Shagbark offers more than just nutritious nuts

Foraging for wild herbs can be challenging in the weeks before spring blossoms into full bloom.

But if you’re up for trying something new – or maybe not so new to woods-inhabiting old timers — the shagbark hickory tree offers distinct flavors that can put a unique twist on a number of different tasty food recipes and beverage concoctions.

Like many types of trees in the Carya family, shagbark hickory’s bark shards work well as a smoke-flavoring for meats and cheese. But flavor can also be extracted and condensed by boiling for use as a syrups, dressings, teas or other drinks.

A longtime herbal remedy for rheumatism and arthritis, infusions made from shagbark flakes is high in magnesium and can help to ease sore muscles. Boil the young shoots and inhale the steam to alleviate a headache.

Use the nuts to help balance “good cholesterol” in the blood. Some herbalists suggest using the shagbark hickory for stomach and digestion problems. Hickory nuts are nuggets of nutritional power, relatively high in calcium, healthy fats and calories. They were an important part of some North American indigenous peoples’ diets. The Iroquois boiled the bark and nutshells to make a sweetener. The nuts were eaten and the wood smoke used for preserving meats. The shagbark hickory is a very dense wood, ideal for crafting tools.

But it is the peculiar-looking bark and its “buttery, nutty, smoky” flavor compounds we can extract that offer especially interesting culinary potential.

While it looks like it is dead or dying, the characteristic shagbark peels are very much alive, and quite sturdy. The bark strips are not very easy to pull away from the tree unless they’re actually ready to shed. You should look for pieces that are already loose, both for ease of harvest and to avoid damaging the tree and potentially exposing it to pest-related harm or disease infection.

Mallory O’Donnell, author of How to Cook a Weed, has this to say about shagbark’s potential in the kitchen:

“I quite like maple syrup. I don’t wish to demean it in any way. But, to me, hickory syrup tastes better, and is far more interesting culinarily. Those who find maple syrup good but somewhat cloying may agree with me. Hickory syrup has an incomparable smoky, woodsy flavor that is a more complex than maple syrup, something which, to my taste, makes it more useful for both sweet and savory recipes. Maple syrup is delicious, but hickory syrup is adventurous.”

O’Donnell has taken the time to figure out the best ratios of dried bark to water for making teas and syrups: 4-5 ounces per 6 cups of water. Simmering this mixture until the total volume was reduced to 2 cups created a smoky, buttery tea that delights the palate. Add 2 cups of sugar to the tea to make the basis of a syrup for beverages and pancakes.

So try something new this spring. After a nice hike to gather bark, relax those sore legs with refreshing shagbark lemonade, make shagbark pancakes, or keep it simple with a relaxing cup of shagbark tea.