Fiddlehead

As fiddleheads are harvested early in the season, before the frond has opened and reached its full height, they are cut fairly close to the ground.

[3] Not all species contain ptaquiloside, such as Diplazium esculentum, a fern with fiddleheads regularly consumed in parts of East Asia, which differs from bracken (Pteridium aquilinum).

[4] The fiddlehead resembles the curled ornamentation (called a scroll) on the end of a stringed instrument, such as a fiddle.

[9] They are also part of the diet in the Russian Far East where they are often picked in the wild in autumn, preserved in salt over winter, and then consumed in spring.

In the Philippines, young fronds of Diplazium esculentum or pakô is a delicacy often made into a salad with tomato, salted egg slices, and a simple vinaigrette dressing.

In East Asia, fiddleheads of bracken (Pteridium aquilinum) are eaten as a vegetable, called kogomi (コゴミ) in Japan, gosari (고사리) in Korea, and juécài (蕨菜) in China and Taiwan.

In Korea, a typical banchan (small side dish) is gosari-namul (고사리나물), which consists of prepared fernbrake fiddleheads that have been sauteed.

As part of the Tripuri cuisine; fiddlehead fern is prepared by stir frying as bhaja served as a side dish.

In Darjeeling and Sikkim regions, it is called niyuro (नियुरो) and is common as a vegetable side dish, often mixed with local cheese and sometimes pickled.

Ostrich ferns (Matteuccia struthiopteris), known locally as "fiddleheads", grow wild in wet areas of northeastern North America in spring.

The Maliseet, Mi'kmaq, and Penobscot peoples of Eastern Canada and Maine have traditionally harvested fiddleheads, and the vegetable was introduced first to the Acadian settlers in the early 18th century, and later to United Empire Loyalists as they began settling in New Brunswick in the 1780s.

The vegetable is typically steamed, boiled and/or sautéed before being eaten hot, with hollandaise sauce, butter, lemon, vinegar and/or garlic, or chilled in salad or with mayonnaise.

To cook fiddleheads, it is advised[14] to remove the brown papery husk before washing in several changes of cold water, then boil or steam them.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention associated a number of food-borne illness cases with fiddleheads in the early 1990s.