How Bitter is That Wild Plant? - Bitter Flavors in Wild Plants - How Much Is Too Much?steemCreated with Sketch.

in #food7 years ago

"I'm afraid those wild greens will be too bitter!" I hear this sort of comment a lot! Here are 3 ways to figure out whether a wild plant or an edible garden weed might be too bitter for you -- or right up your alley!

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Would you like the flavor of this young Prickly Sowthistle (Sonchus asper)?


What Makes Wild Plants Bitter?

Some folks love hot peppers - the hotter the better - while other folks want nothing to do with any heat. The same is true for bitter foods. Some folks are really concerned that a new food might be too bitter. And other folks seek out those bitter flavors. The question comes up most often about wild greens, but it's an issue for some flowers and roots, too.

@karenb54 and I had a discussion awhile ago, and she got me thinking! We don't often come across bitter vegetables or fruits in the grocery store or even in the garden. So it can be difficult to talk about how bitter wild plants may be.

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There are 10 different kinds of wild greens here. Some can become very bitter, like Prickly Wild Lettuce (Lactuca serriola), in the left-most bowl in the bottom row. Others will never be bitter, like Wild Field Mustard (Brassica rapa), in the right-most bowl in the top row.

Several things affect how bitter wild plants may be -- the kind of plant, the conditions they are growing in, how mature they are, and how they are prepared to eat. In some cases, the bitter flavor can be a warning that the plant has high levels of compounds that we shouldn't eat. But that's not always the case. Some of the bitter compounds are just fine for us to eat! That's one reason it's good to learn the details of each plant, rather than look for general rules to apply to all plants.


Three Ways of Comparing Bitterness

I've been trying to find ways for people to talk about their preferences for bitter foods, so it's more clear whether they might like a specific wild food or not. Here are three ways I've come up with. If you have others, please let me know!

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What does this picture have to do with eating wild plants? What kind of chocolate do you like? Do you like coffee? Why am I asking all these questions?

1. Chocolate

Do you prefer Milk Chocolate or Dark Chocolate? If you prefer Milk Chocolate, you probably will prefer greens that are not bitter at all. But if you like really Dark Chocolate, like the kinds that have 70 or 80% cocoa, you may enjoy wild greens or other plants that are at least somewhat bitter.

2. Coffee

Do you dislike coffee completely, because it's too bitter? Do you use a lot of milk or cream, or sugar, as a way to mask those bitter coffee flavors? Or do you like your coffee dark and black? If it's the latter, then mature greens or more bitter greens may be your preference. If coffee is too bitter for you, then you will probably prefer non-bitter greens.

3. Beer

There are so many styles and flavors of beer. Wheat beers, porters, and many mainstream mass-market beers don't have bitter flavors. Other beers, like IPAs or India Pale Ale style beers, emphasize hops and bitter flavors. If you prefer wheat beer or porters, you most likely will prefer your wild greens to be not bitter. But if you seek out the IPAs, you will like the more bitter greens.

Some beer labels even list the IBU, or International Bitterness Unit, a measure of a beer's bitterness levels. If you enjoy beer with triple-digit IBUs, then you will likely enjoy bitter greens.

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I like a good wheat beer, but I like the IPAs, too! And I enjoy a wide variety of wild plants, including some that have a bitter kick! Looking at all these beers together, it's a good thing that I eat a lot of healthy wild plants, too!


What If I Don't Like Bitter Flavors?

Even if you don't like bitter food, there are still wild plants that you may like. For example, there are so many kinds of wild greens that aren't bitter at all, like lambs quarter (Chenopodium alba) and redroot pigweed (Amaranthus reflexus). Some ways of preparing wild plants can minimize their bitterness, like blanching, making creamed greens, or cooking with bacon!

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Combining bitter plants with mild ones like in this salad, blanching bitter plants like these yucca petals (Yucca spp.), and cooking with bacon, vinegar, and brown sugar, like this great Sweet and Sour Dandelion Greens, are all classic ways to reduce bitterness in wild plants. But I like a good kick of bitterness, too!

And just because you don't like more bitter foods now, doesn't mean you won't like them later. I know plenty of people that started out not liking bitter wild greens, but now even prefer those kinds of greens! I have grown to like a good kick of bitterness. If you like bitter flavors, stay tuned. I've got some posts about cooking with hop cones that you will like! :D


What Do You Think?

  • Have any wild greens or other wild plants been too bitter for you to enjoy?
  • Do you like bitter foods or do you want nothing to do with them?
  • What kinds of chocolate, coffee, or beer do you prefer?
  • Do you know any other ways of comparing bitterness in foods?

I write about foraging because I believe that we can all have lives that are richer, more secure, more grounded, and more interesting by getting to know the plants and the land around us – in our yards, our parks, and our wilderness.

I would like Steemit to be the premier site for Foraging on the Internet! If you have any thoughts about foraging, or experiences to share, write a post and be sure to use the Foraging tag. And check out the @foraging-trail to see curated quality posts about foraging. Happy Foraging!



