Broad leaf Dock..Can you use it to wrap food for cooking?

[Greg]

As the title suggests, Can I use Broad Leaf Dock to wrap food for cooking?
Any useful feed back would be appreciated!

 

[locum76]

Hi Greg

I reckon it'd make everything bitter and they're choc full of oxalic acid which apparently speeds up the formation of kidney stones. It wouldn't be my leaf of choice. Comfrey might be better, the french aare apparently partial to comfrey fritters so they must be relatively edible.

http://www.channel4.com/food/recipe...l/oyster-and-comfrey-fritters-recipe_p_1.html

It appears HFW would agree...

Regards

Rob

 

[Greg]

Thanks for the info locum, just one thing, isn't oxalic acid broken down when cooked?

 

[John Fenna]

Not according to my Herbalist....

 

[Greg]

OK then, well that's answered that question!

 

[Mahikan]

My grandmother used to cook skunk cabbage for hours, it is full of oxalic acid and the cooking does break down the oxalic acid, but you need to cook it for a long time, at least 5 hours before ingesting.

Mahikan

 

[Toddy]

Picked early it's a nice Spring vegetable for occasional use though.

If you mean to roll food in it and then eat it like vine leaves, then maybe not, but if it's just to hold stuff together to get it into a hangi or to steam it, I don't think it'd do you any harm. It's not as though you're going to do it day in day out.

Waiting to be shot down here................

cheers,
Toddy

 

[bivouac]

Hi Greg

Comfrey might be better, the french are apparently partial to comfrey fritters so they must be relatively edible.

My dad used to make comfrey fritters when i was a kid. It's one of the more pleasant things he used to come up with, along with ginger beer he brewed in a bucket. I was always fascinated how nice they tasted. When you look at a comfrey leaf they look furry but in a fritter i thought they tasted like warm spinach - which i am also partial to. I haven't eaten one for many years but every time i see a comfrey leaf i think..."hmmmmm".

I recommend them.

 

[mochasidamo]

Comfrey can cause VOD in quantity....liver failure. Growl...sounded too good to be true: got a huge bed outside the back door. Best carry on using it as mulch and stinky liquid feed. As stinky liquid feed it is indeed lethal and leaves one's clothes stinkier still :/.

 

[Iona]

Comfrey is a great herbal medicine! It's other name is knitbone, but has been shown to heal all sorts of other things, surface, tissue ligaments...The pyrolizidine alkaloids in it mean that it's now recomended to not use the root internally and use the leaf internally for up to 6 weeks at a time in regulated doses... And I'd second eating it but only in small quantity or very occasionally.

As to your question, have you thought of butterburr? MASSIVE leaves which were traditionally used to wrap pats of butter but are definitely big enough for other things...

 

[John Fenna]

As to your question, have you thought of butterburr? MASSIVE leaves which were traditionally used to wrap pats of butter but are definitely big enough for other things...

Greg - Thats the one we saw in Llawhadden - on the end of the cottage by the little park..... and we could not recall its name!

 

[locum76]

PFAF has butterbur down as carcinogenic.

 

[John Fenna]

Breathing in a city is carcinogenic.....

 

[EatWeeds]

Here's a recipe I posted that shows how to use Dock as a wrap, by reducing the bitterness. See Dock Recipe.

Other leaves useful as wraps are Mallow and Garlic Mustard.

Robin