Bay Leaves

Bay leaf from the pantry

Uses and Benefits

The Bay Leaf  (Laurel) is an aromatic ingredient used frequently to flavor various culinary dishes.  They are used to flavor soups, meats, stews, vegetable dishes as well as an infuser for tea. 

Bay leaves also have other uses, and, there are several varieties.  In this blog I talk about the Laurel bay leaf, in particular.

The other uses include repelling meal moths, flies, roaches, silverfish, even mice when scattered about in the pantry or anywhere else.  

The bay leaves can be crushed, ground or left whole.  Crushed bay leaves have a stronger fragrance than whole leaves.  When used in cooking, whole leaves are easier to remove from cooked food than crushed bay leaves. Bay leaves should be removed from food after the food in done.  Because the whole leaves are stiff, they can cause harm to the digestive tract if swallowed.  Ground bay leaves can be mixed into a dish when during seasoning.  There's no need to remove them before serving the dish, however, the taste will be stronger.

The use of bay leaves in drawers where sweaters are stored is a benefit in keeping away insects that feed on fiber and fabric.  Put a few bay leaves under the liner paper in the drawer or just place them throughout the drawer if you don’t use liner paper.  

Bay leaves have been used to treat bacterial and fungal infections as well as other medicinal uses.  They are anti-bacterial and anti fungal. 

Place a few bay leaves wherever you have an ant problem.  In a very short time you will see no ants.  The pungent odor of the leaves dissipates after a few days, so replace the old leaves with new ones every week.  After doing this a couple of times, the ants will not return.

Hope this was helpful, goodtips