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Ha ha ha, great post. Great to see all the greens prepared side by side, I'd love to be there for a tasting. You could create a single score for bitterness appreciation, mark each question on a scale of one to five then present the average... I'd totally end up with the top score! Munching on pure cacau nibs, with the most intense of mocha prepared coffees in one hand and a dark English bitter in the other, he he he. Maybe could add a common bitter vegetable to the list, like, hmmm, actually, that's hard to think of a very bitter vegetable that everybody would know, kale??

A trick I've picked up along the way through hanging out with foragers is to make a mix of various different greens, especially when making a salad. Like just bunch up a selection of wild greens and chop them into a bowl. That way no one single flavour dominates and it's a medley of bitter spectrums. Nyum nyum.

I'd like to share with you Macka B's rasta rap about bitter..."Don't run from bitter!":

You are a bitter lover, for sure! That's a good idea to add a bitter vegetable. There was mention of bitter melon, but that's not so common. Maybe chicory, endive, radicchio. Or for gardeners, the taste of older lettuce that's beginning to bolt.

I'm with you on mixing different greens. That's the way I make most of my Wild Salads. Chopping everything really fine mixes all those flavors so well! I've never had a mediocre salad that way! :D

Eat more bitter, you will want more bitter. If you want more bitter, you will want less sugar. That's a great rasta rap, so perfect for foragers! Thanks for including it here! :D

Yes I thought of bitter melon but hardly anyone knows it, even chicory isn't that well known to be honest. Out of the three you suggest I think people would know endive. Mature lettuce is a good one.

Macka B has a facebook page and posts new veggie/health themed raps every Monday, worth following! It's great to start the week with such a funny pick-you-up.

Not having common bitter vegetables -- that's commentary itself, isn't it!

Thanks for the Macka B!

This is really cool. Following.

  1. Chocolate - I like both types. I don't have an overtly strong preference one way or the other. I like the strong 70% + cocoa content just as well as something milkier. Depends on my mood I guess.
  2. Coffee. I love coffee. I like light, medium, and dark/bold blends. I do have to have cream. I CAN NOT drink black coffee. It is utterly revolting to me. However, and I've heard other people say this, adding SUGAR makes the coffee more bitter to me. If I'm going to add sweetener, i use honey.
  3. Beer - i am not a beer connisuer ...but I've always preferred lighter beers

I bet I'm totally off base here but what about these other food categories predicting if you will like a bitter plant?

  • vinegar (i largely dislike )
  • wine
  • very sharp cheeses or very blue cheeses
  • salty foods
  • spicey arugula - i eat arugula by itself, what compound makes it have the delightful spicey taste that makes me devour it by the handful?
  • cilantro? Is this a bitter food? No. ..but it's decidedly with a unique taste.

Do any of those fiod categories fit in you think?
Do you have any foraging guides? I would like to forage and not die in the process....

Thanks for such a thoughtful response! It sounds like you would go for more mild flavored greens, rather than the more bitter ones. But -- that can change over time. The other foods you list are strong flavors, but not bitter flavors. Maybe a good comparison, rather than arugula, would be radicchio or endive, or if you garden, older lettuce that is starting to bolt. I should add those to my list.

I'll have to write more about foraging guides. I've used a lot of them over the years! Thanks for the idea!

Upvoted, Resteemed, Followed, and Shared on our facebook page.

Wow - thanks for all that activity for my post on bitter flavors in wild plants! Happy foraging!

I lik bitter, mature lettuce is also very bitter, excellent formatting, photos and data!

That's a great suggestion to add to the list, @reddust! Any gardener could relate to that! Wilted lettuce was a standard for families that had big gardens. Maybe that's how I grew up liking bitter greens and other wild plants.

exactly!

I bet you are feeding good greens to your grandkids with your garden! : )

Nice post.

Haha! Just kidding! No... I mean it's a great post. LOL
I'm an avid fan of food and thanks to a multi-cultural upbringing, a pretty adventurous eater. I like my coffee strong, black, no sugar but I like my tea sweetened with honey and lemon. I like bitter beer but I also like a fruity Moscato wine. Chocolate? OKAY. Any will do except I could live without white chocolate. (I mean...how can it be real chocolate if it's not brown???) So, I'd definitely take a mix of greens, or throw some of the bitter ones as a compliment to a sweet BBQ'd meal. :)

You know your flavors! Thanks for that feedback. It helps me understand how people think about bitter flavors. And I'm with you on the white chocolate nonsense! -- and LOL on the 'nice post'! ; )

I couldn't help myself.

I like some really bitter stuff like black coffee and IPAs, but 80+% dark chocolate can be a little too much for me. You make the greens look so appealing though, I'd try them!

Thanks for that feedback. It helps me figure out where the line is for different tastes.

If you like vegetables at all, I bet you would like some of more bitter greens. And all the greens that I show are really good! Easy to like!

But since you like the IPAs, you may like what I cook with hops -- the bitter parts that people use to make beer. I'll be posting some Hop Mac & Cheese that's not for everybody, but it tastes good to folks that like the IPAs!

