ISSUE 74, THE BOOK OF RARER VEGETABLES, Part 6: Skirret
Skirret
When presented a new root vegetable, wise cooks both boil and bake the tuber to see which preparation best showcases its intrinsic virtues. Sometimes those virtues are modest. A forkful of parboiled Skirret convinced me that any plant that aspired to have the taste and texture of a salsify, yet failed by getting confused with an overcooked carrot, would not be a keystone vegetable in any culinary growing scheme going forward, even though it was a perennial plant. Skirret (Sium sisarum) does have one point of distinction: a flavor unlike that of any other root vegetable, sweet but not sugary, bland but not creamy, herbal but not vegetal, with a floweriness that turns to starchiness.
A Native of Eastern Europe or West Asia, it exists primarily as a cultivated plant in the United States. There is not a known wild stand of the plant, only naturalized patches of skirret seeded from garden plantings. It has never been in extensive cultivation in the United States because the other root vegetables were reckoned more flavorful and nutritious. Wythes in The Book of Rarer Vegetables simply stated the consensus of horticultural and culinary opinion in England in the 20th century: “The edible portion, the root, has a very peculiar taste and it takes some time to get used to it, but this occurs with other vegetables. The roots are prepared in the same way as Scorzonera and Salsify, but I do not think them equal as regards quality to those last named” (96).
Permaculturists have recently touted the skirret as the perennial white carrot. But if only it had the flavor and mouthfeel of a carrot! Instead it confirms the old stereotype of a “health food” that is blander and less inviting to human taste than common cultivated plants of a similar configuration.
Still, one wonders how it might be improved. Could ingenious gardeners move the texture into something more winning, the taste into something more sumptuous? It is not beyond possibility. So as with every landrace plant, I urge its continued cultivation. Even ancient plants are dynamic and their genetics possibilities great.