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I'm trying to write down a recipe for Italian sweet sauce that is used for salads but can also be used on pasta and meat. It has bay leaves in it but I'm not sure when to add and remove them?

I've written a first draft of the recipe and method on Food.com.

2 1⁄2 cups water
4 cups Italian dressing
1⁄8 teaspoon salt
2 bay leaves
4 tablespoons sugar
1⁄3 cup paprika
1 cup five-spice powder
1 cup Egg Beaters egg substitute
1⁄2 cup cream
1⁄3 cup Dijon mustard

Bring the water,dressing & musturd to a simmer. Add salt and bay leaves. Stir in sugar gradually with the spices. Temper the egg beaters and cream with the simmering liquid in the cooking vessel. Remove the bay leaves and then add the Egg Beaters and the cream to make the sauce richer and more creamy. Reduce to 1/2 and pour over whatever you want to serve this with!

Considering the method I've written in the draft, do these timings for adding and removing the bay leaf make sense or is there a more standard time to add or remove them?

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    Mostly I just want specifics as the last time I made it I was 5
    – Abraham Ray
    Jul 21, 2017 at 13:42
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    and btw, 1 CUP five spice powder? Really?
    – Kate Gregory
    Jul 21, 2017 at 20:58
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    If you are going to contribute a recipe to a public site wouldn't it be appropriate to actual try the recipe a few times recently. May be try removing the bay leaves at different times and comparing the results.
    – Cos Callis
    Jul 25, 2017 at 17:24
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    I'd suggest you try this recipe. 1 cup 5 spice powder seems like way too much for anything. Also, consider the size of the measurements in this recipe -- this should result in close to a quart of sauce.
    – Batman
    Jul 25, 2017 at 17:27
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    If you don't have a sense of smell/taste, maybe you shouldn't be writing a recipe. I don't know how much 5 spice powder to put in -- try the recipe with different amounts on your friends.
    – Batman
    Jul 26, 2017 at 1:10

1 Answer 1

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I would put the bay leaves in right at the beginning (with the water, dressing, and mustard) and remove them right before you temper the eggs since you don't want to accidentally grab a bay leaf and whisk it into the eggs when tempering.

Also, just a tip for recipes, list the ingredients in the order you use them in the recipes (that means put the mustard amount right up after the amount of Italian dressing, for instance).

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  • Thanks, I'll try to keep that in mind, also it's supposed to taste somewhat sweet if it helps.
    – Abraham Ray
    Jul 26, 2017 at 0:58
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    As others have suggested above, definitely try making your recipe to make sure it's what you think it should be. As a guide, I would start with no more than 1 tablespoon of each spice. That's a really large amount, as most recipes call for 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of each spice.
    – lspare
    Jul 27, 2017 at 19:10
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    @lspare the recipe makes a total of 2.5 liters of sauce. I wouldn't "play around" with such small amounts as 1 tbsp of spice, but probably start at around 35 g of each spice and go up from there.
    – rumtscho ♦
    Jul 28, 2017 at 15:52

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