Too many bay leaves, man

January 14, 2016 12:08 PM

I was good at remembering that we ran out of bay leaves. Unfortunately, I was also good at forgetting that I had already bought them. Is there a good way to use a lot of bay leaves?

We're adventurous cooks, willing to try almost any recipe, and not averse to trying new ingredients or techniques. But too bay leaves can be...too many. How do I use 2-3 jars of bay leaves without overwhelming our palates or creating something completely inedible?

I'm mostly looking for recipes, but if that's ill-advised, I'll take other suggestions for using lots of bay leaves.

posted by grateful to Food & Drink (18 answers total)

Put them in with your wool sweaters to ward off moths?
posted by leahwrenn at 12:12 PM on January 14, 2016 [5 favorites]

When I worked at a summer camp we'd make bay-infused syrup and mix it in a fruit salad (just sugar, water, simmer with bay leaf). Particularly good with peaches as I remember.

I was going to say aftershave, but apparently that's a different kind of bay :(
posted by theweasel at 12:13 PM on January 14, 2016

Just in case you don't get a lot of suggestions, bag them up and keep them in the freezer - this will keep them usable longer.
posted by Frowner at 12:17 PM on January 14, 2016 [7 favorites]

I make a pinto bean soup in the crockpot once a month or so and throw about 6-8 bay leaves in each time. It uses them up pretty quickly!
posted by jabes at 12:18 PM on January 14, 2016 [1 favorite]

We have a bay tree, I cut my own and hang them to dry. They last quite a long time. Keep them dry and I would be surprised if they don't last a year.
posted by biffa at 12:32 PM on January 14, 2016 [3 favorites]

Make a wreath
posted by belladonna at 12:33 PM on January 14, 2016

Most Cajun dishes (at least as my mother and grandmothers cook them) involve a couple of bay leaves. Add gumbo, red beans and rice, jambalaya, or etouffee to your repertoire and you will work through your extra bay leaves pretty quickly.

I started answering this question because I could have sworn I ran into a recipe just in the last couple of days that involved infusing bay leaves and garlic in oil for... reasons??????*, and now I can't find it again. However, googling provided me with this Guardian article full of bay leaf recipes.

*It wasn't just an infused oil recipe, the oil was meant to be a component of a larger dish, though bay and garlic infused olive oil sounds delicious in general.
posted by Sara C. at 12:37 PM on January 14, 2016

This Bay Leaf Pound Cake is pretty awesome. I've made a couple times, I usually serve it with stewed oranges, and people tend to like it.
posted by Karmeliet at 12:39 PM on January 14, 2016 [5 favorites]

This Jerk Chicken Recipe from J. Kenji Lopez-Alt uses whole whack of bay leaves.
posted by MagicEightBall at 12:48 PM on January 14, 2016 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Nah. Donate them to a food pantry, spices are one of the things rarely donated.

This happened to me too.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 12:53 PM on January 14, 2016 [5 favorites]

Best answer: I just read a tip to put a bay leaf in the pot each time you cook rice. I haven't yet tried it out, but that may use up a good number if you eat rice frequently.
posted by Liesl at 12:54 PM on January 14, 2016 [3 favorites]

Best answer: I always gotta vouch for adobo!
posted by quadrant seasons at 1:44 PM on January 14, 2016 [2 favorites]

They're good for potpourris too. My mom used to make some with bay, lavender and eucalyptus to put in drawers, etc. You can turn them into tinctures pretty easily (you can also extract essential oils if you like, but that's pretty involved). I knew someone who used bay leaves in witch hazel with a few other ingredients as an aftershave.
posted by klangklangston at 1:51 PM on January 14, 2016 [1 favorite]

The bay leaf in the pot of rice tip is a good one. It gives the rice a remarkable amount of flavor. And bay leaves do last for years if you freeze them in a zip-top freezer bag.
posted by artistic verisimilitude at 2:17 PM on January 14, 2016

When I lived in France my roommate would add a couple to the pasta water. It adds a surprising amount of flavor and the pasta only needs to be dressed with a little salt and olive oil. She also used to make a tisane (tea-like infusion) with bunches of bay leaves from a bush we had outside. I never developed a past for that, but you could give it a try. Not sure if these are traditional French uses for bay or if she was a fanatic.
posted by defreckled at 2:44 PM on January 14, 2016 [4 favorites]

They keep forever. I found some in my mom's pantry that were decades old. Just keep them, toss them when they don't do the trick any more.
posted by Namlit at 4:49 PM on January 14, 2016

Stock or broth. For the bones of one chicken, or six breasts, I use two quarts of water, a bay leaf, peppercorns, a carrot or two, a stick of celery, one medium onion cut into quarters. Simmer all afternoon. Freeze in one cup (or 250 ml) containers.
posted by JawnBigboote at 6:57 AM on January 15, 2016 [1 favorite]

Best answer: +1 to the aforementioned rice and pasta.

Thread common to most of the aforementioned suggestions: Just about every soup, stew, chili, sauce, simmered dish with a saucy liquid should have a bay leaf or two added, even if the recipe doesn't call for it. Cuisines using bay leaves: crockpot, fondue, Mexican, Italian/Mediterranean, Indonesian/SE Asian, Filipino, Indian, and Cajun/Creole.

Add one or two leaves to the potatoes when you're boiling them for potato salad or mashed potatoes/sweet potatoes.

Pickled vegetables and naturually-fermented vegetables, including sauerkraut, can use a bay leaf in the the liquid. Pickles/pickled veggies: you'd add it to the brine before you boil it and then remove it before putting it jars and adding the veggies. Naturally-fermented veggies: let the leaf stay in there while the veggies ferment for 1-6 weeks.
posted by dlwr300 at 7:41 AM on January 15, 2016