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Award-winning chef, author and forager Alan Bergo. Food is all around you.

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Pickled Ramps

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Pickled ramps recipe Pickled ramps are a standard, and one of my favorite way to preserve everyones favorite wild leek: put them in a gimlet, chop them up and add them to stir fry, or my favorite, chop them fine and add to aioli to make the tartar sauce of the gods, the possibilities are endless.

Essentially, this is just a simple sweet pickle recipe, to which you could add various other seasonings. There are a few things to know about pickling ramps though, so I’ll touch on them briefly.

First off, ramps and garlic cannot be pickled just by pouring pickle liquid over them and processing in a water bath. What happens is the onion bulb reacts with the vinegar and turns the pickles blue. The blueing doesn’t affect the flavor, but it’s unsightly. To prevent blueing in your ramp pickles, you will need to first blanch them in some lightly salted water.

Pickled Ramps

Secondly, ramps are almost like three vegetables in one. You have the leafy green top, the pink stem, and the oniony bulb on the bottom. Each of these parts has different cooking times and properties. The bulbs and pink stem can be cooked as one for pickling, but the greens should be removed and processed separately, such as in ramp pesto (see a recipe for that here). The greens turn mushy when processed or canned with a hot method, and are better off just pickled cold, like refrigerator pickles.

Cutting ramps for pickling
Trimming the ramp where the red stem meets the leaf.
Removing the outerskin from the ramps
Removing the condom from the ramps and trimming the taproot
ramps preparing to pickle
Blanching the ramps in salted water to prevent discoloration

Older, mature ramps, (see below) especially those whose leaves have died will be a bit fibrous. I like medium-age ramps for pickling the best, but I do often harvest older bulbs while I’m hunting scapes and flowers in the summer if I need them for something. Older bulbs are perfect for cooking down in their liquid into pickled ramp aioli.

Save That Pickle Liquid

Ramp pickling liquid tastes really good, and I like to use it in cooking, especially for making aioli. The method is simple, strain the pickling liquid of spices and herbs, then cook it down to concentrate the flavors a bit. You’ll find that my pickled ramps have a bit less vinegar, sugar and salt than a lot of other recipes, and this is on purpose, since if you cook down typical pickling liquid, it can add too much salt or sugar to whatever you’re making.

Basic pickled ramp recipe

I like to be able to control the levels of salt and sugar, so they’re light in this recipe. In the pictures here, you’ll see that the spices have been strained out, which makes it easy to just pour off a bit of liquid as I need without having to strain out mustard seeds, etc.

Pickled Ramps

Basic pickled ramp recipe
Print Recipe
3.73 from 11 votes

Basic Pickled Ramps

Yield: 3 pint jars of pickled ramps, depending on size and age.
Prep Time15 mins
Cook Time30 mins
Course: Snack
Cuisine: American
Keyword: Pickled Ramps, Ramps
Servings: 3 Pints

Ingredients

  • 1 lb Ramp Bulbs trimmed of their taproot
  • 3 cups water
  • 1 T kosher or sea salt
  • 1/2 Cup sugar
  • 1.5 cups apple cider vinegar or champagne vinegar, or simply white vinegar.
  • 2 tablespoons pickling spice

Instructions

  • Toast the spices on medium heat in a saute pan until aromatic, then cool and reserve.
  • Remove the leaf at the part of the stem were it turns red. Leaving the red  stems on the ramps ensures you a beautiful pickle liquid with a pink hue.
  • When you have trimmed the leaves, next remove the "condom" from the ramp as we call it-a thin layer of viscous tissue on the outside of the bulb. Remove this, also trimming off the taproot where it connects to the base of the ramp bulb. Save the taproots to plant in your yard.
  • Save the leaves for another purpose.
  • Heat the water, salt and sugar, and spices on low heat in a pot with a lid wide enough to accommodate the ramps.
  • When the mixture starts to steam and is boiling, place the ramps in and cover, making sure the cover is on tight. Steam the ramp bulbs for 1-2 minutes like this (1 minute for young bulbs, 2 minutes for older ones with larger bulbs) just until they wilt a bit, but are still crunchy and raw in the middle, stir them once during the process.*
  • After the ramps are par cooked, remove them to a bowl (this helps them not overcook) then add the vinegar and bring the liquid back to a boil.
  • Quickly pack the ramps into canning jars, pressing them down and filling them about 60% full. Pour the boiling pickle liquid into the jars right up to the brim (you don't have to leave as much room as you won't waterbath can them.
  • Screw the lids on tight, then turn upside down and allow to cool. After cooling, the ramps will be shelf stable just like if they were water bath canned.
  • Alternatively, store the ramps covered in their liquid in your fridge, without canning. Provided that the ramps are always completely covered by liquid, they will last pretty much forever, at least until next ramp season.

