• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

FORAGER | CHEF

Award-winning chef, author and forager Alan Bergo. Food is all around you.

  • Home
  • About
  • Mushrooms
    • Mushroom Archive
    • Posts by Species
      • Other Mushrooms
        • Lobster Mushrooms
        • Huitlacoche
        • Shrimp of the Woods
        • Truffles
        • Morels
        • Shaggy Mane
        • Hericium
        • Puffball
      • Polypores
        • Hen of the Woods
        • Dryad Saddle
        • Chicken of The Woods
        • Cauliflowers
        • Ischnoderma
        • Beefsteak
      • Chanterelles
        • Black Trumpet
        • Hedgehogs
        • Yellowfeet
      • Gilled
        • Matsutake
        • Honey Mushrooms
        • Russula / Lactarius
          • Candy Caps
          • Saffron Milkcap
          • Indigo Milkcap
      • Boletes
        • Porcini
        • Leccinum
        • Slippery Jacks
    • Recipes
      • Fresh
      • Dried
      • Preserves
    • The Basics
  • Plants
    • Plant Archive
    • Leafy Green Recipes
      • Leafy Green Plant Varieties
    • Ramps and Onions
    • Wild Herbs and Spices
      • Spruce and Conifers
      • Pollen
      • Prickly Ash
      • Bergamot / Wild Oregano
      • Spicebush
      • Golpar / Cow Parsnip
      • Wild Carraway
    • Wild Fruit
      • Wild Plums
      • Highbush Cranberry
      • Wild Grapes
      • Rowanberries
      • Wild Cherries
      • Aronia
      • Nannyberry
      • Wild Blueberries
    • From The Garden
    • Nuts, Roots, Tubers and Grains
    • Stalks and Shoots
  • Meat
    • Four-Legged Animals
      • Venison
      • Small Game
    • Poultry
    • Fish/Seafood
    • Offal and Organ Meat Recipes
    • Charcuterie
  • Recipes
    • Pickles, Preserves, Etc
    • Fermentation
    • Condiments
    • Appetizers
    • Soup
    • Salad
    • Side Dishes
    • Entrees
    • Baking
    • Sweets
  • Video
    • Field, Forest Feast (The Wild Harvest)
    • Foraging Videos
    • Lamb and Goat Series
    • YouTube Tutorials
  • Press
    • Podcasts / Interviews
  • Work
    • Public Speaking
    • Charity and Private Dinners
    • Forays / Classes / Demos

Spruce Tip Posset

Jump to Recipe Print Recipe

Spruce tip posset recipeSilky-rich and custardy, but without any egg, possets are one of the best desserts I’ve discovered (thanks to my old pastry chef) in recent years. They were totally new to me, but apparently they’re an old fashioned British dessert that used to be relatively common in America around the mid 20th century, but more so as a food for invalids and infants than as a dessert.

A spruce tip posset is a great variation on the traditional theme and flavors, and one you definitely need to try if you like spruce tips. 

Besides being an egg-less custardy dessert, which is interesting in itself, there’s a little wizardry in them around how they actually set.

When you think of a custard, panna cotta, or creamy dessert, what do you think of? Eggs? Cream? Gelatin? I sure did before I met the posset. The setting process is where the posset differs from a lot of other custards in that they use citrus to set the custard, typically lemon, and it’s a bit of magic.

frozen spruce tips

Frozen spruce tips run roughly 30$ /lb from some purveyors.

Cook some cream for a bit with sugar and put it in the fridge and nothing too exiting is going to happen. Add some lemon in the mix, and the dairy will react to the citrus just like adding rennet. A little sugar helps to stabilize the mix and, voila, a light, eggless custard forms after it’s allowed to rest in the fridge. 

How much citrus does it take to set?

Traditionally possets I’ve tried have an aggressive citrus taste, which does double duty of helping the mixture set. There problem developing these was that after switching the lemon to lime, since it pairs better with the spruce, the lime was too strong, and it tasted like key-lime posset.

This left me with the question: “how much citrus do you actually need to help the custard set?”. I suspected it was less than the traditional posset recipes called for since they were also using the citrus as the main flavor, so I cut the lime juice in half so there was just enough to brighten the spruce flavor.

Posset = panna cotta’s hot cousin

Side note, I used to work for a chef from Milan who told me that panna cotta, which literally translates to “cooked cream” was once a dessert made without gelatin, which, when you think about it makes sense, as that’s what the name means.

Now cooking down cream will eventually produce something that sets, but it’s definitely expensive, so, it follows that perhaps someone added gelatin to cream somewhere along the line to cut the cost of the dish and streamline it. 

Spruce tip posset recipe

Once the base is made, you can pour the cream into whatver small dishes you have. I tried out a bunch with first batch.

Keys to success

Just because this is easy doesn’t mean it’s easy. If you have any desire to make this read the following notes.

  • I wanted a more firm posset than any recipe you’ll find to compensate for the reduction of lime, so I reduced the cream by 30%. You need to watch carefully and make sure it doesn’t overflow while reducing, unless you use a very wide pan like 12inch, but I don’t recomend wide of a pan since it can over-reduce quickly.
  • Cooling the cream completely to room temperature before pureeing is the most important. Puree cream with the spruce tips hot, and the mixture will lose aroma by the time you eat it. Puree the cream cold and it will make butter, break the emulsion and you’ll be S.O.L. and starting over.
  • For the perfect result, the spruce tips have to be finely chopped. If they get put in the cream and blended whole, the blender has to work too hard, and it takes longer to puree, which means that the cream will heat up in the blender and it wont taste as electric.
  • Unlike my spruce tip ice cream, smaller amounts of this are better. I reccomend 2.5-3oz portions.
  • You’ll want a garnish with these that compliments spruce: blueberries and other berries, pine nuts, hazelnuts, white chocolate etc. Whipped cream and candied lime zest are good ideas too.
Spruce tip posset recipe

Wild blueberries with a dash of lime and maple sugar are a decent compliment, but something crunchy like a toasted pine nut would be a good addition too.

