Spruce Tip Jelly Recipe | Kitchen Vignettes Blog | PBS Food (2024)
If you’ve ever been curious to know what a forest tastes like, then this recipe is for you. Each spring around this time, spruce trees put out pale green buds covered in delicate brown paper husks.
Essentially, they are little bundles of baby spruce needles and at this stage they are still soft and tender. Their flavor is reminiscent of Christmas, with a distinct element of citrus and all the vitality of a forest bursting forth in springtime.
Spruce is not the only edible conifer. Fir and pine are edible as well and all are packed with vitamin C. It’s only last spring that I learned about cooking with spruce tips from a friend. At the time, I had my hands rather full. So I made a note to self that this would be the spring to experiment with spruce tips and I’m so glad I remembered. I’ve made spruce tip syrup (for some extra special woodsy co*cktails), spruce tip vinegar (simply pack a bunch of spruce tips into a bottle of apple cider vinegar and let it sit, the flavour is amazing), and some spruce tip salt for sprinkling on meat or sandwiches.
But the best of all has been this light spruce tip jelly which is a delight with cheese and crackers. I imagine it’s lovely on meat as well, particularly lamb, pork, or any wild game. You can simply make it and store it in the fridge for up to a month.
Harvest the tips when they are still pale green in color. If they’re still covered with the brown papery husk, you can quickly remove it with your fingertips. Sometimes simply rubbing your hand across a branch will make them all fall off. As in all wild gathering, it’s important to abide by good foraging principles and be thoughtful about not removing all the tips from any one given tree.
I found that in the various recipes I tried, chopping the spruce tips helped to release more of their aroma. I didn’t do it for the batch of jelly I made in the video, but I encourage you to do so. This will make for a more flavour-packed jelly (though the lighter-flavored, more subtle jelly is gorgeous as well!)
I hope you try this recipe, its a very magical one and it would make a wonderful homemade gift. Enjoy!!
Learn how to make spruce tip jelly from Aube Giroux from Kitchen Vignettes.
Ingredients
6 cups spruce tips
6 cups water
2 cups cane sugar
1/2 cup bottled lemon juice*
5 tsp Pomona's pectin (+ 5 tsp calcium water provided in the Pomona's package)
1/4 cup good quality honey (optional)
Directions
Roughly chop the spruce tips to release their aromatic oils. (I didn't do this in the video but have since found that it releases more of the flavor). Place the chopped tips in a medium-large non-reactive heavy-bottomed pot with the water. Bring to a boil over high heat. Boil for about 3 minutes and then remove from heat. Allow the spruce to steep until the mixture reaches room temperature. (If you'd like a stronger flavor, allow the spruce to steep in the water overnight. The longer it steeps, the stronger the flavor).
Using a cheesecloth or a fine-mesh strainer, strain out all the spruce needles so that only the liquid stays behind. Mix this liquid with the lemon juice and 5 teaspoons of calcium water (provided in the Pomona's Pectin package). Bring to a boil. Whisk the pectin powder into the sugar and mix well. Add the pectin-sugar mixture to the boiling liquid, whisking vigorously to fully dissolve the pectin and avoid clumping. Continue whisking until mixture returns to a full boil. Remove from heat. Fill hot, sterilized half-pint (8 oz) to 1/4 inch from the top. Wipe the rims with a clean damp cloth and screw on the 2-piece lids.
Store your jelly in the fridge, it will keep for up to a month.
For longer storage, process the jars in a water bath. If this is your first time canning, please read full, detailed instructions on water bath canning here. Place the filled jars in boiling water, making sure they are fully submerged and covered by a minimum of one inch of water above the lids. Boil for 10 minutes, adding 1 minute more for every 1000ft above sea level. Remove from water and allow the jars to cool. The next day, check the seals to make sure each jar is properly sealed. Eat within 1 year. *If water bath canning, be sure to use bottled lemon juice because it has standardized acidity to ensure food safe canning.
Tips/Techniques
Note 1: You can use other brands of pectin if you prefer but I recommend Pomona's to ensure proper gelling since this is a reduced-sugar recipe.
Yield: 5-6 half-pint jelly jars
Aube Giroux is a food writer and filmmaker who shares her love of cooking on her farm-to-table blog, Kitchen Vignettes.
Aube is a passionate organic gardener and home cook who likes to share the stories of how food gets to our dinner plates. Her work has been shown on television and at international film festivals. Her web series has been nominated for multiple James Beard Awards for Best Video Webcast (On Location). In 2012, she was the recipient of Saveur Magazine’s Best Food Blog award in the video category.
