ok, its edible, now what?

[wareagle69]

so i kind of put the cart before the horse many years ago by learning wild edibles, before learning how to cook, i mean really knowing how to cook, all from scratch, basic ingrediants.
It has been about 3 yrs of trial and error with my cooking, but i think i have the basics pretty solid now, so now i can refocus my attn on edibles.See it occured to me as i was learning how to forage that the main thing in common with any course that i took, is that all the instructors knew how to cook. I mean, how many times has someone said-"yup thats edible" and the first thing someone does is stick in their mouth, then promptly spit it out, "tastes terrible" is the inevitable response, its all in the preperation, to quote ole Mick Dundee '"sure you can eat it, but it taste like s!@$"
Mushrooms are easy-a good stock makes the perfect use, for me that is, but what about all these plants out there. I am looking for the Sam Thayer or John Kallas answers not the Peterson never had a store bought blueberry much less a wild one answer. now that probably is a wee bit of an exageration but you get my point.
I am looking for true use methods tried and true, the what and the hows of prepping wild edibles.

I look forward to some very knowledgeable posts from some of you
Cheers WE

[wareagle69]

I will start off this show with Mallows-malva spp but mostly Malva neglecta
This plant grows like crazy on my property especially since the horses have eaten off most the grass. The leaves are palatable but i prefer a nice vinager and oil dressing on it. Yesterday i dug up some roots, they are much like dandilion so i figured worth a try to eat, raw they are not back but, i wanted to try the old stand by garlic and butter. What i looked for in choosing my roots was pliability, if they didn't bend i didn't use them, so i cleaned then and slcied em up and sauted them in garlic butter salt and pepper. The best part of the meal was sucking all the seasoning of the tough roots, maybe i'll stick to using the roots for tea.

[RandyRhoads]

Great post, I think a lot of people are like this. I know I am. I know a lot of edible plants around here now, but besides asparagus and mushrooms, not a clue how to cook them. Wilderness recipes would be great.

[itsken78]

some roots/tubers can be cooked up & eaten like potatoes...they start off hard, but after cooking in the fire, or boiling, get real soft....

[WolfVanZandt]

My impression is that you cook them the same way you cook groceries. Some of them have to be cooked in two or three pots of water to leach out some toxin or another, but kidney beans have to be treated a special way also, for instance. You just have to understand the particular food you're cooking.

My position is that, if you know how to cook, then you can cook anything. I have a cookbook on my site that's not so much about banking up recipes as about understanding the principles of cooking. That's the approach I take with wild foods also. I'm working on a companion cookbook for outdoor cooking (including wild foods). It'll be awhile before I get around to actual dishes but I welcome input and I'll be trying everything out before it goes up. The address is:

[canid]

try pickling dandelion greens some time. If it can make them edible; there's hope for any wild food.

[wareagle69]

To clarify a bit, this thread is about any type of wiil edible preperation, whether you are the best chef in the finest resturant, to the home cook, to the camp cook, to the folks sitting around a fire pit.
WVZ- just to ask a question-acorns do need leeching in several changes of water, usuall the red oak, which i have up here, no so much with the white oak, also if you are reffering to milkweed, Sam Thayer proved that untrue and i have also, i eat milk weed (Asclepias syriaca) right off the stem out in the feild.

[wareagle69]

some roots/tubers can be cooked up & eaten like potatoes...they start off hard, but after cooking in the fire, or boiling, get real soft....

care to clarify/quantify with specifics- type of root/tuber, how long (boil.fry. ie and seasoning time of year and so on.

[wareagle69]

remember folks this thread is for folks looking to learn the what and how and why of wild edibles, not read a post that someone says,"yup i did it once" i am looking for very specific details

[mountainmark]

Generally speaking I agree with WVZ, you have to know how to prepare the specific plant/mushroom you have, just as you have to know how to prepare the foods you buy at the market.

If you are looking for how-to's for specific plants/mushrooms i'll give a few for now, maybe more later....

Greenbacks (late fall oyster mushroom)- need to be slow cooked. It is a great stewing mushroom but if you pan fry it your jaw will get a work out.

Pheasantbacks (dryad's saddle)- You need young tender ones. If they are close to the ground, remove pores, as dirt has most likely splashed up on there and you will never wash it clean enough. If the ones you have found are a bit older, dehydrate and grind into a flour for breading. (I prefer the later use, as I'm not a huge fan of the watermelon rind flavor, though smoking them does a decent job of eleviating that)

Ash Boletes- I was reading in a guide once where the author was claiming these should not be considered edible as they had the flavor of freshly tilled soil. I would add that they also have the texture of slugs.... if improperly prepared. I was mentioning this to a friend of mine once, and she told me to cook them longer, until crisp. I gave it a try and bumped their status up to one of my top twenty mushrooms. Fry them until they are crisp like bacon, salt them and eat them with your hands like a snack or use them as a garnish over a venison roast. Don't try to dehydrate them unless you want your house to smell awfull for days.

