farts that are the most dangerous
I like the smell of difference in the morning!
But can you smell the difference if you're looking for it?
Whatever you do, don't cross the nostrils
I’ve been putting bay leaves in my white rice for a long time and love the flavor and nuances it adds to the finished dish.
I frequently use bay leaves when cooking, but mine are from the California Bay Laurel, which is different from the traditional variety that comes from Europe. There is another kind native to India, yet another that grows in the Caribbean… Might be fun to taste test the different varieties in the same dish…
From Wikipedia:
Bay tree can refer to:
•Bay laurel (Laurus nobilis), a tree in the family Lauraceae native to Europe
•Sweet bay tree (Magnolia virginiana), a tree in the family Magnoliaceae native to southeastern North America
•West Indian bay tree (Pimenta racemosa), a tree in the family Myrtaceae native to the Caribbean
•California bay laurel (Umbellularia), a tree in the family Lauraceae native to western North America
"You'll never see dried cilantro, basil, or parsley." Then what's that stuff in my spice cabinet?
garbage?
Have cooked with all of these and yeah, they're rubbish. I still keep dried basil around because tomato sauce isn't the same without it but it's not a patch on the fresh stuff, they may as well be two different herbs. Dried coriander leaf (aka cilantro) is at least recognisable as coriander but incredibly bland in comparison to fresh; in a pinch you can brighten it up a bit by soaking in lemon juice. Dried parsley is a complete waste of time, tastes like grass clippings.
Dried basil keeps its flavor for a long time, and for a guy who doesn't use it all that often, remember to buy fresh each time I want to use it is difficult. That being said, I did have a basil plant for a while, and it was wonderful!
I dry my own. It makes a difference but not that much. Especially in the winter, after months of snow and cold those dried herbs really come into their own.
@@johnnye87 Fresh vs dried basil is like fresh vs dried sage. It's as if the dried leaves are from a completely different plant when compared to the fresh leaves. I haven't tried dried cilantro, but I totally agree about dried parsley. Dried chives are also about like dried grass clippings as well. Hardly any flavor of anything, let alone the distinctive oniony taste of fresh chives.
I love how he doesn’t just jump to results when tasting or smelling something, he takes a couple of bites, takes his time and then comes to a conclusion
this isnt even a unbiased experiment. It needs to be double blind.
@@reggieangus5325 it's not even single blind.
I love your videos Ethan! I live in Croatia and here we can find fresh bay leaves on the farmer's market and they are really cheap. What I like to do is buy fresh bay leaves whenever I can, leave them to dry for a few days, and grind them in my spice grinder. Properly dried bay leaves turn to powder very easily, they smell incredible and are great in any dish you would put in bay leaves anyway.
.
I was raised to put bay leaves in every marinara/tomato sauce and soup, from chicken noodle to clam chowder. My family can REALLY notice the difference if I forget to put them in. They don't make it to the expiration date, LOL. But can you do this with saffron??🙏🏼
Bay leaf is an important ingredient when making Adobo, a popular Filipino dish so Filipinos always have ‘em in our kitchens. It really does make a difference when making adobo. It masks the ammoniacal scent of meat in the absence of stronger spices.
I always wondered why we put bay leaves in adobo, I’ve never made it without so I don’t know the difference. Thanks for explaining!
...why would your meat smell like ammonia?
I always add a bay leaf or two to the simmering milk when I make baked mac & cheese. makes a huge difference.
Hi Jason 🤗
I’ll have to try that.
When I boil dumplings (Russian OR Chinese), I always throw in a bay leaf or two in the broth. It makes a huge difference, and if you add some butter, you can serve the dumplings in the broth.
Any Russian soup or chili deserves a bay leaf. You'll know it does something because its aroma will stick to the pot/gaskets/lid and will be difficult to get out.
Super cool vid. Here in Brazil its costumary that you need bay leaves to cook beans the right way. A lot of people dont stress that much about it cause for most it doesnt seem to do that much. So a side by side comparison was a super cool experiment to watch!
I use it in pizza sauce
Life of Boris disapproves of the fact that this is even a question
Just had to look up Life of Boris, worth it.
@@EthanChlebowski Boy you're in for a treat
THE BAY LEAF!
@@EthanChlebowski omg yes
No offense to Ethan but Boris is youtube king chef!
PRO TIP: Most grocery stores now carry fresh bay leaves where they have other herbs. Freeze them and they last a long time and will ALWAYS impart more flavor than the dried versions. It’s like using fresh nutmeg vs the ground pencil shaving alternative.
I never used and seen a fresh nutmeg. Or do you mean using freshly grounded nuts instead of some powder.
With bay leaves I know two opposing fractions: one which says fresh bay leaves are better and the other for which dried leaves are more tasty.
.
@@henningbartels6245 Fresh off the tree are far stronger, you cam literally use them twice. And the second time around, that previously fresh leaf will be on the level of an older dried one.
In Indian, particularly Ayurvedic cooking, there are six tastes described - sweet, salt, sour, bitter, astringent and pungent. Ayurveda recommends that all six tastes should be in every meal although in what proportion is determined by a person's individual "dosha" and is also dependent on the seasons.