Video

Notes

*The par cooking process
Cooking the ramps briefly without vinegar stops them from turning blue. Blue discoloration with pickled garlic and ramps isn't harmful, but it doesn't look nice. 
Make your own seasoning blends 
This is a bare bones recipe, a basic outline. You can jazz it up to your liking by adding different seasonings. Fresh herbs are the best addition, especially dill, cilantro and or mint. Play around can come up with some combinations you like.
Cooking with pickled ramps 
When I'm cooking with pickled ramps, 99% of the time I chop the bulbs, then cook them down in their pickling liquid to concentrate their flavor before adding them to whatever I'm making, so I take that into consideration. 

More 

Ramps: Harvesting, Sustainability, Cooking and Recipes 

Related

Previous Post: « Morels and Ramps Preserved in Oil
Next Post: Pan Roasted Chicken with Morel Sauce »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Miachel | spiced curiosity

    May 16, 2014 at 7:48 pm

    Thanks for the note on blue discoloration. Will try out this recipe tonight, sans sugar. 🙂

    Reply
  2. Ella

    July 23, 2017 at 2:43 pm

    Hi Chef Bergo!! Are you blanching the ramps in salty water (to prevent them turning dark) b e f o r e you add them to the spiced water? Or does that count as the blanch?

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      November 27, 2017 at 9:10 am

      Cooking the ramps in the water before adding the vinegar is the blanch, that way, no flavor is lost, so you can use the pickling liquid and it is full strength.

      Reply
      • Ella

        February 20, 2018 at 8:51 pm

        Thank you! (sorry it is so late)…

        Reply
  3. Stephanie

    May 25, 2022 at 9:10 am

    5 stars
    Last year when I made this, I cut down on the sugar by half (as I usually do) and they were delicious, but still felt like the sugar could come down a little more. I also added red pepper flakes. Love your recipes and pics!

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      May 25, 2022 at 7:27 pm

      Thanks Stephanie. You can always adjust the sugar to your taste. This was the recipe we sold at Heartland in our market and cooked with on the line, so it has a special place in my heart. I like pickles with sugar and without, it just depends on what I’m feeling like doing. I don’t like sugar in my mushroom pickles at all but with onions I usually do.

      Reply

Trackbacks

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    December 11, 2013 at 11:38 am

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  12. Roasted Beets with Pickled Ramp Sour Cream says:
    December 20, 2019 at 5:01 pm

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FORAGER | CHEF®
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Author: The Forager Chef’s Book of Flora
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Alan Bergo
Summer veg PSA: One of the edible plant parts I co Summer veg PSA: One of the edible plant parts I cover in my book you might not know are squash and pumpkin shoots. 

Tender and delicious, these are eaten around the world. The US is still coming around, but I see them occasionally at farmers markets. 

I like to give them a dip in boiling water to wilt them quick, then toss them with some fat or stir-fry them quick. The little curly-cues make them look like fairy tale veggies to me. 

#squashshoots #cucurbitaceae #eatmoreplants #kehoecarboncookware
Shaved cattail rhizomes with smoked trout, chickwe Shaved cattail rhizomes with smoked trout, chickweed, lemon, hickory nut oil and tarragon from the @wild.fed shoot. 

I spent a couple days trying to cook the rhizomes, and it works, but raw is my favorite prep. 

I add some smoked trout both for the salty pop and because it’s fun to mix aquatic edibles. Runner bean flowers for a splash of color. 

#cattails #foraging #chickweed #runnerbeans #saladsofinstagram
Long, fun day snatching crayfish out of the water Long, fun day snatching crayfish out of the water by hand with Sam Thayer and @danielvitalis for @wild.fed 

Daniel and Sam were the apex predators, but I got a few. 

Without a net catching crayfish by hand is definitely a wax-on wax-off sort of skill. Clears your mind. 

They’re going into gumbo with porcini, sausage and milkweed pods today. 

#crayfish #ninjareflexes #waxonwaxoff #normalthings #onset🎥🎬
Working all day on preps for cattail lateral rhizo Working all day on preps for cattail lateral rhizomes and blueberries for this weeks shoot with @wildfed 

Been a few years since I worked with these. Thankfully Sam Thayer dropped a couple off for me to work with. They’re tender, crisp and delicious. 

Sam mentioned their mild flavor and texture could be because they don’t have to worry about predators eating them, since they grow in the muck of cattail marshes. 

I think they could use a pet name. Pond tusk? Swamp spears? Help me out here. 😂

Nature makes the coolest things. 

#itcamefromthepond #cattail #rhizomes #foraging #typhalatifolia
I liked the staff meal I made for Mondays shoot so I liked the staff meal I made for Mondays shoot so much we filmed it instead of the original dish I’d planned. 

Cooked natural wild rice (not the black shiny stuff) is great hot, cold, sweet or savory. It’s a perfect, filling lunch for a long day of berry picking. 

I make them with whatever I have on hand. Mushrooms will fade into the background a little here, so I use a bunch of them, along with lots of herbs and hickory nut oil + dill flowers. 

I’m eating the leftovers today back up in the barrens (hopefully) getting some more bluebs for another shoot this week w @wild.fed 

#wilwilwice #wildrice #chanterelles #campfood #castironcooking
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Next up blewits. Spawn from @northsporemushrooms

#winecaps #strophariaaeruginosa #allthemushroomtags
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