Cooking For Engineers

[CookNewb]

Every so often this question pops into my mind. Are there any dishes in any cultures that have wood as their main ingredient? Google does not give any significant results. In North America, we use wood to smoke/flavor dishes. The closest to eating wood I can think of is cinnamon and cassia, two spices derived from the inside of bark of their respective tree species.

[GaryProtein]

Wood is basically cellulose and not digestible, also has very little protein. Why would you want to eat wood? You would at least have to grind it to a pulp first, and that doesn't sound appetizing.

[kgb1001001]

There's always Bamboo shoots and Heart of Palm, not to mention Sago Palm which are essentially "trees" in one form or another... It just depends on what tree it is and when you harvest it -- if you get it in the right form and early enough it's not "wood" (not all cellulose and lignin) and may be edible.

[CookNewb]

kgb1001001 good point, I hadn't thought of those.

GaryProtein sawdust used to be added to bread by a company that promoted their bread as having "extra fibre". Also since wood is used for cooking, I was wondering if it is also ever eaten anywhere or just used for flavoring.