Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A European plant (Tragopogon porrifolius) having grasslike leaves, purple flower heads, and an edible taproot.
- n. The root of this plant, eaten as a vegetable.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A plant, Tragopogon porrifolius. It is extensively cultivated as a vegetable, the long fusiform root being the esculent part. Its flavor has given rise to the name of oyster-plant or vegetable oyster. Also
purple goat's-beard . See cut on preceding page.
Wiktionary
- n. Any of several flowering plants, of the genus Tragopogon, that mostly have purple flowers
- n. The edible root of these plants
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. See Oyster plant (a), under oyster.
WordNet 3.0
- n. edible root of the salsify plant
- n. Mediterranean biennial herb with long-stemmed heads of purple ray flowers and milky sap and long edible root; naturalized throughout United States
- n. either of two long roots eaten cooked
Etymologies
- French salsifis, from obsolete Italian (erba) salsifica.
Examples
“Unfortunately, salsify is often hard to come by because it's so difficult to harvest, but if you can't find any, celeriac is a perfectly acceptable substitute.”
The Guardian: Yotam Ottolenghi's mushrooms with salsify and barley recipe
“Charging $150 to my card, I had seeds that promised to be carrots, zucchini, beans, peas, corn and something called salsify, which someone said tastes like oysters when cooked.”
“We have tried all sorts over the years, most notably when "The Times" ran a promotion with the Heligan Gardens, the upshot being packets of rareties such as salsify and scorzenara arriving month by month.”
“These gnarled vegetables such as salsify, Jerusalem artichokes and celery root are about to step onto the food fashion runway.”
“Petter Nilsson, chef at La Gazzetta in Paris, won full marks for the most original dish—a meal consisting of Jerusalem artichokes, salsify and truffles, accompanied by local sweet berries and herbs, which he imagined a wild boar would eat.”
“This is salsify, which the stall keeper tells me is a tasty root.”
“The grenache might have matched well with the caramelized salsify, smoked collards and even the coconut basmati.”
“The sweetness of salsify root is a great match for the earthy flavour that mushrooms bring to a dish.”
The Guardian: Yotam Ottolenghi's mushrooms with salsify and barley recipe
“Peel the salsify with a potato peeler, cut on an angle into 3cm-long chunks and transfer immediately to the pan to avoid discolouration.”
The Guardian: Yotam Ottolenghi's mushrooms with salsify and barley recipe
“Locate salsify, cardoons, radicchio or chard on a menu, and bacon is sure to be tagging along, a spoonful of fat to help the medicine go down.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘salsify’.
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food collection
bread, peel, pot, chorizo, Filet, olive, fill, Phyllo, dough, bake, mat, pinot and 988 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
chained_bear "Salsify, or Oyster Plant. After scraping off the outside, parboil it, slice it, dip the slices into a beaten egg and fine bread crums sic, and fry in lard. It is very good boiled, and then stewed a few minutes in milk, with a little salt and butter. Or, make a batter of wheat flour, milk, and eggs; cut the salsify in thin slices, first boiling it tender; put them into the batter with a little salt; drop the mixture into hot fat by spoonfuls. Cook them till of a light brown."
—Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 256 May 3, 2010
Telofy “‘Anybody that can say.’ Wijzer helped himself to another salsify fritter.”
—Gene Wolfe, On Blue’s Waters Dec 28, 2009
mollusque I was wondering who might falsify salsify. Aug 7, 2008
bilby The only non-verb? All alone? All innocent and waify? Aug 7, 2008
reesetee And here I thought it meant "To add salsa to one's food." Aug 7, 2008
mollusque The only current English word ending in -ify that is not a verb. Aug 7, 2008