Welcome to the summary page for FabulousFusionFood's Spice guide to Sassafras along with all the Sassafras containing recipes presented on this site, with 2 recipes in total.

This is a continuation of an entire series of pages that will, I hope, allow my visitors to better navigate this site. As well as displaying recipes by name, country and region of origin I am now planning a whole series of pages where recipes can be located by meal type and main ingredient. This page gives a listing of all the Cornish recipes added to this site.

These recipes, all contain as a major flavouring.

Sassafras, Sassafras albidum or Sassafras tzumu are two species of deciduous trees belonging to the Lauraceae (laurel) family. The trees are native to North America and eastern Asia and grow from 15–35m tall with a trunk that ranges from 70 to 150 cm in diameter. Sassafras is distinguished by having three distinct leaf types borne on the same branch: unlobed oval, bilobed and trilobed (as most of the leaves in the image are). Young leaves produce a scent very similar to lemons when crushed. The young leaves are also mucilaginous in nature and for this reason are used to thicken sauces and soups.

The dried and powdered leaves of sassafras is known as filé powder which can either be green (from the green leaves) or black (when made from the red autumnal foliage of Sassafras). It is a key ingredient in Cajun, Creole and other Louisiana-based cuisines. An example being filé gumbo. Filé powder is also a critical ingredient in authentic Cajun blackening sauces. Though generally sold as a spice (indeed, it is often said that Sassafras is the only spice originating from North America) — and this is the reason for inclusion here — filé powder should probably more accurately be labelled as a herb as it derives from the leaves (a herbaceous part) of the Sassafras tree.