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  • From: "Lucky.Pittman@murraystate.edu" <Lucky.Pittman@murraystate.edu>
  • To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [NAFEX] Poke sallet
  • Date: Sun, 18 May 2008 21:19:56 -0500

Joe,
I've eaten poke once in my life, and didn't
particularly care for it. I suppose if you like
cooked spinach, you might like 'em. I love collard
greens and turnip/mustard greens, but do not like
cooked spinach - and poke was indistinguishable from
that leafy green to me.

You only want to eat the young, new leaves & stalks -
nothing showing any hint of the red that eventually
colors the stalk. Conventional wisdom suggests
pouring off at least the first batch of water after
you start boiling them, but I'm not totally convinced
that that's necessary. Then, you need to add a
heaping helpinf of bacon grease and a chunk of ham
hock, and probably cook 'em for a day and a half
before you eat 'em.
Seems like I've heard of folks splitting, battering
and frying the tender young stems - now, that might
be tasty; everything's good fried, you know!

Phytolaccin is the principal toxic principle that I'm
aware of - off the top of my head, and without doing
a search, I'm thinking it's a gastrointestinal irritant.
Carcinogens, I don't know, though back in the Dark
Ages(the 1970s-80s) pokeweed mitogen was used to
induce blast transformation in lymphocyte cell
cultures being used in immunologic assays. But, I
don't know how much pokeweed - or even what part of
the plant - was required to extract and concentrate
PWM from.

Generations of rural folks ate poke sallet every
spring, and there are several towns around the
country that hold a 'Poke Sallet Festival', like the
one held yearly in Harlan, KY -
http://www.harlanfestivals.com/poke_sallet.htm

I can hear that ol' Tony Joe White rendition(way
better than Elvis' version) of 'Poke Salad Annie'
running through my mind right now.
"Poke Salad Annie, 'gators got yo' granny..."

Lucky






  • [NAFEX] Poke sallet, Lucky.Pittman@murraystate.edu, 05/18/2008

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