Bear's Garlic (Allium ursinum L.)

Used plant part

Fresh leaf or bear's garlic

Young leaves, preferably fresh. They should be harvested before the plants starts flowering. The bulb, being much smaller than that of garlic, is only rarely used.

Plant family

Alliaceae (onion family).

Sensoric quality

Similar to garlic, but less strong and with a hint of chives.

Main constituents

Flower of bear's garlic

Similar to garlic, bear's garlic contains a large number of sulphur compounds: divinyl sulfide, dimethyl thiosulfonate, methyl cyctein sulfoxid and the latter's degradation products, methyl allyl thiosulfonate and methanethiol.
 

Origin

Native to Western and Central Europe.

In the USA, ramp (Allium tricoccum), a wild plant with more onion-like flavour, is used for similar purposes.

Etymology

English ramson (Old English hramsan) is of unclear origin; cognates are found in several Germanic languages (e.g., Swedish ramslök) and in the Balto-Slavic subfamily (e.g., Lithuanian kermuse and Russian ceremsha). There are, however, a few possibly related words in other Indo-European tongues: Greek krómmyon "onion" and maybe Welsh craf "garlic".
 

Bear's garlic (wilting leaves and unripe fruits)

The Latin species name, ursinum, was derived from Latin ursus "bear"; cf. also German Bärlauch "bear's leek" and French ail des ours "bear's garlic". I do not know what the associations with bears are motivated by.

All Germanic tongues avoid, for fear of the dangerous animal, the true name of the bear: English bear, German Bär, Swedish björn and others are euphemisms and simply mean "the brown one", being derived from an Indo-European root BHER- "brown"; an alternative, yet less plausible, explanation relates bear to Greek theér "animal" and Latin ferus "wild" (Indo-European GHWER- "beast").

The true Indo-European name of the bear is RKSOS, probably meaning "destroyer"; it appears in Latin ursus and Greek árktos "bear"; the latter term was also used to denote the constellation Great Bear (also known as the Great Dipper) and thus became a general term for "north".

See also garlic.
 

Bear's galic, flowering plants

Bear's garlic, growing wild in fens and river woods of Central Europe, is much used in local cuisines, but since it cannot be cultivated, it has not gained any superregional importance.

In spring, the leaves are collected and used raw to flavour spreads based on cottage cheese, soups and sauces. Dried leaves usually exhibit a very faint odour and should, if ever, used in liberal amounts. On the other side, they are better preserved by preparing a pesto-like sauce (see basil) or simply by freezing.
 

Bear's garlic, shortly before flower

In Germany, and probably other parts of Central Europe, bear's garlic has increased dramatically in popularity within the last few years. While the plant was formerly known only to a few in eat-wild-plants-communites, today hardly any of the haute cuisine-chefs will miss the opportunity to create new recipes using this herb and offer therm to his guest during the all-too-short season. Unfortunately, I find that many chefs mistreat bear's garlic signficantly and use way too high temperatures when they prepare their subtly flavoured crèmes, soups and pasta sauces. Ideally, bear's garlic should not be boiled or simmered at all, but rather used raw, the fresh leaves just being mixed with the hot food and eaten immediately. Otherwise, most of its characteristic flavour is wasted and perfumes the kitchen air, not the food.
 

Two plants you should never confuse with bear's garlic: left lily-of-the-valley, right autumn crocus

Since bear's garlic has become so pupular, many people have tried to collect the plant in the wild. Several cases of poisoning have been reported in the last years, as there are a few toxic plants with roughly similar leaves, particularily lily of the valley (Convallaria majus) and autumn crocus (meadow saffron, naked ladies, Colchicum autumnale). Both plants do not show even traces of garlic odour, and similarities are in the best case superficial, or even non-existent.

Lily of the valley contains cardioactive glycosides with physiological effects similar to digitalis, but their concentration in the leaves is comparatively small, and, as a consequents, live-threatening conditions due to poisoning occur but rarely. The situation is different with autumn crocus: All plant parts are rich in colchicin, a highly toxic alkaloid. Colchicine poisoning takes lethal course very often. Autumn crocus flowers have also been confused with saffron flowers by the inexperienced.