Bay leaves??????

Question

I can remember, as a child, seeing my mother take bay leaves out of sauce after it was cooked. Now my daughter is telling me to take them out after cooking because they're poison?????? I bought some and they are crushed. I added them to sauce. I see on line that they should be removed because of the bitter taste. They are safe to eat, right?????

Answer 1

My mother always took the full leaf out too, and I have seen the bay powder for sale.
Bay leaves are laurel.
Mountain laurel, a cousin, is poisonous to stock and is never sold as a spice.
In large doses the laurel in bay leaves can have an emetic effect.

Answer 2

hahaha, and you sat there and took it? I'd a smacked her and told her to shut up. no, of course bay leaves aren't poisonous. if they were, I don't think many restaurants would be in business these days. I'm sure many a bay leaf has been left in a sauce, and gone out on a plate. they could be quite uncomfortable to swallow, if it were the whole ones, but crushed, no problems. though. you're fine, don't even worry, and don't take that kind of sass from your daughter. you know what, go smack her right now, just so she knows that at anytime, she could get a smackin' and won't want to talk-back.

Answer 3

The bay leaves should be removed because they taste horrible. Also, to much of it can hurt you and make you sick. They won't kill you, but they don't agree with everyones stomachs. The dried crushed bay leaves are fine. I'm not sure why they are differant dried then when they are fresh but they taste differant and don't make you sick.

If you can't find your answer online call your local poison control and they would be able to tell you, or ask your grocer.

Answer 4

I've always heard that you have to remove whole bay leaves from food because the center "vein" is sharp enough to hurt someone who might ingest it. I would imagine that using crushed leaves avoids that whole problem. I'm sure they're not poisonous. I just used a recipe that included whole bay leaves, and, as the recipe indicates, I removed them from the marinade before cooking.

Answer 5

People!!! Bay leaves are exactly that-Leaves. They flavor food. But would you go out and eat a dried leaf from a tree? Yuck!
That's why you remove the whole leaf.
Crushed leaves used in food don't hurt you. Dried bay leaves, dried oregano, basil, dill. Get the idea? Good luck cooking. K

Answer 6

i do no longer in many circumstances upload bay leaves to the spaghetti sauce yet some human beings do. I upload oregano, parsley, pepper, basil and spaghetti seasoning. flavor the bay leaf. in case you like the flavour, be sure you upload it.

Answer 7

They could never be poison and put in a dish to eat.They recommend you take them out because someone may try to chew them up.They will be bitter if chewed.But if someone wants to eat them, let them do it,I guess....

Answer 8

probably, if they are bought crushed, how do u get them out?
unless the store wants to poison u, they are probably safe to eat

Answer 9

nothing poisonous about bay leaf