As I was skimming Cook’s Illustrated’s The Science of Good Cooking, this tip caught my eye: Even though we use bay leaves much in the same way as dried herbs and spices, they shouldn’t be stored in the spice drawer with everything else. Guess where they should be stored instead? Turns out that the freezer is the best place to store bay leaves! If bay leaves are frozen, they retain almost as much flavor and aroma as a freshly opened jar or package of bay leaves.