How to Cook Cattails
Cattails are plants in the Typha genus, which has about 11 species. They are flowering plants found in wetlands primarily of the northern hemisphere. The plant has spongy leaves with
horizontal root-like stems called rhizomes whose stalks grow up to 7 feet tall. Cattails have a variety of parts that are edible, including the rhizomes, underground stems, the young
shoots and the flower spike. Here's how to cook cattails.
Instructions
1
Harvest the rhizomes when they ripen in the fall and winter. They may be peeled and cooked just like potatoes but contain 10 times the starch.
2
Make flour with the rhizomes. Mash them into a pulp, boil and allow them to dry. The dried pulp can then be ground into pure white flour.
3
Pick the young shoots in the early spring and peel them. They are called Cossack asparagus because of their asparagus-like taste when cooked. They can be boiled just like
asparagus or stir-fried. They also may be added to soups or pasta dishes and taste more like a cucumber when eaten raw.
4
Boil or steam the immature flower spikes or "kittentails" in early summer and eat them like corn on the cob. They actually taste like corn when prepared this way and are also frequently
pickled.
5
Collect the pollen from the mature flower in early summer and use it as a thickener or add it to other flours as a protein and vitamin supplement.
Using Cattails as Insulation.......In a pinch you can keep yourself much warmer by taking the upper (top) part of the cattail and breaking it apart and fluffing it up, then insert it into clothing like a long sleeved shirt filling the sleeves with the fluffed up cattail material from your armpit all the way to the cuff of the sleeve. If you can gather enough cattails you can fill a small t-shirt or other clothing item to make a pillow which will be more comfortable than laying your head on something harder.
The cattail is one of the most important and common wild foods, with a variety of uses at different times of the year. Whatever you call it, a stand of cattails is as close as youíll get to finding a wild supermarket.
You can easily recognize a cattail stand: White, dense, furry, cigar-shaped overwintered seed heads stand atop very long, stout stalks, even as the young shoots first emerge in early spring.
By late spring, the light green leaves reach nearly nine feet tall, forming a sheath where they tightly embrace the stalkís base. The leaves hide the new flower head until it nears maturity. Peel them back to reveal it. The plant is so primitiveódating back to the time of the dinosaursóthat male and female flowers are separate on the stiff, two-parted flower head: the pollen-producing male is always on top, while the seed-bearing female is forever relegated to the bottom. Clearly, this species evolved long before the Sexual Revolution. (Biological speaking, this arrangement is effective because the male part withers away when its job is done, whereas the female part must remain connected to the rest of the plant until the seeds have matured and dispersed.)
The result of peeling the shoot
They're like a combination of tender zucchini and cucumbers, adding a refreshing texture and flavor to salads. mixing them with pungent mustard greens to balance their mildness. Added to soup towards the end of cooking, they retain a refreshing crunchiness. They're superb in stir-fry dishes, more than suitable for sandwiches, and excellent in virtually any context. Great sliced cattail hearts, sautÈed in sesame oil with wild carrots and ginger.
Harvest cattail shoots after some dry weather, when the ground is solid, in the least muddy locations. Select the largest shoots that haven't begun to flower, and use both hands to separate the outer leaves from the core, all the way to the base of the plant. Now grab the inner core with both hands, as close to the base as possible, and pull it out. Peel and discard the outermost layers of leaves from the top down, until you reach the edible part, which is soft enough to pinch through with your thumbnail (the rule-of-thumb). There are more layers to discard toward the top, so you must do more peeling there. Cut off completely tough upper parts with a pocket knife or garden shears in the field, so youíll have less to carry. Note: Collecting shoots will cover your hands with a sticky, mucilaginous jelly. Scrape it off the plant into a plastic bag, and use it to impart a slight okra-like thickening effect to soups. The shoot provide beta carotene, niacin, riboflavin, thiamin, potassium, phosphorus, and vitamin C.
Cattails are plants in the Typha genus, which has about 11 species. They are flowering plants found in wetlands primarily of the northern hemisphere. The plant has spongy leaves with
horizontal root-like stems called rhizomes whose stalks grow up to 7 feet tall. Cattails have a variety of parts that are edible, including the rhizomes, underground stems, the young
shoots and the flower spike. Here's how to cook cattails.
Instructions
1
Harvest the rhizomes when they ripen in the fall and winter. They may be peeled and cooked just like potatoes but contain 10 times the starch.
2
Make flour with the rhizomes. Mash them into a pulp, boil and allow them to dry. The dried pulp can then be ground into pure white flour.
3
Pick the young shoots in the early spring and peel them. They are called Cossack asparagus because of their asparagus-like taste when cooked. They can be boiled just like
asparagus or stir-fried. They also may be added to soups or pasta dishes and taste more like a cucumber when eaten raw.
4
Boil or steam the immature flower spikes or "kittentails" in early summer and eat them like corn on the cob. They actually taste like corn when prepared this way and are also frequently
pickled.
5
Collect the pollen from the mature flower in early summer and use it as a thickener or add it to other flours as a protein and vitamin supplement.
Using Cattails as Insulation.......In a pinch you can keep yourself much warmer by taking the upper (top) part of the cattail and breaking it apart and fluffing it up, then insert it into clothing like a long sleeved shirt filling the sleeves with the fluffed up cattail material from your armpit all the way to the cuff of the sleeve. If you can gather enough cattails you can fill a small t-shirt or other clothing item to make a pillow which will be more comfortable than laying your head on something harder.
The cattail is one of the most important and common wild foods, with a variety of uses at different times of the year. Whatever you call it, a stand of cattails is as close as youíll get to finding a wild supermarket.
You can easily recognize a cattail stand: White, dense, furry, cigar-shaped overwintered seed heads stand atop very long, stout stalks, even as the young shoots first emerge in early spring.
By late spring, the light green leaves reach nearly nine feet tall, forming a sheath where they tightly embrace the stalkís base. The leaves hide the new flower head until it nears maturity. Peel them back to reveal it. The plant is so primitiveódating back to the time of the dinosaursóthat male and female flowers are separate on the stiff, two-parted flower head: the pollen-producing male is always on top, while the seed-bearing female is forever relegated to the bottom. Clearly, this species evolved long before the Sexual Revolution. (Biological speaking, this arrangement is effective because the male part withers away when its job is done, whereas the female part must remain connected to the rest of the plant until the seeds have matured and dispersed.)
The result of peeling the shoot
They're like a combination of tender zucchini and cucumbers, adding a refreshing texture and flavor to salads. mixing them with pungent mustard greens to balance their mildness. Added to soup towards the end of cooking, they retain a refreshing crunchiness. They're superb in stir-fry dishes, more than suitable for sandwiches, and excellent in virtually any context. Great sliced cattail hearts, sautÈed in sesame oil with wild carrots and ginger.
Harvest cattail shoots after some dry weather, when the ground is solid, in the least muddy locations. Select the largest shoots that haven't begun to flower, and use both hands to separate the outer leaves from the core, all the way to the base of the plant. Now grab the inner core with both hands, as close to the base as possible, and pull it out. Peel and discard the outermost layers of leaves from the top down, until you reach the edible part, which is soft enough to pinch through with your thumbnail (the rule-of-thumb). There are more layers to discard toward the top, so you must do more peeling there. Cut off completely tough upper parts with a pocket knife or garden shears in the field, so youíll have less to carry. Note: Collecting shoots will cover your hands with a sticky, mucilaginous jelly. Scrape it off the plant into a plastic bag, and use it to impart a slight okra-like thickening effect to soups. The shoot provide beta carotene, niacin, riboflavin, thiamin, potassium, phosphorus, and vitamin C.
