Wild Garlic (Ramsons): What It Tastes Like, How to Use It, and the Poisonous Lookalikes

The real danger with wild garlic is picking the wrong plant. Every season, Germany’s Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) reports poisonings from look-alikes such as lily of the valley and autumn crocus, and some have been fatal.¹ In Europe, “wild garlic” almost always means ramsons, Allium ursinum: a woodland plant with broad, soft leaves that smell and taste like a gentler garlic. It’s gathered in spring for those leaves, which are best raw or barely cooked.

At a glance

Which plant is “wild garlic”?

A 2015 review of the plant notes that “wild garlic” is an ambiguous name, used for other Allium species and even for the South African genus Tulbaghia.² Three alliums often go by it:

All three are bulbous plants of the temperate zone in the onion family, Amaryllidaceae. We’re focusing on ramsons, the species the culinary sources cover. Ramps (Allium tricoccum) are a separate North American plant with a more onion-like flavor, used in similar ways.

Flavor and the compounds behind it

Ramsons tastes similar to garlic but less strong, with a hint of chives. Like garlic, it’s rich in sulfur compounds. Katzer names divinyl sulfide and dimethyl thiosulfonate among them.³ The review classes ramsons as a “methiin/alliin-type” allium, with allicin and methyl-allyl or dimethyl thiosulfinates as its main thiosulfinates. It reports that methyl and dimethyl ajoenes dominate in ramsons, where ajoene dominates in garlic.²

The aroma doesn’t hold up to much heat or drying. Katzer advises against boiling or simmering the leaves, since most of the flavor ends up perfuming the kitchen air instead of the food, and says dried leaves usually smell very faint.³

Origin and history

Ramsons is native from Western and Central Europe to the Caucasus. The review describes natural stands from the Mediterranean to Scandinavia, in damp, shady, nutrient-rich soil.²

People have eaten it for a long time. Charred ramsons bulbs have been identified at a late Mesolithic site in Denmark, which the review takes as a sign that hunter-gatherers ate the plant.² The species name ursinum (“of bears”) may come from folk tales in which bears eat the plant after waking from hibernation. The English name ramsons goes back to Old English hramsan, of unclear origin.³ You’ll often read that the word means “rank” or “bitter.” Katzer’s account doesn’t support that.

The review records 19th-century Swiss use of butter made from the milk of cows fed on ramsons, and mentions a festival in Eberbach, Germany, called Bärlauchtage (Bear’s Garlic Days).² We couldn’t trace claims about wild garlic in Native American or pioneer diets, or on the Lewis and Clark expedition, to a source.

How it is used

• Raw. You can eat fresh leaves raw or cooked, and leaves and flowers make a good salad garnish. Katzer’s favorite uses are raw: in spreads based on cottage cheese, and stirred into soups and sauces.³
• Pesto-style sauce. The review lists a kind of pesto among its uses, and Katzer suggests a pesto-like sauce, or freezing, to keep the leaves past their short season.
• Cooked dishes. The review mentions soups, gnocchi, risotto and ravioli. Add the leaves at the end, since long cooking takes most of the aroma.
• Bulbs. You can use the bulbs like common garlic.

It’s also good chopped into mashed potatoes or eggs, the way you’d use chives. For related flavors see garlic chives, chives and garlic scapes.

Buying, gathering and storage

In Germany, ramsons sold in food shops usually comes from controlled cultivation, according to the BfR.¹ Leaves are gathered in spring, before the plant flowers. To keep the leaves, Katzer’s options are a pesto-like sauce or freezing. Drying is a poor choice because so little smell survives.³ We found no shelf-life figure from a named source.

Safety: poisonous look-alikes

The main documented risk with wild garlic is picking the wrong plant. The BfR warns that the young leaves of lily of the valley (Convallaria majalis) and autumn crocus (Colchicum autumnale) look like ramsons. Poisonings after gathering supposed ramsons cluster in April and May in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Croatia, and some have been fatal.¹

• Lily of the valley can cause diarrhea and vomiting and, in rare severe cases, heart rhythm disturbances.¹ Katzer notes it contains cardioactive glycosides.³
• Autumn crocus causes severe gastrointestinal symptoms after 6 to 12 hours, then a quieter phase of one to three days, before multi-organ failure.¹ All parts are rich in colchicine.³

The smell test and its trap. The BfR says rubbing a green leaf between your fingers usually identifies ramsons by its garlic smell, but garlic smell left on your hands from an earlier leaf can fool you.¹ Katzer notes that neither look-alike has any trace of garlic odor.³ The BfR’s advice: if in doubt, don’t eat ramsons you gathered yourself, and contact a poison center or doctor right away if symptoms follow a meal.¹

Health claims

We found no NIH summary or human trial on ramsons. The 2015 review focuses on antimicrobial, cytotoxic, antioxidant and cardioprotective research, and notes that the plant has traditionally been recommended as a digestive stimulant and to prevent cardiovascular disease. The parts of the review we could read describe lab work and traditional use, and we found no trials in people. It also cites a comparison in which ramsons had more magnesium (7,000 mg/kg), manganese (1,600 mg/kg) and iron (230 mg/kg) than garlic, without saying which plant part or whether the figures are dry weight.² Kaempferol derivatives are its main flavonoids.

None of this shows that eating ramsons lowers cholesterol, protects against cancer or improves gut health, and we’re not claiming it does. For the much bigger body of research on cultivated garlic, see garlic.

Substitutes and comparisons

Garlic chives come closest in the kitchen: a mild garlic flavor in a green leaf. Your other route is a little garlic plus chives or scallion greens. Related pages:

• Garlic · Fresh garlic substitutes · Too much garlic?
• Garlic chives · Garlic chives vs. chives · Chives
• Garlic scapes · Garlic scapes substitutes