I have a bay leaf/laurel tree growing for the past several years here at my home. Surprisingly I forget to cook with it. LOL! Now I feel the need to remember to use it more.
I’m Cajun and we ALWAYS put a bay leaf in our rice. So good with gumbo!
I'm from nowhere near Cajun country but enjoy eating and learning how to prepare Cajun dishes. All my gumbos begin with homemade broth, whether chicken or shrimp. And I use fresh bay leaves in every broth I make. It ain't real gumbo if the broth comes out of a can or box!
lafayette resident here. I just made a big pot of red beans and you know I put a couple of Bay leaves in there.
Made some red beans and forgot to add bay leaf. Huge mistake.
@@charlescoates636 Im From Lafayette too! I feel like its a fun game to see who gets the bay leaves in the Gumbo.
Fun fact: we *do* make and use dried basil and spearmint, among other things, here in the Mediterranean, but they are not always used the same way as the fresh stuff is. It's not good for those uses, typically.
In Brasil, we always use bay leaves when making beans, especially black beans. When I got out to California, I cut a lot of California Bay trees and would always savor the experience of putting the clippings in the chipper, which released those amazing volatile organic compounds. I tried cooking with the California Bay and discovered I only needed about 1/3 of what I usually use to get the flavor into dishes, subbing California Bay for grocery store bay 1 to 1 led to an overpowering flavor that was less than pleasant.
I'm really surprised by the surprise, but also surprised by how subtle I'm hearing everyone say bay leaves are. I use them regularly - frequently dry ones but more recently using them fresh from the large bay tree growing over the fence from my neighbour.
To me, bay leaves are highly fragrant and have a very 'elegant' flavour. hearing anyone saying that they don't have a specific flavour genuinely surprises me; either you don't really know what you're tasting for or alternatively, you're using really, really poor bay leaves.
Are there different types around the world?
"Do bay leaves actually do anything?"
*_laughs in Greek_*
I work in a lab, and watching someone drink out of a beaker is setting off some serious alarms
Fun fact: "beaker" is literally the original English loanword for a drinking vessel. See Italian "bicchiere."
@@RaspK or the Dutch (much closer) “beker”.
we still sometimes call a medium drinking cup a beaker in the uk-
chug beer from a kjeldahl flask, pour wine from an erlenmeyer flask, drink shots from a graduated cylinder ... all bad things to do if people also used the glassware to mix up sodium azide.
@@boriscat1999 Or anything you don't know, in general. Only use glassware like that if you know they are clean, really.
What a refreshingly concise and fact-packed video!
As I have a bay tree in my backyard, I never get out of fresh bay leaves, and I dry my own, of course. Highly recommend! You can plant it on a pot and, as long as it gets plenty of sun, it will produce more than enough leaves.
"You never really see dried cilantro, basil or parsley"
Yeah about that....
I used to cook professionally. We had dried cilantro. It was a horrid white powder. It did not taste like cilantro, it tasted like blasphemy! 😎
@@TitoTimTravels I don't think I've ever seen fresh cilantro in a supermarket where I live 🤷 And I've definitely looked for it. The dried one I use is brown and smells kinda like citrus, so I hope the taste comes close lol
Dried parsley is sometimes helpful.
@@svogel6459 What you have there is most likely ground cilantro/coriander seeds. And yes, they are citrusy and go very well with all kinds of fish or chicken as a part of a dry rub.
But leafy part is a whole new world.
somehow I get the feeling this guy doesn't get his food at Stop and Shop
me: mom bay leaves dont do anything
mom: *so you have chosen death*
I always put bay leaf in bean soup and it totally changes the flavor and makes it so much better
Dude?! They’re one of my favorite herbs to spice up my dishes! The flavor and the aroma that these little guys give off is just too amazing to pass out IMO.
I made Bechamel sauce with one of these to put on a lasagna and it turned out magnificent
The only member of the laurel family that isn’t poisonous.
My grandma had a plant that looked like bay in her garden, so she used it for cooking. Turns out it is actually toxic.
@@federicoclaps5099 lmao hope you're all fine lol
@@federicoclaps5099 oof, hope you’re okay man
That’s poor town.
Many Bothans died to bring us this information.
"do bay leaves do anything?" has to be a question asked by someone who has never eaten Feijoada.
Exactly!
Thanks! I love learning names of unique and new dishes. This Asian gal is gonna watch some videos on it now
@@p_roduct9211 Brazil also has the largest population of Japanese people outside of Japan.
I was an instructor at a Scout leaders' training one time, and I provided the ingredients for the several leaders' patrols to make stew. One leader asked me why I didn't provide celery, which I had never used. He did have his own, and I tried it myself the next time I cooked it at home. You don't need it, but you'll know when you don't add it.
Bay leaves make a huge difference in filipino-style adobos. Since there are typically no other herbs (other than pepper) used in the soy sauce and vinegar based adobos, the bay leaf really adds standout aromatics to the dish, in my opinion.