Tasting notes: To Alaskans, Spruce Tips embody the flavor of Spring. Spruce Tips play well with both sweet and savory dishes and have a range of flavors depending on their stage of maturity: herbal, fruity, resinous. A hint of citrus from the Sitka Spruce Tips makes for a sweet, fresh flavored jelly.
The syrup smells like a pine forest, tastes a little citrusy — moreso if you add lemon juice — and adds a wonderful woodsy note to glazed pheasant, grouse or chicken. Spruce tip syrup is even better mixed with ice cold water, carbonated or no, and a hint of lime or lemon juice.
Spruce tips are the new growth of the trees each year and are most notably antiseptic, antimicrobial and an incredible source of vitamin C. After a long winter, they offer an immune boost and a fresh, lemony flavor that wakes you up from your hibernation slumber.
Making spruce tea is simple and it keeps for up to a week in the fridge. I use a french press to make my tea. Simply, add spruce tips and boiling water and let them steep for 5-10 minutes before pouring into a larger jug. I do this several times, adding more boiling water and reusing the same spruce.
Well, spruce tips are high in Vitamin C, chlorophyll, and carotenoids; rich in minerals such as potassium and magnesium; and they also taste great. A lot can be done with spruce tips, but my favorite way to eat them, like many foods, is fresh and in season.
If you have a few bags of spruce tips in the freezer, now is the time to use them before the harvesting season begins again. Two of the best ways to freeze spruce tips is to bag them up in plastic freezer baggies or to vacuum seal them and then freeze. Spruce tips can last up to one year.
There's only one way I preserve the tips in their fresh form: frozen. If you strictly want to preserve their flavor, vacuum seal them and freeze, although you can put them in a tightly sealed ziploc too. Frozen in a vacuum bag.
Place your pot where you want it and water to moisten the soil until it freezes. Fresh evergreens will continue to take up water like a fresh Christmas tree. Watering your pot will keep it fresh all season.
Spruce tips are a traditional wild food and plant medicine, used by the First Nations throughout history. They are most notably high in vitamin C, beta carotene, starch and sugars. But beyond nutritional value, spruce tips are actually very tasty and can be eaten raw or used to add flavour to numerous recipes.
Spruce tips have a distinct taste — citrus with a hint of resin. You can snack on them fresh or or add them to salads. Dried spruce tips can be ground in a coffee grinder and make a great nutmeg like spice – check out the recipe for Moose Steak with Yukon Rub and for Northern Pumpkin Pie! They can also be used in teas.
Spruce tips are generally clean, but you can remove their party hats and give them a quick rinse to remove any dust and debris. They will last a few months in a paper bag in the fridge, if you can't use what you just harvested. They also freeze well, if you want to keep them even longer.
Boil spruce tips in water for 15 minutes (approximately 4 oz of spruce in 3 cups of water) to make a wonderful essence that can be used in making bread or other baking recipes. Check out food ideas below! Prepare as a tea: Pour 8 oz of boiling water over 1/2oz of spruce. Cover and steep 3-4 minutes, strain, and serve.
That spruce water tastes incredible -- it's like drinking the forest! That water also makes a great Spruce Tree Sorbet. And the soaked spruce tips to make some amazing Pine Pollen - Spruce Tree Cookies. From one jar of spruce tips soaked in water, I can drink the forest, make sorbet, and bake cookies.
Boughs collected from the white spruce can be boiled to purify our indoor air and clean the surfaces in our homes. Collect white spruce branches following traditional protocols.
When you put it in your mouth the hard resin will break into a fine powder but if you keep chewing it will eventually form a chewy piece of gum. The taste is definitely sprucy, and it is far from sweet, but it is a unique taste which kind of grows on you.
Spruce tips can be eaten raw, cooked, or dried and powdered like a spice/flavoring. We add them raw to salads, use them to flavor desserts, and use the powder to bring unique color and flavor to dishes.
A winter spruce tea made from mature needles has a strong flavour; tea made with spring spruce tips is lighter and milder. Nibbling on the newly-grown fresh tips reveals a strong taste of 'pine' resin and citrus.
It's slightly resinous, sweet, and woodsy, and I love what it brings to this dessert. I recommend using a combination of young tips and first year needles for the best possible flavor. First year branches will give you flavorful, mature needles.
Introduction: My name is Horacio Brakus JD, I am a lively, splendid, jolly, vivacious, vast, cheerful, agreeable person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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Aube Giroux is a food writer and filmmaker who shares her love of cooking on her farm-to-table blog, Kitchen Vignettes. 