The Best Place to Store Bay Leaves Is Not in Your Spice Drawer
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(Image credit: Gayvoronskaya_Yana)
As I was skimming Cook’s Illustrated’s The Science of Good Cooking, this tip caught my eye: Even though we use bay leaves much in the same way as dried herbs and spices, they shouldn’t be stored in the spice drawer with everything else. Guess where they should be stored instead?
Turns out that the freezer is the best place to store bay leaves! If bay leaves are frozen, they retain almost as much flavor and aroma as a freshly opened jar or package of bay leaves.
Bay leaves stored in the spice drawer, however, quickly lose so much potency that you have to use twice as many as the fresh or frozen ones. So throw those bay leaves into an airtight container and stash them in the freezer!
- Bay leaves & pests: There is still one good reason to use a single bay leaf in your pantry — read Emily’s take on that here: Bay Leaves in the Pantry
- Are bay leaves worth it? Do you cook with bay leaves regularly? Talk Megan into it here: Are Bay Leaves Really Worth the Trouble?