Earthnut (pignut)
Conopodium majus · Vegetable
Top 10 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 freshEveryday bestRaw 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.
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