This trick is a little late in the season I suppose – it`s one we figured out this weekend so we weren`t holding back.
We were pickling just over 6 pounds of fiddleheads; cleaning is the most time-consuming bit. There are two parts to cleaning (three if you`ve foraged them):
- If they are foraged, many will have an kind of husk on them that is easy to remove though it`s a lot of work. It`s remains affect you in step 3 below. There`s not too many shortcuts for this step.
- Cutting a fresh cut on the stem. This adds to the physical appearance of the jar and I believe it has to have a positive impact on taste (though you can treat that as a rumour).
- Removing the loose bits of fern that cling on to the fiddleheads increases flavour (as some of the `bits`may be dried or worse) and certainly creates a clearer brine. This also applies to non-pickled fiddleheads of course too!
Our friend Margaret recently told me of people placing their crop on top of an old bed sheet and tossing them in a light wind. Great idea but I was flying solo and had not wind.
Our solution to speed things up:
The technique:
- Place cooling rack (we use this one for preserves) on top of a pot with a small to medium amount of fiddleheads in it.
- Turn pot and rack upside down.
- Shake well over sink
- Flip everything over, give a rinse (even better if you can rinse on the rack – ours covers the entire sink so they drain right through.
It`s fantastically fast and removes a lot of extra work – any other tips or tricks out there?
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Thats a terrific tip!
We soak ours overnight before the first steaming or boiling.
Works well.
That’s a great idea! I’ve got a bag of them that I’ll be cooking up tonight.
[...] Our trick for cleaning them was published earlier in the week here. [...]
I find the best may to clean fiddelheads is to fill the bottom of a potato basket and dip it into a brook while shaking and twisting the basket as it is submerged. I cleaned 50 to 60 lbs in about 25 mins or so. Works like a charm. When you have a couple hundread lbs, you need a quick method, and this works great!!!