Organic Bay Leaves Dried Standard Jar - 5g - Steenbergs details and description

Steenbergs Organic Bay Leaf comes from our farming partners in Turkey and shipped from Izmir.  Organic bay is one of the most sought after culinary herbs for flavouring soups, casseroles, stews, fish, meat, poultry and marinades. Steenbergs organic bay leaves are from the countryside near to Izmir in Turkey, where the best organic bay leaves are still hand-picked, soaking in the glorious summer heat of the Mediterranean. 

While we have a couple of bay plants at home, I much prefer the taste of dried organic bay leaves as they have less bitterness and the leaves concentrate those aromatic camphorous aromas and flavours.  The bay tree is a densely foliaged, evergreen tree that can grow up to 10m (33 ft) tall.  The leaves are dark-green and shiny; they are oval in shape tapering to a sharp point.  The bay leaves are 5 - 10cm (2 - 4 inches) long.

Fresh bay leaves have a pungent, warm aroma with fresh camphor notes and a lingering astringency.  The flavour is also pungent, sharp, bitter and astringent.  The dry leaves are lighter green and less shiny, and when broken have an even stronger aromas as the volatile oils have become more concentrated, while the bitterness evident in the fresh leaves has been toned down.

Bay leaves are classically used in flavouring long, slow-cooked dishes from casseroles and stews through to tomato dishes.  They are great to flavour patés or add a torn bay leaf when making deglazing a roasting tray to make some gravy.  The flavour of bay leaves is relatively strong, so one or two whole bay leaves dropped into a casserole, soup or stock is fine.  Another simple use is to flavour stocks, so throw in a couple of dry bay leaves to the boiling water when boiling fish or into the boiling water for rice to give a sometimes rather plain rice flavour an intriguing and beguiling aroma.  My mum's classic beef casserole is a typical way of using organic bay leaves, and something I was brought up on.  For more recipe ideas, try Steenbergs Recipes Section or the BBC.

To find out more on bay leaf, try Wikipedia.

Organic bay is part of Steenbergs extensive UK range of over 400  organic spices, peppers, herbs and flavoured sugars. They can be obtained from most of our retail stockists; for your local stockist click on "Where to see us", call us on 01765 640 088 or email enquiries@steenbergs.co.uk.

Spice - season - savour - sustainably with Steenbergs.