This is the gist of the way my maid in Alabama taught me to cook poke salad when I was a little boy. One thing though - if you pick your own poke salad, get the young tender plants only about two feet tall. Do not eat the stems and pick out the vein that runs down the middle of the leaf.

This is the way my grand mother and my aunt Lucy taught me but I just wanted to add you can eat the stems just cook them the same way you cook the poke salad and then prepare them like you prepare okra if you were going to fry it and fry it is really good.

All that boil, rinse... boil, rinse... boil, rinse... is an old southern myth. I cook poke in just one "water". I cook it "down" (for you yankees, that's cookin' until most of the water has evaporated). The water that's left is called "pot liquor"... really good to crumble cornbread into. I'm 70 years old and have eaten a ton of poke salet (yes, "salet"....NOT salad). I doubt poke would be good in a salad.

bulls#%@

This is the right way "All that boil, rinse... boil, rinse... boil, rinse... is an old southern myth. I cook poke in just one "water". I cook it "down" (for you Yankees, that's cookin' until most of the water has evaporated). The water that's left is called "pot liquor"... really good to crumble cornbread into. I'm 70 years old and have eaten a ton of poke salet (yes, "salet"... NOT salad). I doubt poke would be good in a salad."

I cook my poke just like you, I am 64 years old and never have seen my mother, aunts, or grandmother cook poke in three or four waters. One only. When I can poke I cook it in one water and put the water in the jars with it. I add a little salt to it and when I open the jars to eat I fry it down in bacon grease. That is how this West Virginia woman cooks poke.

I am a Arkansas boy too. That is the way to do it.

I grew up in Virginia and ate all kinds of foraged greens. I NEVER saw my mother go through all that rigamarole to cook poke. Just use the same method as any other greens. Delicious!

That is the same way I cook poke salet. Seems to me all that boiling, rinsing and changing water, you cook and pour the benefits of eating the poke down the drain. I wash it good put in pot and boil until done, then let it drain while my grease heats up. Put in pan of hot grease let it cook until it is hot, stirring often. Beat about 6 eggs and pour over hot poke salet and cook stirring until scrambled eggs are done. Poke salet, Pintos, no sugar cornbread and a cold glass of whole milk or buttermilk.

I was always told the myth about boiling 3 times as I was growing too. My in-laws never did that and never killed anyone. My brother-in-law and I both like the big leaves and stalks because they have more taste and he even likes some of the berries thrown in.

Have you ever rolled the leaves and stems in cornmeal and fried them in bacon grease? A big kettle pinto beans with ham and a cake of cornbread along side some freshly pulled green onions and poke is a meal from heaven!

We love stripping and cutting the stalk into okra size pieces, fry in oil, salt and pepper, when it turns a light brown in spots, sprinkle a layer of cornmeal, turn and add more cornmeal, cook until it is the consistency of fried okra. It is wonderful!!

I've eaten pokeweed for decades. If the new growth (or early shoots) can be easily snapped off, it's good to go. I do boil once for a few minutes, then drain. Then cook with cream sauce topped with bacon. Billie Jo Tatum has wonderful poke recipes in her 1977 book on wild foods. Joan Tidwell, Louisiana and North Carolina.

Poke berries are really good at alleviating pain from arthritis and sore joints.
Dry the berries (air dry for several weeks or dehydrate.) Store them in a glass container out of direct sun and keep them cool.
For one week take one dried berry every morning. The next week take two dried berries. Either both at the same time or one in the morning and one in the evening. The third week take three dried berries. Keep increasing through the fifth week (5 berries) and on the sixth week don't take any berries. You give yourself a break. On the seventh and subsequent weeks continue with 5 berries a day always breaking for the sixth week. You can continue this as long as you feel the berries help with the pain, but if you stop for more than a week you need to build back up again.

It's better when just sprouting (6 or 8 inches) or the tender tops after the plants get larger. Boil and rinse only once and fry in bacon or country ham grease. Break in 1 or 2 eggs and cook until eggs are done. A splash of soy sauce ain't bad.

My dad was born in 1886 and passed away in 1988 (102 years) He ate poke all his life. I will be 80 in October and have been eating poke all my life. For as long as I can remember (and for much longer) friends, neighbors, visitors (anyone that happened to be around) ate poke at our home and NO ONE ever got sick. My mother never boiled it but ONCE, I have never boiled it but once. I can say nothing about any part of the poke plant except the leaves as that is the only part that I eat. I eat the leaves from spring until late in the Fall (when frost kills them) The taste is the same, the only reason I like the young leaves is because you don't have to boil them as long. My dad said he never heard anything about poke being poison until about the early 1940's. In about the early 1950's, I starting seeing articles in the newspaper saying poke was poison. NO ONE ever claimed the articles. The Grocery stores put the articles in the paper to stop people from eating free poke and buy their greens. IT HAS WORKED FOR OVER 70 YEARS. Do you know of ANYONE ever dying from eating poke greens? I am not talking about hear say! A death certificate stating that poke caused the death???

Good point.

Never

Thank you for this info. I love seeing your true historical story about poke. So much gets lost and distorted by greed. God gave us wonderful free food!!! So happy to know it's not the big bad green of the south.

I saw my dad take the big poke stalks and split them roll in cornmeal. salt and pepper and fry in hot grease. I didn't try them cooked that way. But he ate them, and he never got sick. He said that poke salet was a spring tonic to clean your system out.

Boiling and rinsing all these times is not necessary. The old wives tales of it being so toxic it might kill you is false. The berries and root are medical. But the leaves are fine as long as they are cooked. I mostly saute rather than boil as my granny did. But my family has eaten Poke for hundreds of years(Eastern Tennessee Cherokee/hillfolk) and none every died of it. If you want fresh greens after the big leaves get tough, cut the plant down to the ground and the new growth will be tender again, you can do this several time before it goes to seed.

I never cook poke more than one time when I prepare it and then I usually steam/saute like spinach. However, if I happen to run out of fresh lettuce for a sandwich, I use a couple of fresh poke leaves. Still alive and kicking at 60.

Remember to tie or pen all the male dogs just before poke salad season so they wont pee on it. My mom always mixed the poke with turnip greens. Born and raised in Missippy

Should only boil ONE time (loose flavor otherwise) until greens are tender. discard water. Fry chopped onions & bacon Bits until onions wilt. Put greens in with bacon & onions. Add slightly beaten eggs. When eggs are ready, it is ready to eat. Be sure to have Cornbread.

86 yrs old. Raised on poke salad but never tried it rolled and fried in hot oil. About ten years ago, a friend said... Take a stem with leaves, dip it in your favorite batter, then fry. It will be crisp like bacon. No boiling. You will not believe how good. Not poison.

Wash and hang it out on a clothes line and let it dry until brown... Then roll it up real tight and smoke it... You'll never forget the experience... Better than corn silks...

I tried smoking once when I was about 15 or 16 but never tried smoking cornsilk. I did try my sons vape ONCE becoz it smelled so good (kinda like blueberries cooking). OMWord!!! I choked, coughed, gagged, I probably even turned green! So... when you smoke it, does it taste like poke salad with bacon & scrambled eggs?