Where I live wild juniper berries are hard to come by. While they have their own learning curve, cedar cones can make a decent addition to the forager's pantry. Read on and I'll walk you through my experience with them, how I might use them, and important things to take into consideration.
Thujone Toxicity
Like many wild foods, there's a few caveats to know about. With cedar cones it's Thujone, a compound that, while once found in absinthe, is technically a neurotoxin and should only be consumed in small amounts. Cooking denatures the compound and it ingredients containing it should always be cooked. Dehydration is also a form of cooking.
For an example of how this takes shape in cooking, consider sauerkraut. I may occasionally add a few ground or minced dried berries to a jar of kraut, and they add a good flavor. After fermenting, the kraut is always cooked before eating.
As with many things (poke sallet and cherry pits, for example) dosage and preparation can make the poison, so to speak. Enjoy in tiny amounts as an aromatic cooked. With some preparations you may not even ingest the physical cones at all-grinding the seeds to a paste with garlic and using it in a ham cure where it's rubbed off before cooking, for example. The wild herb ham recipe below is in my forthcoming book on meat, Fauna.
Background
There's not a lot of wild juniper recipes on this website as most of the trees that make comparable fruit near me are Juniperus virginiana / Eastern Red Cedar. While the fruit has a comparable flavor to juniper, it's also extremely astringent and bitter.
I tried going to different trees in different places, every time it was the same, bitter, and near inedible. Taking into account how easily you can order conventional juniper for cooking, I stopped tasting every little blue (or green) berry I saw. I dedicated more of my precious foraging time to mushrooms, and stuck with the blue berries in the spice shaker I was used to.
Eventually I found a wild juniper that wasn't bitter, it was great tasting but it came with a blood price. The needles of the small shrubs with good tasting berries turned my hands to hamburger, a hard price to swallow when I thought they tasted near-indistinguishable from conventional juniper. Later I learned this was Juniperus horizontalis, or creeping juniper. The flavor was great, but the location made it inaccessible.
Fast forward a few years, in the spring foraging for a special dinner, I walked past a cedar tree while I was picking black walnuts and noticed small little berries/cones growing on the branches. I tasted one-it had a flavor like juniper, but there was no bitterness, and the leaves were soft in comparison to the anti-personnel non-bitter juniper. These were Thuja occidentalis (Eastern White Cedar).
Could it be the best of both worlds? In truth, not really, but they're alright. Since they were a conifer I knew they should have similar properties to juniper. I forgot about the walnuts for a bit and picked a few cups of the little green things to bring home.
White cedar is a species in the genus Thuja, and a close cousin to the juniper trees with the bitter (and non-bitter) berries I'd been eating before.
On another note, being a big fan of the absinthe my friend from Czechoslovakia would bring me from overseas in college, I also thought that the Thuja name might be a cognate or relative of thujone, the supposedly psychoactive compound in the green fairy (it is).
However, everything I can find on the subject seems to contradict any sort of trippy possibilities associated with thujone, so I put aside the thought of making cedar absinthe since there's probably more responsible pursuits to experiment with.
A mild, fresh substitute for juniper
The little cones are good, and have the most potent flavor fresh. They keep some of the flavor dried, but it's not as electric as the fresh product. They pack a resinous, non-bitter juniper flavor which is slightly more mellow than it's cousin from the spice rack.
Ideas for harnessing the aroma
Cooking with cedar cones doesn't necessarily mean you need to ingest them. I made a great dish of elk roast where I pureed the fresh cones with a little onion, oil and salt, and used it as a marinade for 24 hours, wiping it off before roasting.
One recipe I put in my book I recommend trying is called aglione-a mix of finely chopped garlic and herbs in oil that's tossed with hot potatoes or warmed in a hot pan after cooking meat for a pungent, aromatic pan sauce, pictured below.
Another good way to harness the aroma without eating the physical berries is to use them as an aromatic in pickles, like I do with pickled chanterelles with wild juniper.
Conclusion
Cedar cones, while not something to ingest raw, can make a decent substitute for juniper berries and are widely available. If you want to try them, small amounts are fine added to blends of chopped herbs and marinades, particularly those places where the rub is removed before cooking, like bacon, pancetta, or roast.
Related Posts
If you like cooking with conifer products, make sure to check out the following posts too:
chess
We have a huge incense cedar on our property LOADED with cones. Harvested a bit as well as the leaves. Going to make some tea (out of the leaves) for the first time! Still deciding what to do with the cones...they smell amazing!
Also, we have Mugolio (the recipe from your site) going in a couple jars. We can't wait to try it!
jennifer
Eastern red cedar berries, ripe, deep blue and falling off the tree are absolutely magical. I hope you find some one day. They have an initial sweetness and finish peppery. Incredible spice. I ground some and use some as whole berries. I love them simply as a ground sprinkle over roasted cauliflower, and they are great in marinade for meats.
