Ramps ✦

Ail des bois

What it is

Chicago is named after it: shikaakwa, the Miami-Illinois word for the wild onion that grew on that ground. A bulb takes years to reach picking size, and Quebec has banned the sale of wild leek since 1995, capping a forager at fifty bulbs.

In the kitchen

Cut the leaf and leave the bulb in the ground and the patch outlives you. Pickle the bulbs in equal vinegar and water and keep the leaves raw - heat strips the garlic out of them in seconds.

Goes with

Butter Egg Potato Smoked cured pork belly Morel Trout Cream Parmesan

Same species

Arleux smoked garlic Banana shallot Black garlic Calçot Cévennes sweet onion Chives

Also used with

Fiddlehead fern

In season alongside

Garlic scape Hairy bittercress Spring onion Watercress Wild garlic Borage

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