Cool, looking forward to your hop mac & cheese. Never heard of that before, sounds... interesting.

I just put up my Hop Mac & Cheese post. It's easy and really good for folks that like bitter greens or IPAs!

Upvoted and following. I'm not much on bitter flavors but this is great info.

Thanks! Even if you're not a fan of bitter flavors, it's helpful for figuring out which plants you might like to eat. There are some great-tasting ones that aren't bitter at all. Happy foraging!

I'm not big into the bitters, but your post was exceedingly interesting and informative. Thanks for sharing this world of differing tastes.
I am a milk-chocolate, fruit beer sort of person. And don't drink coffee, which I realize is odd, but never learned. Have a nice day.

I think the bitter greens are not for you, then! But there are still a lot of good wild greens, like Wild Field Mustard (Brassica rapa), Lambs Quarter (Chenopodium album), Redroot Pigweed Amaranth (Amaranthus retroflexus), Purslane (Portulaca oleracea) -- and more! So many good wild greens! I hope you get to enjoy them! :D

I love the topic! I am okay with bitterness: bitter chocolate, bitter melon(LOOK IT UP), and IPA beer. But I couldnt eat many forigable greens in Texas. They were too bitter. Here in Michigan we have been eating loys of Lambs Quarter and Purslane. But in Texas the Lambs Quarter was not very good tasting.
I like your idea of making Steemit a key foraging resource!!! Keep it up!!

I'd say you like bitter flavors, for sure! That's interesting about your experience with greens in Texas. Environmental stresses, like heat, sun, and dryness, can really increase the levels of bitterness in greens and other wild plants. In those cases, I look for microclimates, like shady areas, tall grass where a plant has to grow quickly, and wetter areas.

But in Michigan, you are in great foraging country! I lived in southern Michigan for over a decade and enjoyed so much wonderful wild food there. Lambs Quarter and Purslane are both such great wild plants! Lambs Quarter is my Number 1 favorite of all the greens! Happy foraging!

Cool!!
I need to forage more. The purslane and LQ are both inside our yard. And we dont spray. I am just cautious...wanting to find foraging spots that arent loaded with Roundup residue, etc.
There are a lot of green spaces nearby, so, should be do-able.

Hey...I just lesarned a bit of how steemit works....2 negatives to setting it up as a foraging 'archive'......
The reward or payment is only for the first week....but as an archive you would have views for years to come....as a information producer that is unfortunate that the reward doesnt continue, because that would allow me (prolly you too) to spend more time sharing top quality material!!!
Second negative is:
I've heard searching/finding resources from 2 weeks prior or older is difficult...the site or search parameters are weighted very heavily to new stuff(1 week or less...during the pay period).
So I don't know how user friendly the site is as an archive.....any thoughts?

It sounds like you have a forager's yard -- If you don't spray anything, then you can eat everything that's good to eat! : )

You are right about the payment for posts. But people can leave comments on those older posts - and we can upvote comments for 7 days. So there are some strategies for getting rewarded for older content, but it's not ideal. That, and not being able to edit old posts, are definite drawbacks.

There's nothing to prevent an author from carving out the content from their post right before the 7-day edit period ends. I did that for a few posts many months ago. But Steemit content ranks high on Google searches. So I've had people find my posts here, through Google search - and then sign up on Steemit, just to ask a question! So I stopped cutting my content out of posts right before the end of the payout/editing period, because I couldn't refer people back to that content.

On the @foraging-trail, I put out summaries of the posts that have been resteemed to that SteemTrail account. So there is a record of foraging posts that I've curated as part of the SteemTrail project, in anticipation of communities. This is the latest one, number 8. Not all foraging posts are there, but the posts that are there do have good information, inspiration, or discussion in them.

There is the potential to develop something like a Steemit foraging library, by having authors contribute the links to their past posts, too. But if you want to find older posts right now, just use Google search and add 'steemit' as one of the words. It works pretty well!

I get it!
Thanks! I'll be following how this goes!!

I honestly never thought that some green might be too bitter and it is not what concerns me what I think of the wild plants. I would try them all anyway.

I love dark chocolate (70-80%) and this is the only chocolate we buy.
And I love black coffee or just with milk. Never use any sugar in it. Neither in my tea and some herbal teas can be very bitter.

I think the most bitter thing I even had was Artichoke tea. Boy... that is a hardcore drinking! :D

I never really thought about it, either, until I kept getting questions and concerns from other folks. It sounds like you appreciate foods that are bitter. You've got me interested in that artichoke tea! There can be a fine dividing line between a just enough and too much when it comes to bitterness, lol!

The tea is meant to be good for Cholesterol ;) And since I have some problem with it I got it to try. I did drink it, but it was VERY bitter. And I do enjoy all kinds of herbal tea and green and red without sugar.
I do like bitter food I guess :) But this was a bit too much for me already.
Let me know how you like it if you manage to get it.

I'll definitely let you know! I am curious now -- and I will try most things once or even 2 or 3 times.

Very unusual that I have tried something before you did :D

haha -- I bet there's more things, too! ; )

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