Alan Bergo
Agreed they have a good flavor but they're quite astringent. Have to be careful with how many you add.
K.A.I.
Fascinating and informative, thank you. I have a fence of “swamp” cedars on the property. They have had good care for 8 years. I am not sure the formal genus name. They have produced bountiful small green cones. I have processed 2 quart jars, first with equal br. Sugar and green cedar cones (in the window sill sun), mixing daily. At the 4 day point and the taste is spectacular and delicately subtle. I haven’t tasted such before. Debating how long to leave in the sun and what next steps. Suggestions are welcome.
The forage into my backyard is amazing. If adventuring out, it’s bringing awareness of what’s about that’s familiar, and what is....this?
Alan Bergo
K, It sounds like you were following a recipe mixing the cones with sugar. You will want to take a look at mugolio.
Cyn
Are western red cedar buds while green okay for Mugolio? I hear so many contrasting comments about toxicity. I currently have the following fermenting green cones:
-western red cedar
-Japanese cedar (sugi)
- Lawson cypress or sawara cypress (getting mixed IDs)
- eastern red cedar
- deodar cedar
Any of these considered dangerous/toxic in Mugolio?
Alan Bergo
They should be fine, but people will complain if I don't mention that cedars are an abortifacient.
Sinclair
Thanks for your response.
I’d heard port orford cedar could make you sick, but I’m not sure at what amount and under which circumstances.
For the record, the giant sequoia continues to smell earthy and unappetizing. It’s very dry, so maybe in a month, it will turn into something better. I just opened the jar or macerating eastern red cedar and it smelled…not great. Kind of medicinal, like a doc office. Hmm…
Best smelling so far would be Japanese cedar, Doug fir, deodar cedar, and scots pine (tho I opened scots last night and it was so fermented, the initial sniff nearly burned my nose off. Hope that’s normal)!
Alan Bergo
It is normal in that every species will be a little different, but cones from the same genus will share similar aromas. Have fun experimenting.
Robin
We are fermenting some in our own homemade OACV. We are also going to try a few fermented in Honey, the same way you ferment Spruce Buds in Honey. Cedar has such great medicinal value!
Alan Bergo
Fermenting the cones in honey will work just fine. I also treat them with sugar just like the spruce tip syrup and mugolio.
Jacqui
OK ... so what about cedar cone varenye? Today I found Thuja orientalis (with spiky fruits) that taste ... interesting and pleasant enough. With the attempt do you think?
Bethany
I've enjoyed cedar tea for a while (surprisingly tart, with some of that resinous thing going on with spruce too) and today I'm experimenting with infusing the flavor into creme pat to fill creme puffs. The flavor turned out pretty subtle, so I'm going to try infusing some into caramel for the top as well--we'll see how it goes.
Mike
When I was a kid (a long time ago...), we would cook our freshly caught trout at the streams edge over a little campfire. The best ones were always when we happened to be near cedar trees. We would stuff a handful of cedar boughs into the fire for the last few minutes. It imparted a lovely finish to the trout. They tasted like the mountains.
Carla Beaudet
I've had good success making mugolio with mugo pine buds. I read about the syrup, experienced sticker shock when I went to buy some, then realized I had planted ornamental mugo pines in the landscaping proximal to my house. In the end I bought some anyway to compare with my own. Mine is better. I bet your cedar cones would make a fine syrup. Mix them 50% by volume with sugar, let it sit all Summer in the sun, then remove anything nasty in the top layer, add an equal volume of water, boil, and strain.
Alan Bergo
Oh now that's a great Idea! Thanks for the reminder Carla.
Melanie
I mixed western red cedar cones and brown sugar (50/50) and let it sit several months. The flavor is great. Unfortunately, I have an allergic type reaction when I handle the cones, so probably won't do it again. A small amount of the 'molasses' doesn't seem to trigger a reaction. Also read that thujone found in western red cedar can be poisonous.
Robin
We made syrup like this last Summer. I picked the green cedar buds from trees on my property; layered them with brown sugar in big gallon jars and put them out in the Summer Sun to melt the sugar and do it's fermenting. THe result after some time and straining, was a few quarts of cedar syrup that tastes delicious. My question here... Since, i assume this syrup holds much medicinal value, how much would you consume at a time? I have just used little bits and love it, but wondering what more experienced folks think? Is it okay to slather it over pancakes? 🙂
Alan Bergo
Hi Robin. I've used it on pancakes, baked goods and desserts for years now, from a few different cedars. A tablespoon or two per person is fine.
MJ
Maybe in a Kombucha recipe? How would this do with blackberries?
Maddy
Where are you now?