• 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/Fir Tip Pickles

Spruce Tip Pickles capers

Spruce Tip Pickles

Spruce tips. The Scandinavians have always loved them. The season for these is really short, so when you can find them, grab a bunch and give em a go. They smell awesome: bright, citrusy and fresh. Their texture is soft and chewy. They are widely available, easy to harvest, and delicious.

The only challenge can come from removing their papery husk. The best tips will still be encased in the husk, you want these since they are nice and tight. older tips are still edible but they can tend to break apart when cooking.

One thing I like to do with these little guys is make pickles, which you can use in a ton of ways. At the restaurant I like to put them in a little salad for garnishing fish, or mixed in a vinaigrette. They are easily added to sauces as well, or used as a garnish for soup or a salad; they’re very versatile.

Some recipes online may put sugar in their spruce tip pickles, I find that this makes them tough and stringy, and I don’t recommend it. You can always add a little honey or something to whatever you are making after you’ve taken them out of the jar before you serve a dish, a couple minutes of contact with sugar wont hurt, but prolonged contact will destroy their soft, chewy texture.

Pickled Spruce Tips

Makes 2 half pint jars, scale as needed

Ingredients

  • 2 cups fresh, young spruce tips, papery husk removed
  • 1 cup water
  • 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
  • 2 tsp salt

Method

  1. Clean the spruce tips of their papery husk and give them a rinse if they are dirty, usually mine are clean enough to just cook as is.
  2. Pack your 1/2 pint canning jars with spruce tips, leaving 1/2 inch of headspace from the top
  3. Heat the water, vinegar, and salt in a pot until dissolved and clear
  4. Fill the mason jars with the hot pickling liquid, leaving 1/2 inch headspace from the lid
  5. Process the jars for 10 minutes in a waterbath canner, then cool
  6. Allow the pickles to age for 3 months before using

More 

Spruce Tips: Harvesting, Cooking and Recipes

 

Nice edible Spruce Tips

Nice Spruce Tips

Related

Previous Post: « Wild Rice Flour Gnocchi
Next Post: How to Dry or Dehydrate Wild Mushrooms »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. George Strickland

    July 13, 2017 at 5:00 pm

    Should I refrigerate the spruce tips after they are pickled?

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      November 27, 2017 at 9:35 am

      Yes, but you could can them.

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Forager|Chef – Venison en Crepinette, Dryad Saddle Jus, Wild Rice Gnocchi, and Spruce Tips. says:
    June 2, 2013 at 1:09 am

    […] See recipe HERE […]

    Reply
  2. Forager|Chef – Trout With Spring Vegetables: Winter Shades Of Green says:
    December 26, 2013 at 9:28 am

    […] A few pickled spruce tips (recipe here) […]

    Reply
  3. crispy pork snout with truffles and spruce tips recipe says:
    April 7, 2014 at 4:44 pm

    […] 1 tbsp pickled spruce tips-recipe here […]

    Reply
  4. Canning Spruce Tip Jelly | The Homestead Survival says:
    March 17, 2016 at 6:23 pm

    […] Spruce/Fir Tip Pickles – https://foragerchef.com/sprucefir-tip-pickles/ […]

    Reply
  5. Benefit of Spruce Tips ~ Mountain Girl Camp says:
    July 19, 2016 at 4:17 pm

    […] Spruce Tip Pickles […]

    Reply
  6. 360 The Restaurant at the CN Tower - Make It Like a Man! says:
    January 14, 2017 at 10:43 am

    […] PANCETTA WRAPPED FOGO ISLAND COD with pickled spruce tip tapenade, Sweet Potato confit, Henry of Pelham Estate Winery charred broccolini, […]

    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 ·