1.   In long cooking, it becomes mildly mucilaginous, so that it acts as a thickener much like file powder in a gumbo.

2.   Remove bay leaves and stir in file powder at end of cooking.

3.   Take sassafras, whose roots make tea, while the crushed dried leaves are turned into the spice called file powder.

4.   Stir file powder and green onions into cooked gumbo, and serve over rice.

5.   The mix combines rice, diced onion, celery and bell pepper with a roux base and is sprinkled with file powder.