Filé Powder

Add filé powder to Louisiana-style gumbos to impart a delicate herbal flavor and a slightly mucilaginous texture. The powder is a gourmetshop item, free for the gathering and drying of a few leaves to be found in woodlands in most of the eastern third of the country. For the raw material you need to identify the sassafras tree (botanically Sassafras albidum, S. variifolium, or S. officinale), which happens to be one of the easiest trees to identify, as it’s the only tree we kn