Identification
Sassafras albidum
Root beer, you have seen it on the shelves maybe tried it yourself but it is not true root beer unless it is made with sassafras. Sassafras is a tree that grows in open woodland, at the base of hills, and bottom lands from New York to Georgia and to the west as far as upper Louisiana and Texas. The plant can be identified by its unique looking leaves which vary between three types of shapes. The leaves alternate between a leaf with no lobes, one with on lobe that looks like a mitten, and lastly one with three lobes that looks a bit like a dinosaur claw. When the leaves are broken they will give off a root beer like smell the roots and stalks will do the same just with a bit more strength to it. In the spring flowers will bloom on the tree in bright yellow clusters till in the summer they exchange their petals for fruit attached by red suckers to the plant. So if your looking for some old time plant to make that old time rootbeer now is the time to go for it!
Root beer, you have seen it on the shelves maybe tried it yourself but it is not true root beer unless it is made with sassafras. Sassafras is a tree that grows in open woodland, at the base of hills, and bottom lands from New York to Georgia and to the west as far as upper Louisiana and Texas. The plant can be identified by its unique looking leaves which vary between three types of shapes. The leaves alternate between a leaf with no lobes, one with on lobe that looks like a mitten, and lastly one with three lobes that looks a bit like a dinosaur claw. When the leaves are broken they will give off a root beer like smell the roots and stalks will do the same just with a bit more strength to it. In the spring flowers will bloom on the tree in bright yellow clusters till in the summer they exchange their petals for fruit attached by red suckers to the plant. So if your looking for some old time plant to make that old time rootbeer now is the time to go for it!
Edible Eccentricities
This is a small disclaimer for people who are willing to go find Sassafras and use it, the plant has been known to cause cancer with long time exposure and if you get the oil raw it is possible to overdose on the chemical safrole; so please be careful. Now that we have gotten the scary stuff out of the way and if you are still incline to use the plant get ready because it as an awesome food. Sassafras has been historically used as a spice by grinding up the roots or stems and putting them on your food. A good example of this can be found below thanks to "How2Heroes" who shows how to make some kicking sassafras ribs (since sassafras is the root-beer flavor I don't recommend these recipes if you are not a root-beer fan). Speaking of root-beer sassafras can be made into tea or the sweet syrup that, when combined with seltzer water, can make a great beverage. I have made this type of root-beer before with help from the great people at "Simply Recipes" (substituting a few ingredients because we did not have them at home) but they go step through step making it a really simple process (find the link here: Simply Recipes). But if your not quite into root-beer the last video on this page by "cookingguide" shows how to make sassafras tea the milder cousin of root-beer. May the road rise up to meet you, the sassafras never die, and finally may your root-beer never run dry!
How2Heroes
cookingguide
How2Heroes
cookingguide