Welcome to the summary page for FabulousFusionFood's Wild Food guide to Rowan along with all the Rowan containing recipes presented on this site, with 7 recipes in total.

This is a continuation of an entire series of pages that will, I hope, allow my visitors to better navigate this site. As well as displaying recipes by name, country and region of origin I am now planning a whole series of pages where recipes can be located by meal type and main ingredient. This page gives a listing of all the Cornish recipes added to this site.

These recipes, all contain Rowan as a major wild food ingredient.

Rowan trees, Sorbus aucuparia are deciduous trees of the Rosaceae (rose) family They are native throughout the cool temperate regions of the northern hemisphere, with the highest species diversity in the mountains of western China and the Himalaya, where a number of microspecies are found.

For the most part, rowans are small deciduous trees some 10–20m tall. The leaves are arranged alternately, and are pinnate, with 11–35 leaflets. The flowers are borne in dense corymbs; each flower is creamy white, and 5-10 mm across with five petals. The fruit is a small pome 4–8 mm diameter, bright orange or red in most species, but pink, yellow or white in some Asian species. The fruit are soft and juicy, which makes them a very good food for birds, particularly waxwings and thrushes, which then distribute the rowan seeds in their droppings.

Perhaps the best known species is the European Rowan, Sorbus aucuparia and is a traditional wild food both in Britain and Scandinavia. Rowan berries make an excellent (if slightly bitter) jelly and is traditionally used as an accompaniment to game. The berries can also be made into jams or preserves (either on their own or with other fruit such as apples, and blackberries). Note that Rowan berries are very bitter and you will need to add both sugar and salt to balance this. Much of this bitterness is caused by the compound sorbic acid. You should also note that raw Rowan berries also contain sorbic acid's precursor parasorbic acid. This causes indigestion and in high doses it can lead to kidney damage. However, heat treatment converts parasorbic acid to the benign sorbic acid. Thus if you have cooked the fruit in some manner they are entirely safe to eat. Freezing also helps in this conversion process so if you collect the fruit immediately after the first frost and then freeze them before preparation this will also help reduce the levels of parasorbic acid in the fruit.

As well as its use in making preserves, the fruit can also be dried and ground to make a flour. This can be used as an adulterant to wheat flours or can be mixed with cereals. The leaves and flowers can be infused in boiling water to make a tisane. The roasted seeds of the plant can be round and used as a coffee substitute.

Rowan's importance as a winter food and due to its importance in Celtic, Anglo–Saxon and Norse mythos has led to a large number of common (and local) names for the tree that include: Delight of the eye (Luisliu), Mountain ash, Quickbane, Quickbeam, Quicken (tree), Quickenbeam, Ran tree, Roan tree, Roden-quicken, Roden-quicken-royan, Round wood, Royne tree, Rune tree, Sorb apple, Thor's helper, Whispering tree, Whitty, Wicken-tree, Wiggin, Wiggy, Wiky, Witch wood, Witchbane, Witchen, Witchen tree. In Gaelic it is known as: Rudha-an ('the red one') and in Welsh it is cerddinen ('the song tree', due to its use in harp making).

It's little known, but the very young leaves (before the flower buds appear) and young unopened flower buds of rowan have a notable almond flavour and they can be infused into alcohol and syrups, or can be added to frangipani, bakewell tarts or added to middle eastern dishes as they are.

References:

[1]. David Evans Notes from field observations, tastings and cookery experiments.
[2]. Huxley, A. The New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. 1992
[3]. Tanaka, T. Tanaka's Cyclopaedia of Edible Plants of the World.
[4]. Lim T.K. Edible Medicinal And Non-Medicinal Plants, Vols 1–8.
[5]. Thomas, G. S. Perennial Garden Plants
[6]. Milner, E. Trees of Britain and Ireland
[7]. Rose, F. & O'Reilly, C. The Wild Flower Key (Revised Edition) – How to identify wild plants, trees and shrubs in Britain and Ireland
[8]. Streeter, D. & Garrard, I. The Wild Flowers of the British Isles
[9]. Clapham, A.R.; Tutin, T.G. & Moore, D.M. Flora of the British Isles
[10]. Phillips, R. Mushrooms
[10]. Phillips, R. Mushrooms
[11]. Jordan, P. & Wheeler, S. The Complete Book of Mushrooms: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Edible Mushrooms
[12]. Bunker, F.; Brodie, J.A.; Maggs, C.A. & Bunker, A. Seaweeds of Britain and Ireland.
[13]. Facciola, S. Cornucopia — A Source Book of Edible Plants