When to add bay leaf to soup, broth, borscht

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-18 00:50

It seems that we have always used bay leaf in cooking, and what is so difficult to use this spice? I threw it in the pot and everything. But it turns out that everything is not so simple, and even one extra leaf can easily spoil the dish. Want to learn how to bring out the main flavor of the broth? When to add bay leaf to soup? Then read on.

No hostess in the kitchen can hardly do without this famous spice. It goes well with many foods, so it is part of most dishes. Used dried or ground spice:

1. It allows you to favorably emphasize or shade the taste of a number of first courses: soups, broths, and borscht.
2. Irreplaceable in home preservation.
3. The composition of prefabricated seasonings cannot do without a bay leaf.

Features of using bay leaf in cooking

In our kitchen, bay leaves are most often presentdried or crushed, but fresh it is also often used. It is important to put the bay leaf in the soup five minutes before cooking. If you want to avoid bitterness in the aftertaste of soup or broth, then wait until it is cooked and remove the bay leaf. As for the second courses, it is added to food approximately in the middle of the culinary process.

Lavrushka is added to the jar during canning when the vegetables are poured with ready-made hot marinade. In this case, there is no need to take it out, you can leave it in a jar to saturate with taste.

Bay leaf and our culinary history

The idea of our Slavic cuisine would be inferior if we threw the bay leaf out of our kitchen. Most of the dishes that we cook daily cannot do without the use of this spice in the recipe. But do we know how, and most importantly, when to add bay leaf to soup, appetizer, preservation? Probably, the majority cannot give an unambiguous answer to the question.

We are used to adding spices by eye, and this turns out to be very important - to observe the proportions of not only the main ingredients, but also seasonings and spices.

Subtleties of adding lavrushka to first courses

Many will be surprised that there are also subtleties in this matter. But they are, and it is more than important to know them. These features depend on which dish you will add seasoning to. The table below provides details of when to add bay leaf to soup.

First courses	Time to add spice
Thick soup	10 minutes before ready. At the end of the preparation of the soup, the leaves are taken out
Thin Soup	5 minutes before cooking. After that, they must be taken out
Chicken broth	Spice is not added, it can spoil the taste of the broth
Vegetable broth	At the end of cooking in a minimum amount. But it is better to do, as in the previous case, without a bay leaf
Fish broth	It all depends on the type of fish. If it is bitter on its own, then it is better to refuse the use of spices. And if not, then add at the end of cooking or after turning off the fire for a couple of minutes. After - be sure to pull out
Meat broth	15-20 minutes before done. After cooking the broth, be sure to remove from the pan

Which products are compatible and which are not

When to add bay leaf to the soup, figured it out. And what products to combine it with?

Spice is best combined with dishes from categories such as meat, vegetables, fish, mushrooms. For marinades and preserves, lavrushka gives an amazing taste, and potatoes make it unsurpassed.

Because if you cook mushroom, vegetable, fish soups or borsch with meat, feel free to add bay leaf for taste and aroma.

However, if you are preparing a broth or soup with poultry meat, you will have to refuse to use bay leaf as a spice. It does not go well with chicken meat at all.

Please note that it is better not to combine bay leaves with dairy products. Sometimes it causes indigestion. Therefore, it is so important to know when to add bay leaf to soup and what foods it is better not to combine it with at all.

In tandem with herbs and spices such as rosemary, cloves, sage, coriander, pepper, thyme, bay leaf gives an even richer and more interesting taste. Pay attention to this and figure out how to properly add bay leaves to soup.

We have long been accustomed to the fact that soups, cabbage soup, borscht and many other dishes are prepared with the addition of this seasoning. But its use is not always appropriate in a particular recipe. Perhaps you could not make such a delicious broth as your grandmother or mother, precisely because of the addition of a seemingly insignificant ingredient - one or a couple of bay leaves. But it turns out that it is so important to know how to combine bay leaves, and which dishes should be avoided. We hope you have gathered important information for yourself. And now you know perfectly well when and why to add bay leaves to soup.