Comment on Game over
Astertheprince@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
Guess this person is unfamiliar with seasoning and the fact that bay leaves are used for flavor.
I cook all the time, every day, and have never once said, “This needs a bay leaf.” I don’t even know when it’s appropriate to use it. My mom puts a bay leaf in everything - spaghetti sauce, chili, pot roast, etc. - but I’m not convinced she knows what she’s doing, she just does it.
Seriously, what’s a bay leaf for? What does it do to the flavor?
It has a soft flavor. I don’t put it into anything spicy, and probably won’t be noticeable with the way Americans seem to do seasoning. But if I’m making a soup with some meat and potatoes and various vegetables, I’ll put it in, it’ll be noticeable.
If you just boil beef with and without it, you’ll feel the difference the most, I think.
I’ve read it enhances every other flavour, kind of like salt but without making things salty
Hmm, that’s interesting. I got a pot of chili scheduled for later today, I’ll try a bay leaf.
I’ve been perfecting my chili recipe for years. It includes red wine, cocoa powder, and lime juice. Perhaps a bay leaf will become part of it.
Bay leaf is subtle but nicely “rounds out” the dish. It’s not a distinct spice flavour like pepper or thyme. I use it in a lot of the food I cook but not everything. Putting it in chili is exactly where it should be put.
Have you tried a little bit of espresso grounds? It adds a certain flavor to meats that’s just… incredible… Might not go with what you have here though.
Or like tap out the tiniest amount of cinnamon on your hand and add whatever falls off of it? It shouldn’t even be enough to say there’s cinnamon in it. It’s like nature’s msg, it just makes it taste better, gives it a good homogeneous flavor that pops somehow. Straight up witchcraft
I just toss a sprinkle of msg in, does wonders
MSG only enhance umami and has a distinctly salty flavor. Try substituting a bay leaf for a fuller, richer flavor. You may want to remove the leaf before serving.
bay leaves are bitter af
They are just for flavor not for eating. Can’t recommend eating cloves or allspice berries either.
You’re not supposed to eat it
That’s why you take them out afterwards
And also so they don’t tear up your insides.
Or warn people if you forget. “If you find a leaf, don’t eat it. It’s for flavour, but not pleasant to eat on its own.” Texture isn’t great either iirc (but I could be wrong, as I was a kid the last time I tried eating one).
21 first century woman that doesn’t know how to cook? Checks out
i think it’s more significant that she’s a white american who desn’t know what goes into food than that she’s a she
Oh dam, I gave her the benefit of the doubt. Many recipes call for bay leaves. But I think you may be right 🤔.
D_C@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Wait, they go to a bay and pick up leaves to put in food? Urgh, yuck!
Why can’t they just use the aromatic herb from a laurel tree?
BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
You want one from a bay or harbor, where the pollution hast concentrated, and the bay leaf has been able to draw in all the tasty flavors of PCBs, chemical waste, sewage, fertilizers, pesticides, industrial run-off, etc. It’s all those subtle flavors that make the Bay Leaf the King of Seasonings.