Fiddlehead Ferns: The Topic

[Smoking Bear]

Does anybody know what a fiddlehead is? I've also heard them referred to as baby ferns. They are beautiful little green vegetables that grow wild in damp wooded areas. I am not native to England so I'm not familiar with the wild edibles that grow here. They are only available for a few short weeks. I work in a French restaurant in London and was surprised that nearly everyone had never heard of them before until the chef discovered them. They are a wonderful spring green that taste like the forest. If you can find them, enjoy them.

[Jon Tseng]

Mmmm. Think they're much better known in the US than over here

Have seen them at Booth's in Borough Mkt, when in season

J

[=Mark]

I consider them along the lines of edible flowers; they're edible. Cant really say they taste good. "Taste like the forest" Yeah, I'll give them that. They pretty much taste like any random hunk of forest you'd choose to take a bite of...

[estufarian]

No self respecting Canadian restaurant would be caught without them.

One of the signs of spring here (but no sign yet).

[vengroff]

I consider them along the lines of edible flowers;  they're edible.  Cant really say they taste good.  "Taste like the forest"  Yeah, I'll give them that.  They pretty much taste like any random hunk of forest you'd choose to take a bite of...

I'm with =Mark on this one. Pass them right on by, and go for asparagus instead.

[bigbear]

I like them. The Queen thinks that they taste too "earthy".

[Stone]

I like them, especially when used with morels.

[torakris]

These are immensely popular in Japan, one the the "spring mountain vegetables" they are often used together with the others or alone. Most often cooked together with rice or simmered in soy.

They can be purchased here all year round, water packed in the refrigerated sections, but fresh in the spring is definitely the best!

[Ripley]

As a Canadian, I am very familiar with them and love them. I was shocked to read that some people don't like them. They must be an acquired taste and one that I got right away as I loved them from first bite. They are not earthy tasting if they are fresh, young and well prepared. A short gentle steaming, a pad of butter, salt, pepper and I am in heaven.

[awbrig]

Charlie Trotter loves to use Fiddleheads...and we love to eat them when he serves them!

Here is a pic I took back in the kitchen of Trotters. At this station you can see the Fiddlehead Ferns in the far left container...

[Fat Guy]

I think they taste like pond scum.

[Ripley]

I think they taste like pond scum.

I'm thinking I will have to give pond scum a try if it is as good as fiddleheads. Likely will be much less expensive for a wonderful treat too!!

[CathyL]

I like 'em, but it takes a lot of fiddly work to clean away all the brown foresty stuff. Which may be why you think they taste like pond scum, FG.

[Aquitaine]

I grew up in New Hampshire where fiddleheads were a harbinger of spring. Steamed with butter, dressed with lemon juice.... That said: Worst case of food poisoning in my life -- 15 years ago -- was after a restaurant dinner in NYC that included fiddleheads (dining companion also got ill). May NOT have been related, but consider these notes (just dug into my handy-dandy research bucket):

1) Environmental Nutrition, Feb 1995 v18 n2 p4(1).

Trendy fiddlehead ferns may be risky.

"Well, fiddle-dee-dee!" might have been Scarlett O'Hara's reaction to the recent advisory concerning fiddlehead ferns. Though they seem an unlikely source of trouble, the trendy delicacy has apparently spawned several cases of food poisoning.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently reported two outbreaks of nausea, vomiting and diarrhea involving more than 60 people who ate fiddlehead ferns in restaurants in upstate New York and Banff, Alberta. The ferns, also called ostrich ferns, traditionally are boiled before eating. But common to both locations were fresh, wild fiddleheads that were only lightly sauteed. At another restaurant serving boiled ferns, no patrons became ill.

The Food and Drug Administration is still trying to identify the offending toxin, but says the culprit is most likely a natural component of the fern.

Samuel Page, Ph.D., of the FDA, says it's not uncommon for raw or undercooked plants to cause illness. Thorough cooking, however, often destroys dangerous toxins.

If you're partial to serving fiddleheads at home, the CDC advises boiling the ferns for 10 minutes before eating them. Page also recommends changing the water a couple of times as you boil them. The toxins will then be thrown out with the water. So will some of the nutrients, of course, but in this case, it's the lesser of two evils.

And also this:

JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association, March 22, 1995 v273 n12 p912(2).

Ostrich fern poisoning—New York and western Canada, 1994.

