The pandan palm (Pandanus amaryllifolius) grows throughout tropical Southeast Asia and the Pacific. Its leaf is used from the southernmost Thai peninsula through Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and into the Pacific Island culinary traditions. Thompson uses pandan throughout both books — in custards, in rice preparations, in desserts, and in certain savoury preparations.
Pandan leaf — bai toey — is the vanilla of Southeast Asian cooking: its aromatic compound (2-acetyl-1-pyrroline — the same compound that gives jasmine rice and basmati their characteristic fragrance) infuses into liquids and preparations it is steeped in, producing a distinctive green-floral, slightly sweet, almost vanilla-adjacent aromatic. It is used throughout Thai and Southeast Asian cooking in both sweet and savoury preparations — not as a flavour that dominates but as a background aromatic that adds depth and a specific character that is immediately recognisable as Southeast Asian.
2-acetyl-1-pyrroline is one of the most widely distributed naturally occurring aromatic compounds in food — present in pandan, basmati rice, jasmine rice, bread crust, and popcorn. As Segnit notes, this compound triggers associations of warmth, comfort, and freshness because of its appearance across such a broad range of universally appealing cooked foods. The pandan's specific contribution is to add this note to preparations where it is not intrinsically present — coconut milk curries, steamed rice, and desserts all become more aromatic through pandan infusion without tasting of any of the other foods that share the compound.
**Aromatic extraction methods:** **Steeping in liquid:** - Tie 2–3 pandan leaves in a knot (breaking the leaf slightly as it is knotted releases the aromatic compounds). Place in warm liquid (coconut milk, water, sugar syrup). - Steep for 15–30 minutes. Remove before using the liquid. - The liquid absorbs 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline from the leaves — the flavour of the infused liquid should be distinctly green-floral. - Temperature: 60–70°C for steeping. Boiling degrades the aromatic compound. **Juice extraction:** Bruise several pandan leaves, chop roughly, and process in a blender with a small amount of water. Strain through a cloth — the bright green pandan juice contains both the aromatic compound and the chlorophyll. Used as both a flavour and a natural food colouring (the vivid green of pandan-coloured preparations). **As a wrapping:** Pandan leaves used to wrap chicken (gai hor bai toey — chicken wrapped in pandan leaf, deep-fried) both impart their aromatic to the chicken during frying and prevent the chicken from over-colouring — the leaf insulates the protein from the oil while conducting heat. **As a tying medium:** Pandan leaves used to knot small bundles of rice or to weave baskets for steaming — the pandan's aromatic infuses gently into whatever it contacts during cooking. Decisive moment: The steeping time and temperature. 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, like most volatile aromatic compounds, degrades under prolonged heat. Steep at 60–70°C for 20–30 minutes — the maximum aromatic extraction. Steeping at a hard boil for 30 minutes produces less pandan character than gentle steeping at the correct temperature because the volatile compound has evaporated. Sensory tests: **Smell — fresh pandan:** Fresh pandan leaf, a single leaf torn in half: an immediate aromatic release of the green-floral, vanilla-adjacent note. This is the compound that, when infused into coconut milk or rice, produces the specific pandan aromatic. If the torn leaf has no smell: it is either too old or was stored incorrectly. **Taste — pandan-infused liquid:** A pandan-steeped coconut milk should taste of coconut and, distinctly, of the green-floral pandan note — simultaneously sweet-aromatic and slightly grassy-fresh. It should not taste of cooked leaf. The aromatic is an addition, not a flavour of its own.
David Thompson, *Thai Food* (2002); *Thai Street Food* (2010)