Lobster mushrooms- I am not a huge fan of these mushrooms fresh, it may just be my opinion but they have a texture that is "airy" kind of like styrofoam. My favorite use for these is to dehydrate them for winter use. They add great color to your dish (color is flavor), and seem to have a far superior texture when rehydrated.

I guess that's enough for now. I'll probably add more later. Thanks for the thread WE.

[feral chef]

i dont have recipes yet to give this instance (maybe tommorow) but i will say that the one thing i despise is when people tell me that theres a wrong way to cook something. i mean unless it renders something poisonous it aint wrong. like i batter fried lobster meat once and my coworker said i was a moron he said you can only boil lobster! or when i make mushroom rissoto and another guy says you dont know how to cook mushrooms do you. ok recipe to follow that one. lol (later)

[WolfVanZandt]

Heh. The right way to prepare something is the way the person eating it will enjoy. I play around a lot. I had a little Brunswick stew left over so I wondered how it would be as a patty, so I added about the same amount of meal and half that amount of flour, cracked an egg in it and added some Tiger sauce. Then I made patties of it and fried them in oil. Unfortunately, I forgot to add salt but I just doused them with soy sauce at the table and all was well. The ones I had left over will go into sandwiches with mayo and ketchup and I will like them.

Try wild mustard greens cooked as a pot herb with sauted onions, browned slices of sausage, and maybe some chopped green peppers. That will need some salt, too.

[wareagle69]

ok good start folks
for me i like my shrooms in a stock of some kind, onions,garlic,flour, and a long slow simmer to absorb all the flavors. i generally do not use the stems of the shrooms tho, give them to the turkeys.
i tried steeping the malvo neglecta roots today, can't say i am impressed. maybe slice then simmer........

[Mozartghost1791]

Can't find many tubers around here, but thanks to Thayer, I can tell a wild carrot from hemlock, and I learned that Black Nightshade berries are actually quite good.
Too bad Thayer doesn't do a book on mushrooms... There is no way I am eating any mushroom just by checking it in the Peterson guide.

[wareagle69]

WVZ- you had said that wild edibles are like groceries, i tend to not really agree with the wording, most folks can cook beans or corn, but have no clue how to cook a common milkweed pod or mullein leave. i think it all comes down to familiarity.
I do tho 100 percent agree with what you said about knowing how to cook, a great cook understands ingrediants and how to use them, that is why 3 yrs ago i threw myself into truely understanding food and how to use them that way i would better understan wild edibles, unfortunatley most folks will never get to that level because of the way society has become, that is a society of conveniance, which cooking of any kind is not(that being fast and easy for the most part)

[cowgirlup]

I haven't gotten too creative with this yet. But I bought this book which so far looks really good. Most of the recipies are simple and easy.

http://www.amazon.com/naturalists-gu...th+wild+plants

[WolfVanZandt]

But most people have no idea how to cook fresh red beans either (they are mildly toxic). I think cooks should be familiar with all their ingredients because then, they aren't limited to recipes and they can be creative. If you don't know how to handle asparagus, you'll get a mouth full of fiber. If you don't know how to get fruit, what you buy will be over- or under-ripe. The stakes might be higher in the wild but the ideas are the same.

[wareagle69]

i agree, beyond the microwave or bbq most do not understand food, that is why i think wild edibles perplexes most, i know it did me, i found it almost funny cuz my diet was terrible, i never ate greens anyways and here i was learning about wild edibles, vegetarian stuff, not man meat stuff, so i had to learn true cooking, ah how the world has changed for me, so anywho back on topic

Try jerusalem artichoke-Helianthus tuberous- fall and winter is the time to harvest these critters, i transplanted a few on my property a few years ago, they spread well on their own, actually you will have a hard time getting rid of them, so pick them clean and boil till soft, and here is where i change the recipe up a bit, i preheat the oven to 400-425f and place the tubers on a baking sheet so they do not touch, mash each individual one with a masher a couple of times till flat, drizzle with olive oil and season to taste the bake for 20-25 mins. Yes these are tubers but i do not find they taste like mashed taters that is why i baked them seperate.
enjoy

[Mozartghost1791]

Is Jerusalem artichoke really deserving of its reputation as the 'Fartichoke'? Never got around to trying it...

[mountainmark]

Is Jerusalem artichoke really deserving of its reputation as the 'Fartichoke'? Never got around to trying it...

Yes. At least for me. I try to harvest them as late in the fall and early in the spring as I can and still you wouldn't want to be within thirty feet of me I generally enjoy them raw. They have a crisp texture and delicate, almost smokey flavor. Worth a little flatulance IMO. Lol, at least that's my take on them.....