A Taste of Soup

You know, I was thinking: People name their children after herbs and spices like Basil and Rosemary and Ginger, so why doesn't anyone name their kid 'Bay Leaf'?
I'll tell you why.
Because no one appreciates the bay leaf, that's why.
Who here can really tell us what good a bay leaf does?  Yes, we are told that it is an important ingredient in soups and stews, but how many of us can say why? I'm not sure about you, but I have never tasted a culinary dish and said "Ooooh, I love the bay leaf in this." Have you?

I dare you to tell me what a bay leaf tastes like. Go ahead, describe it. You can't. You can't describe it, can you?
I thought so.

Well, I was just like you once. I used to only put a bay leaf in my cooking because a recipe told me to. I just put it in there and the took it out before I served my soup or stew or whatever else you put a whole bay leaf in. In the back of my mind, I knew that ingesting a whole bay leaf would be bad for me, but I never really bothered wondering why... and never EVER did I wonder 'hmmmm, why am I putting this in here in the first place?"

I used to think that the bay leaf was like tossing salt over your shoulder when you knock the salt-shaker over.... you just do it as some sort of ritualistic, superstitious gesture and I  never bothered thinking more about it.

I never bothered asking 'why' until this week.

My cousin, Gretchen, is a fabulous cook here in Ger. She and her husband run their own restaurant in this small Normandy town. Gretchen makes fabulous dishes every single day and continues to wow us, and the restaurant patrons with her culinary prowess. A couple of days ago, Gretchen was talking about a soup that she had simmering on the stove and made an off-hand comment about using a bay leaf.

Mentioning the herb opened the proverbial can of worms. We started questioning why it is such an important ingredient if none of  us can identify the taste. We discussed that everyone has a bay leaf in their spice cupboard, but we only use it when we are told- and we hardly ever question the recipe. We scoffed at the bay leaf- we poked fun at it, we were like bullies at the playground giving a kid a wedgie just because he looked different than we did.

Gretchen and I decided to get to know the bay leaf a little more intimately. We wanted to know what a straight-up dose of bay leaf tasted like so that we could identify the flavor. But how do you taste it without eating it- and we all know that you're not supposed to pop a bay leaf in your mouth like a Dorito and crunch it up...you just don't do that sort of thing.

So, Gretchen did the next best thing- she made bay leaf tea- a hot cup of water with several large bay leaves steeping inside. We let our brew steep for quite some time before grabbing the mug.

First came the sniff-test.
It smelled herby- a nondescript herb smell that none of us could identify.

Then came the taste test.
I tasted it first. I sipped in a small amount of bay leaf tea and the flavor was like......soup.

Bay leaves taste like soup, like chicken soup, like minestrone soup, like chowder and stew and all sorts of delicious hot liquidy meals.

Actually, let me backtrack a step. Bay leaves don't taste like soup, soups taste soup-ey BECAUSE they have bay leaves in it.
Seriously.
Without the bay leaf, a vegetable soup would just be a pot of watery potatoes and carrots, but WITH the bay leaf, that watery mess of garden veggies becomes SOUP.

Are you listening to this? Are you getting what I am saying?! This is important, people. The bay leaf is important! How dare we underestimate its power. Little did we know that the very thing we poked fun at has serious potential. Little did we know that our bullying of the bay leaf was like bullying a young Bill Gates- we regretted it once we found out that it has power.

If you doubt me, go ahead, make yourself some bay leaf tea and see for yourself. I bet you'll take a sip and think 'hmmm...this is kind of like soup...without chunks."

I keep a  running list of potential baby names for when I decide to have children of my own. I have old fashioned names, I have funky names, and I have traditional family names - one name I do not have on my list is Bay Leaf, but after this week's mind-blowing experience, I'm seriously thinking about adding it.