We also add bay leaves to some of our tomato based dishes and even pickled papaya aka 'atchara' (filipino here). 😃
Just wondering, do you use a bit more than just a couple leaves in adobo? Most dishes seem to call for only a couple, but with it being one of the primary flavorings in the adobo do you use a few more?
@@mirozen_ I think it's up to taste but I do use a few more since the meat isn't braising for a really long time so the leaves aren't releasing a super amount of flavor. Everyone has their own recipe, obvs, but I'd say start with a lower amount of leaves. you can always work up.
@@tastyneck Sensible - Thanks!
One huge tip I'm surprised you didn't mention, using Bay leaves while cooking any type of beans and lentils minimizes the chances of getting bloated, it's a must!! Greetings from Croatia, where's my Mediterranian squad at? 😄🌴
Ha! I was looking for this info - I've heard this before. Nice to have it verified.
I use kombu (a seaweed) for the same reason. It adds a different flavor, but it works well.
Yeah so so surprising that he didn't include some random old wives tale in the five minute video about if something has flavor or not that everyone already knew the answer to.
@@delightful-ish the second part of your sentence doesn't make sense at all, you might need to add some bay leaf for it 😊
I encourage everyone to try this for yourself. I was always second guessing if bay leaves did anything to my meals (even though they were fresh) and tasting side by side was a real eye-opener. You get a much better understanding what exactly it adds to a dish.
They don’t
I am surprised by people questioning usage of bay leaf. It adds flavour, especially in stews with meat.
@@moongloss9243 idk I haven’t found it too
@@nonyobussiness3440 have you been using fresh or freshly bought dried leaves?
6 bay leaves picked from the herb garden that morning into the stock pot. Makes a world of difference
wow i’ve learned so much! this video is also very cinematically impressive for being an educational cooking vid!
Years ago, going through my spices, I realized that the bay leaves were older than my teenage children. I know now that those bay leaves probably were not helping my cooking much.
😂
Are the children helpful?🙄
im Filipino, we use that in a lot of our food and yes, there's a huge difference.
you will definitely know when you forget the bay leaves in adobo!
@@seouljah760 Yup, tastes bland without it.
You answered the question in your description but be damn sure I'm watching the whole video brother.
Love it.
Here in Argentina bay leaves are used A LOT. It really helps that many people have access to plants, they are pretty common here, so the main way it's used is the fresh leaf straight from the plant. It's used in sauces for pasta, almost every time something is boiled, in stews, soups and rices, and specially for more fatty foods and legumes. Besides taste, bay leaves improve digestion; it helps with greasy foods by fostering the bile production, and helps avoiding flatulence after eating legumes and cabbage. Oh and also bay leaves are part of a popular game: The one that gets the bay leaf on its dish, has to wash the dishes.
Bay leaves are like shadows in a painting, adding depth you might expect but hardly notice
No, they're like themselves. They sit in the back of the cabinet until they have no taste of flavor and you throw them out because you're moving.
This video : exists
Boris : Is this like a personal attack or something?
Or mabye two
No, is just Western Spy trying to learn glorious Slav cooking secrets
SLAV WORLD: Is this like a personal attack or something?
:D
Was looking for this comment
HAHAHAHA stay cheeki breeki comrades
It's common knowledge that the bay leaf in cooking is used for the purposes of finding a bay leaf in your food halfway through eating your meal, which is part of the essential experience of any recipe that calls for a bay leaf
Planted a small bay leaf plant in my garden a few years ago. It's now about waist height. I pluck them from there when I need them. Lovely.
Most recipes from the Indian subcontinent that we see here in the UK call for Tej Patta/Indian bay leaf (Cinnamomum tamala), which have a drastically different flavour to Bay laurel leaves (Laurus nobilis) that we are more familiar with in the West. Which do you use in your Asian rice dishes?
From the video shown above is the western bay leave, the one used in Indian cooking they are much bigger and long, can be the length of your palm. Those ones are a lot stronger in Eucalyptus note than fruity note.
cannot say what ASIANS use but yes indians use tamala ... in fact sanskrit name of c tamala is tamal-patr (patr in sanskrit means leaf) ... correct hindi spelling is taj patta (pronounced: tudge with -udge like in sludge) ... taj also means cinnamon so in hindi too it means cinnamon leaf although it may be from another cinnamon species than the tree from which indian cinnamon is made
@@einsteinwallah2 India is part of Asia. That's like saying Brits aren't European 🙄. You can choose to get offended but your being daft
@@Stettafire You're saying that like a lot of Brits don't insist they're not part of Europe because they're an island 😂 So is Iceland, what is their point?
me: can't smell the bay leaf
"do I have covid or is this leaf old"
Shintake mushroom or Limberger cheese work well for smell test...
So many people know of the flavor and can tell when something is not quite right with the dish because it is missing without actually knowing it is the bay leaf. I feel that bay leaf is a highly underrated seasoning for this reason.
I literally just searched for bay leaf on you tube because before seeing this i made some chicken stock and was making some rice and wanted to see if i could notice a difference with a bay leaf and..... Wow did i ever. It's amazing. I never knew because the soups and stews have quite a array of spices. It's very ready to appreciate in a rice dish. I plan on buying them regularly now. Beautiful.