Earthnut (pignut)

Conopodium majus · Vegetable

40 pairings

The earthnut, or pignut, is the small underground tuber of Conopodium majus, a slender wild plant of the carrot family (Apiaceae) native to western Europe. Crisp and nutty when raw, the chestnut-sized brown tuber has long been a foraged woodland and pasture food.

Picking a good onedrag

Hard, heavy, skin tautShrivelled, soft or mouldy

Kitchen freshRaw in a salad, or boiled and roasted like a tiny chestnut. This judges a tuber already dug and named: its family holds hemlock, and no card can identify a root.Everyday best

SkinDrier, duller brown, still smooth over the flesh

SqueezeFirm, only the surface gives at all

Stem scarStub gone, scar browned over and dry

Smell at the scraped skinFaintly nutty, mostly plain damp soil

What to look for, from hard, heavy, skin taut to shrivelled, soft or mouldy.

Preparing