(From the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

Abstract: People who eat raw or lightly cooked fiddlehead ferns may have an increased risk of food poisoning. In May of 1994, 42 diners in a Steuben County, New York restaurant developed nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. Sixty-seven percent of the people who had eaten sauteed fiddlehead ferns became ill. Diners in a nearby restaurant who consumed boiled fiddlehead ferns did not become ill. At eateries in Banff, Alberta and British Columbia, 33 diners who ate fiddlehead ferns developed food poisoning. The ferns had been lightly sauteed, served in soup, or blanched. Three other Canadians developed food poisoning after eating raw or lightly cooked fiddlehead ferns purchased at local markets. The suspected source of illness is an unidentified toxin in the fiddlehead fern plant. Thorough cooking may deactivate or leach the toxin from the fern.

And finally, to end on a positive note:

Kavasch, Barrie. Native Harvests: Recipes and Botanicals of the American Indian. New York: Random House, 1979.

page 68… One of the first green edible plants in spring is the newly emerging fiddleheads (curled crosiers) of ferns. High in oil and starch, this fine delicate vegetable is always best picked early in the day while fresh-flavored and when the long-stemmed crosiers snap crisply in your hand. The same fronds would be overgrown by afternoon. In New England, the fiddlehead season lasts only about 3 weeks in May, depending on the weather.

The Indians used more than twenty species of indigenous ferns as food. In early spring the new fiddleheads were gathered and enjoyed raw or cooked as a vegetable or simmered in soups and stews for their thickening qualities. Brought to a boil and then simmered for 30 minutes. the young, slender stalks can be seasoned and served as a delectable asparaguslike vegetable. The rhizomes are also an important food source: Roasted or baked, then ground Indian fashion, the fern roots can be worked with other substances into cakes or gruels, or dried and used as flour for breads. The rhizomes of bracken are best utilized this way. The older, full-grown fronds of most species are slightly toxic and inedible. Grazing animals have been poisoned by eating too many fern fronds.

So tread -- and chew -- carefully.

[Fat Guy]

If you reduce pond-water to make a broth and then add a fistful of fiddleheads, you can make a nice pond-scum soup. Goes well with frog's legs (aka frog's legs and pond scum soup).

[tommy]

i've had some exciting fiddleheads at various restaurants. i can't recall the restaurants, or the preparations, but i remember them inspiring me to buy them. when i cooked them, they sucked. it's a tricky little weed for sure.

[Fat Guy]

I try to mix them half and half with nettles.

[tommy]

like i always say "eff fiddleheads, it's *morel* season!"

edit: just saw stone's above post. i suppose this proves that he's almost as crafty and clever as i am.

Edited March 25, 2003 by tommy (log)

[awbrig]

I wish to eat fiddleheads even more after reading this thread!

[Fat Guy]

They have a nice crunch, but they don't taste like much. They're sort of like something you'd eat to survive behind enemy lines while the choppers look for you. I think the reason you see fiddleheads so prominently featured on so many menus in Canada and the US North is that they embody the romantic wish for local, seasonal, small-batch, wild, hand-picked, etc. ingredients. But I just can't see the appeal. We had the misfortune of traveling across Canada almost exactly in sync with fiddlehead season. I mean, it was fiddlehead season when we were in BC, and as we drove across the country the fiddleheads seemed to be following us. Everywhere we went, we were receiving the first, very early, we just got them in, nobody else has them yet fiddleheads. At one point, somewhere in Ontario, a chef asked us how we liked the fiddleheads and Ellen was like, you know, I really just don't like these. I was kicking her under the table because I thought we might get deported for saying anything bad about this product. But the chef was like, well, I actually don't like them either, I just cook them because they're something local and seasonal and people expect them -- and it's not like the choice of local ingredients in Ontario so great for nine months out of the year that you really get to choose.

(fiddleheads front right)

[Jinmyo]

Gah.

[Smoking Bear]

Thanks for the info Aquitaine. Nice to hear that fiddleheads are appreciated around the world. As for those of you who can't appreciate them- great- more for us who can!

By the way, lots of the common foods we eat can be poisonous or cause sickness(eg. wild mushrooms). Simple mishandling of domestic foods can be dangerous. It's a chance we all take. Be smart but don't be afraid to try something new. That's what makes food so exciting!

[Elissa]

marinated over night with sliced (i like them raw, halved and at an angle) spring squash and zucc, shrooms, scallions, garlic, parsley, evoo, snp, lemon juice. with toasted pumpkin seeds or almond slivers and an aged goat cheese on a picnic astride roast dove and a bourgogne.

Edited March 25, 2003 by lissome (log)

[torakris]

According to Elizabeth Schneider in Vegetables from Amaranth to Zucchini, Chef Jean-Geogres Vongerichten says that "fiddlehead ferns taste like a walk in a moist forest, especially paired with their seasonal companions, morels."

[Fat Guy]

"fiddlehead ferns taste like a walk in a moist forest"

Yes.