What is a skirrit?

1. What does skirret taste like?
2. How do you eat a skirret?
3. What is skirret used for?
4. How do you make a skirret?
5. Are Skirrets perennial?
6. How do you germinate a skirret seed?
7. Are skirret leaves edible?

What does skirret taste like?

Skirret (Sium sisarum) is a forgotten treasure from Tudor times. The plant forms a cluster of long, pencil-thick, white roots that can be a bit fiddly to clean, but they have a flavour somewhere between potatoes and parsnip, and were once considered the finest roots to eat.

How do you eat a skirret?

Skirret is disease resistant for the most part and can be overwintered by mulching over in cold climates. Once the roots are harvested, they can be eaten directly, raw from the garden as a carrot or more commonly boiled, stewed, or roasted as with root vegetables.

What is skirret used for?

Culinary use

Skirret roots can be stewed, baked, roasted, fried in batter as fritter, or creamed, and also be grated and used raw in salads.

How do you make a skirret?

To prepare skirret for table, simply scrub the roots and cut them into suitable lengths for cooking. They can be boiled with a bit of salt and served, like salsify or parsnips, with butter. The roots can be stewed, braised, baked, batter-fried, or creamed.

Are Skirrets perennial?

Latin name Sium sisarum, Skirrets are hardy perennial root vegetables. They date back centuries, pre-dating the potato, and were one of the main root crops eaten across Europe before potatoes were introduced.

How do you germinate a skirret seed?

I recommend sowing seeds in a flat eight weeks before your last frost. Skirret seed germinates slowly and erratically over a long period of time. It is usually three weeks before I see the first germinations and six weeks before 50% have emerged. The soil must be kept moist.

Are skirret leaves edible?

First up, skirret is delicious. It has a floury texture, a little like a potato, due to the high starch levels. Its taste is unique, but vaguely carroty, not surprisingly as it comes from the multi-talented carrot family (Apiaceae). It needs very little cooking.