[Sca-cooks] Re: File Seasoning

[Nicholas S. Malone]

Sassafras is still sold commercially, raw, powdered and processed as
extract.  Root beer extracts are mostly the same extract but with
caramel added. And if file did not add any flavor it would not be there,
you never use enough to thicken a hugh pot of gumbo. And okra is not
optional or alternative to real gumbo. The roots do indeed have a bark
or skin that has much more of the flavorings than the core. I have dug
and used sassafras for seasoning and tea for most of my life and my
family grows and uses it regularly and have for at least 4 generations
that I witnessed, they say longer. We always peel the roots. While the
root core is aromatic it is much less so than the peel. If you need to
fake the consistency in your gumbo your doing it wrong.

Diamond Randall wrote:
> [ Converted text/html to text/plain ]
>
>
>>Sassafras is the bark from the root of a particular tree. If you can't
>>find Sassafras root or pure file, then root beer flavoring or
>>sarsaparilla extract are a reasonable substitute.
>
>
> Whoa!  Gag me!  Talk about wrong assumptions, this is a big one.
> You don't use file powder as a FLAVOURING in gumbos, so just forget
> about root beer or sarsaparilla extracts.  File is used as a THICKENING
> agent to give the concoction a kind of slippery, semi-slimey or
> viscous texture.  This why you also see okra being used optionally.
> Personally, I use lots of both with a nice black roo base.
> Living down in the heart of sassafras country all my life, I prefer
> sassafras as my tea of choice.  However, some years ago Uncle
> Sugar decided that sassafras was hazardous to your health (being
> carcinogenic to rats who are fed nothing but sassafras root for several
> weeks)and subsequently pulled it from all the grocery produce bins.
> The wood of the entire tree is infused with the oils needed to make
> tea but the root has the highest concentration of oil, then the bark
> next.  The roots have no bark , so you use the entire root, dried or
> fresh dug.  It is split into 3" pieces about like the old wooden
> cloths pins.  5 or 6 boiled heavily until the water is a deep lake
> reddish brown makes a good tea.  The wood can be re boiled
> for more tea, but boiled for increasingly long periods.  The split roots
> will store practically forever in small rubber banded bundles.
> I like both cream and sugar.  It also makes an outstanding iced tea.
> However, back to file powder....   It has nothing to do with either
> the root or the bark at all.  It is made from the powdered dried
> leaves.  I suspect that is more closely related to bay leaves as far
> as any flavouring it might add, but laurel will not give the textural
> results of file.  I bought a huge institutional container of it at
> Robert Orr/ Sysco.  The brand was Durkee.  It was labeled
> as sassafras with other (unnamed) seasonings.  I have used it for
> years as it does not seem to go soapy like powdered thyme and
> smells just as fresh as it was originally.  The leaves do not have the
> same oils as the woody parts of the tree, so Uncle Sugar did not
> pull file powder from the market.  There is a concentrate of sassafras
> tea under the brand name Pappy's which has had the offending chemical
> somehow removed, but it is not as good as the real thing.
> The sassafras trees grow all over the place here in Tennessee; there is
> a fence row of young 10' sassafras just across the lane at Cumberland
> Centre.  I wish I could find a really good sized older tree that has just died
> to get a good stock of root.  It is so beautiful as a tree, I don't have the
> heart to cut down a big live one and the smaller ones don't yield enough
> root to be worth digging because the root is a taproot to China!
>
> Akim
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Sca-cooks mailing list
> Sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
> http://www.ansteorra.org/mailman/listinfo/sca-cooks
> [This E-mail scanned for viruses by Declude Virus]
>
>
>


[This E-mail scanned for viruses by Declude Virus]