Wild Flavors All Year Round: Dry Infusions
Finishing salts and sugars, and wild spice blends
When wild ingredients aren’t abundant due to the season, there’s no reason to limit your flavor palette to oils and vinegars:
You can also extract a lot of flavor from wild ingredients by creating finishing salts and sugars, and by experimenting with wild “spice” blends.
One of the biggest misconceptions surrounding wild foods is that they’re stand-alones, or need a lot of preparation before they become usable in the average kitchen. However, with a little creativity and not a lot of work, wild ingredients can be just as versatile as standard grocery ingredients, and often far more interesting.
As an example, let’s take Herb Robert (Geranium robertiatum).
Often considered an invasive, this attractive little geranium also goes by the more pejorative appellation “Stinky Bob.” It does, indeed, have a strong odor when bruised or damaged, and, for this reason, when you suggest it’s edible, even seasoned foragers will often decry its…
