Polk Salad must be washed and cooked, washed and cooked, washed and cooked at least three times before it is edible as a green (like turnip greens, mustard greens, collard greens)
POKE SALAD
2 pounds freshly picked, young poke salad leaves (or other greens such as dale, turnip or collard)
1/2 pound thick-sliced bacon
1 medium onion, chopped
Hot sauce
Hard-cooked egg, optional
Wash the poke leaves well. Parboil the leaves and stems twice in a medium saucepan, pouring off the water each time after parboiling. Boil a third time in clean water for 20 to 30 minutes or until tender. Rinse and drain well.
Fry the bacon and remove from the pan. Add the onion and the greens and cook in the bacon dripping about 15-20 minutes or until tender. Add the hot sauce to taste, and serve topped with the bacon and a sliced hard-cooked egg, if desired.
Let me know if you need pictures. I’ll try to find some now.
My mother cooked some poke salad once. It stank up the whole house. To this day I don’t know what poke tastes like, as I refused to eat anything that smelled that bad.
All my life I have eaten poke salad and never did any thing but boil it and fry it up with eggs. I’m in my seventh decade and feel great.
If you eat poke make certain it is very young, not more than 10 to 12 inches high, and cooked. See:
from:
http://cal.vet.upenn.edu/projects/poison/agbook/phytolac.htm#Phytolac
“POISONOUS PARTS: All parts, but primarily the roots, are considered poisonous. Small quantities (more than 10) of raw berries can result in serious poisoning of adults. Fatalities in young children can result from the consumption of a few raw berries. Phytolacca americana contains mitogens, compounds that can be absorbed through skin abrasions, causing blood abnormalities. Sensitive individuals should handle pokeweed with gloves. Root preparations have been used as a folk-medicinal, a practice than can be dangerous.
OF INTEREST: Cooked, young, tender leaves and stems are eaten by some people as a pot-herb. These young greens are the “poke salad” of Southern fame. They contain low concentrations of phytolacca toxin which is destroyed by proper cooking.