Spruce tip posset recipe
Print Recipe
No ratings yet

Spruce Tip Posset

A small tasting menu sized custard made with spruce tips. It tastes deliciously of spruce with a touch of citrus. Makes about 8 four ounce ramekins*.
Prep Time10 mins
Cook Time15 mins
Chilling / Setting Time8 hrs
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Keyword: Spruce Tips

Ingredients

  • 3 cups (720 ml) cream
  • ⅔ cup (130 g) sugar
  • ⅓ cup (20 g) chopped fresh or frozen spruce tips, any papery husks removed
  • 2 tablespoons lime juice
  • Tiny pinch of fine salt

Garnishes

  • Whipped cream for garnish (optional)
  • Fresh berries for garnish (optional)

Instructions

  • In a high-sided pan that will resist overflowing, warm the cream and sugar and reduce on medium-low, stirring occasionally and watching carefully so it doesn’t boil over, until it looks reduced by about a third and you have 3 cups (720 ml) of sweetened cream.
  • Cool the cream to room temperature.
  • Working carefully, purée the cream, the spruce tips, the lime juice, and the salt in a blender until well blended, then pass it through a fine strainer, pour into the serving vessels, and refrigerate for 8 hours or overnight, uncovered.
  • If you won’t be serving the custard soon, cover them to prevent them from absorbing the flavors of nearby foods.
  • Serve with a dollop of whipped cream, and maybe some fresh berries tossed with a pinch of sugar.

Notes

Serve in small amounts (4 oz ramekins) if you want to serve larger servings, cut the spruce tips by 30%.

More 

Spruce Tips: Harvesting, Cooking and Recipes

 

 

Related

Previous Post: « Halibut Cheeks with Wild Mint, and Watercress
Next Post: Fried Frog Legs Marinated in Ramp Leaf Oil »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. dietske van kessel

    April 29, 2022 at 11:51 pm

    I love posset as well and made one recently with lemon verbena which was beautiful.
    I now want to try and infuse black truffles in the posset. Do you think that will work and is it as good a combination as panna cotta with truffle? (I prefer posset to panna cotta)

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      April 30, 2022 at 8:50 am

      No, the high amount of citrus in posset wouldn’t be my first choice. Ice cream made with black truffles is very good though.

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Primary Sidebar

2022 James Beard Nominee

beard award

Subscribe (It’s free)

ORDER THE BOOK

UPDATED OPTIONS FOR CA / EU / US the forager chefs book of flora by Chef Alan Bergo

Forager Chef

Forager Chef

Footer

Instagram

foragerchef

FORAGER | CHEF®
🍄🌱🍖
Author: The Forager Chef’s Book of Flora
2022 James Beard Nominee
Host: Field Forest Feast 👇
streaming on @tastemade

Alan Bergo
Morels: the only wild mushroom I count by the each Morels: the only wild mushroom I count by the each instead of the pound. 

Good day today, although my Twin Cities spots seem a full two weeks behind from the late spring. 2 hours south they were almost all mature. 

76 for me and 152 for the group. Check your spots, and good luck! 

#morels #murkels #mollymoochers #drylandfish #spongemushroom #theprecious
The first time I’ve seen fungal guttation-a natu The first time I’ve seen fungal guttation-a natural secretion of water I typically see with plants. 

I understand it as an indicator that the mushrooms are growing rapidly, and a byproduct of their metabolism speeding up. If you have some clarifications, chime in. 

Most people know it from Hydnellum 
peckii-another polypore. I’ve never seen it on pheasant backs before.

Morels are coming soon too. Mine were 1 inch tall yesterday in the Twin Cities. 

#guttation #mushroomhunting #cerioporussquamosus #pheasantback #naturesbeauty
Rain and heat turned the flood plain forest into a Rain and heat turned the flood plain forest into a grocery store. 

#groceryshopping #sochan #rudbeckialaciniata #foraging
Italian wild food traditions are some of my favori Italian wild food traditions are some of my favorite. 

Case in point: preboggion, a mixture of wild plants, that, depending on the reference, should be made with 5-23 individual plants. 

Here’s a few mixtures I’ve made this spring, along with a reference from the Oxford companion to Italian food. 

The mixture should include some bitter greens (typically assorted asters) but the most important plant is probably borage. 

Making your own version is a good excercise. Here they’re wilted with garlic and oil, but there’s a bunch of traditional recipes the mixture is used in. 

Can you believe this got cut from my book?!

#preboggion #preboggiun #foraging #traditionalfoods
Oh the things I get in the mail. This is my kind Oh the things I get in the mail. 

This is my kind of tip though: a handmade buckskin bag with a note and a handful of bleached snapping turtle claws. 😁😂 

Sent in by Leslie, a reader. 

Smells like woodsmoke and the cat quickly claimed it as her new bed. 

#buckskin #mailsurprise #turtleclaws #thisimylife #cathouse
Bluebell season. Destined for a Ligurian ravioli Bluebell season. 

Destined for a Ligurian ravioli as a replacement for the traditional borage greens. 

#mertensiavirginica #virginiabluebells #spring #foraging
Load More... Follow on Instagram

Privacy

  • Privacy Policy

Affiliate Disclosure

 I may earn a small commission for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial, and/or link to any products or services from this website. Your purchases help keep this website free and help with the many costs involved with this site as it has continued to grow over the years. 

Copyright © 2022 ·