”Bit of fun this one to be honest. In May 2024 I observed a huge bay tree being cut down so I decided to save it as I love the flavour. I grew up having it in rice puddings and many dessert items as well as savoury dishes. I also use it in my AESTAS summer liqueur. The bay leaves were so plentiful I wanted to ferment it into a thick syrup using sugar known as as “Cheong”
GeorgeFlavour Fred
Cheong is a Korean method of using sugar and time generally to preserve fruit and other things. I’ve used this method for many items and have loved the results with rose petals, rosehips, pine cones, blackberries and many more. I had to introduce a little extra water for this to work with bay as I’d seen a few methods before not work. I simply washed them and did not pat them dry adding them to a jar with nearly double the weight in sugar.
8 months on I decided to check in and the flavour was incredible but needed some extra levels. Rhubarb is plentiful and I wanted to try again with gorse which sometimes tastes like coconut. I haven’t had loads of success with this but am keen to keep trying. Probably a crumble filling and/or topping. Maybe something else altogether. Let’s see so follow along for more.
