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Chicory And Endive

Cichorium intybus and C. endivia, two closely related plants whose common names are beset by much confusion, in French as well as English. It is convenient to treat them together, and to exhibit the common names in tabular form.

Chicory and endive both belong to the genus Cichorium, which in turn belongs to the large family Asteraceae which also includes lettuce, and many other edible plants, and also dandelion (whose leaves resemble those of wild chicory).

Chicory

Chicory, Cichorium intybus, describes a group of perennial cultivated plants developed from wild chicory, a common plant of Europe, W. Asia, and Africa. The wild plant was also called succory (or ‘blue succory’ because it has blue flowers) in England in the past. The French and Italian names barbe de capucin and barbe di capuccino mean ‘Capuchin monk's beard’.

Chicory was used as a vegetable and for salad in classical Greece and Rome, but was not apparently cultivated. The leaves of the wild plant are not too bitter if gathered young.

From the 16th century onwards modern cultivated forms, with larger and less bitter leaves, were developed. The wild plant had anticipated many characteristics of these in its polymorphic natural state, including a tendency to produce leaves tinged with red.

Cultivated chicory varieties include:

• green, leafy types of which Sugarloaf is a well-known ‘heading’ example, while Grumolo and Spadona are semi-heading or loose leafed;
• Catalogna (sometimes known as asparagus chicory), a loose-leafed variety of Italian origin, distinguished by long and relatively thick white stalks, and with narrow leaves rather like those of a dandelion (and whose young, slightly asparagus-flavoured flower shoots are also eaten). Some types have curly leaves, though not as frizzy as those of the curly endive;
• the red-leafed types popular in Italy, all of which have now become popular in other countries also, especially in the last two decades of the 20th century and usually under the name radicchio. Among these are radicchio di Treviso (probably the oldest), radicchio (variegato) di Castelfranco (Veneto), and rosso di Verona. Colours are in the range of bronze/red/pink/variegated. If grown in normal light these chicories tend to be brown because of the presence of green chlorophyll, so they are often covered up;
• the Witloof types, white, blanched varieties forced in dark cellars, originating in France and Belgium in the late 19th century and now very widely adopted—see below;
• large-rooted varieties whose roots provide the coffee substitute (again, see below), and whose leaves may also be edible.

Within these categories further distinctions can be made between broad- and narrow-leafed varieties, curly and non-curly leaves, heading and semi-heading and non-heading (heading can be encouraged by tying the leaves together), and so on.

The practice of taking up chicory plants in the autumn, cutting off their leaves, and replanting the roots in a dark cellar so that they regrow small, white leaves originated in France. The original French variety called, like the wild plant, Barbe de Capucin is unusual in that the roots are replanted on their sides in angled banks and the shoots grow horizontally. Around 1850 a Belgian grower, experimenting with uses for old mushroom compost, discovered the superior cigar-shaped form Witloof (meaning white leaf). This is grown vertically from roots buried under a deep covering of soil, sand, or sawdust so that the developing shoot is forced together into a compact shape. It is harvested as soon as it shows above ground, part of the root being taken with the shoot.

The large-rooted variety of chicory which is used as a coffee substitute was developed in Holland during the second half of the 18th century, when coffee was newly fashionable and very expensive. All over Europe people experimented with substitutes: grains, figs, acorns, and all kinds of root, especially dandelion and chicory. Chicory was judged most acceptable and special, large-rooted kinds were bred to meet the demand. Although the roasted root does not taste like coffee and contains no caffeine, this chicory became popular in Europe during the 19th century, and fields of blue-flowered plants were a common sight. Chicory was used both by itself and as an adulterant of real coffee. Even now, coffee mixed with up to 20% of chicory is available, especially in France and Spain.

Endive

Endive, C. endivia, is a close relative of chicory, but is a hardy annual or biennial, not a perennial. Wild forms grow in the same area as chicory, but also extend further to the east, to India and beyond. The wild plant is particularly abundant in Italy. It is thought to have originated in the remote past as a hybrid between chicory and another member of the genus C. pumilum (one of the wild lakhanika or radicchie gathered in Greece and Italy); but it has been a distinct species since prehistoric times. Cultivated types are curly endive (confusingly called in French chicorée frisée, meaning ‘frizzy chicory’) which resembles a huge, untidy green wig; and broad-leafed varieties commonly termed ‘batavia’ and ‘escarole’.

The ancient Egyptians ate and probably cultivated endive. The Greeks and Romans certainly cultivated it, preferring it to chicory, since in its natural state endive is slightly less bitter. The Romans may well have blanched it, for they were acquainted with the procedure, and Pliny distinguishes chicory from endive by saying that chicory is darker as well as more bitter. Only the broad-leafed types were known to the Romans and for some time afterwards. The first curly, but still broad-leafed, endive is described in 1586. The curly, narrow-leafed type which is now the most popular one emerged much later.

Broad-leafed endive, which is often blanched by putting a box over the plant, is called ‘escarole’ in the USA. Indeed, the names endive, escarole, and chicory are used interchangeably for C. endivia. Another name, originally that of a cultivar, is batavia. (The Batavi are an ancient tribe who in classical times inhabited what is now Holland, and their name has often been applied to things Dutch, including this vegetable.)

Curly endive may be plain green, as in the cultivar Ruffec, or green with red midribs, as in Pancalière. It sometimes grows to a formidable size, well over 30 cm (1′) in diameter. A common way of partly blanching it is to put a tile on top of the plant, which flattens its growth and produces a green outside and a white heart.

Uses

Both chicory and endive are most commonly used as salad vegetables. It is usual to balance their bitterness by including something slightly sweet such as red capsicum; or emollient, such as chopped hard-boiled egg, in the salad. A dressing of hot diced bacon with the melted fat is another successful expedient.

When the vegetables are cooked, as they sometimes are, they can be first blanched (in the cooking sense), after which (to take one possible example) they can be dressed with olive oil and garlic and heated through again. A well-known cooked chicory dish is Endive au jambon sauce mornay (parboiled Witloof wrapped in ham, covered in cheese sauce, and baked).

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