50+ Spruce Tip Recipes

Spruce tips are the delectable treat that appears at the ends of spruce tree branches in the early spring months. A briefly available foraged find, just a few spruce tips will go a long way to flavor dishes, drinks and desserts.

Spruce Tips

During the cold winter months, spruces bide their time, but in spring new growth emerges. This new growth is the flavorful feature known as spruce tips.

The best months for finding spruce tips vary by area, but many find spruce tips are past their prime by mid-June, having turned too woody to eat. Prime picking months are often from late April to mid-May and sometimes June.

Choosing the Best Spruce Tips

Spruce tips are a delightful spring find. When foraging for spruce tips, look for mature trees, which allow younger trees to grow. Different trees will possess different flavors, while some are bright and citrusy, others may be warm and piney. If you have a few different varieties around, select a few from each to compare and contrast.

As always, take an expert with you if you are new to foraging. Yew trees are cited as a potential spruce lookalike and these trees are indeed toxic.

Once you have positively identified a spruce tree, pick no more than 20% of the new growth from that particular tree. Know that you won’t need a lot of spruce tips to impart their flavor to a dish – about a handful is often enough for a large dish or dessert.

You will find source tips inside a papery, brown husk when young. They should be harvested as soon as they begin to emerge from this papery coating. To pick spruce tips, gently pull the base of the green needle bundle you see at the end of the branch and place them in a cup, basket or small bag.

Freshly picked spruce tips will keep for several weeks, when properly stored. A good technique is to refrigerate them in a plastic bag with an ever-so-slightly damp paper towel. This keeps them fresh and cool. They can also be frozen.

Spruce tips can be eaten raw, simply remove any lingering husk and wash under cold water before consuming.

Spruce Tip Recipes

The flavor of spruce tips is citrusy and bright. Different spruce species will produce different-tasting spruce tips. Some have more bitterness than others, although all possess the same citrus-piney flavoring. You may wish to try a few different varieties of spruce tips before settling on your favorite.

Some popular varieties are Norway Spruce (Picea abies), White Spruce (Picea glauca) and Blue Spruce (Picea pungens).

Spruce tips can be used in a variety of sweet and savory recipes. Spruce tips are often used raw in salads or infused into ingredients for sweeter dishes. Spruce tips pair well with gamey meats, vegetables, nuts and cream. Consider combining spruce tips with recipes that often make use of citrus or mint.

Spruce Tip Jelly on a Cracker

Spruce Tip Starter Recipes

Spruce tips can be added to a wide array of salads and starters – no cooking needed. Toss a few fresh spruce tips into a citrusy salad with cucumbers, radishes and navel oranges. A bright citrus vinaigrette makes a spectacular pairing. Another greens-based choice includes a spring salad with butter lettuce, scallions and red pepper. For a more filling option, try a forest floor salad of spruce tips, huckleberry, wild onion and wild rice.

You can also make your own spruce-tipped vinaigrette to top salads. Vinegary potato salad is another way to utilize spruce-tipped vinaigrette. Looking for a mayo-based pasta or potato salad? Consider trying spruce-tipped mayonnaise.

Spruce Tip Breakfast Recipes

Spruce tips can be implemented in a number of breakfast recipes. You can make a rich and woodsy syrup from spruce tips by macerating a spruce tip and sugar mixture, and then boiling the mixture. A quick, cooked spruce tip syrup recipe is also available. Pour this piney syrup over pancakes, waffles, French toast, and more for a morning breakfast worthy of a mountain cabin.

For more morning variety, try some citrusy spruce tip marmalade on toast or a bit of spruce tip jelly on buttered muffins and scones. For even more savory breakfast dishes, consider sauteeing mushrooms with spruce tips and chives to serve alongside eggs or slip into a cheesy omelet. Spruce tips with creamy potatoes are another option for filling breakfast fare, delicious with either poached or scrambled eggs.

And who says you can’t have soup for breakfast? Break the morning monotony with a warm dandelion and spruce-tip breakfast soup.

Spruce Tip Savory Main Courses

Elevate dinner dishes by adding spruce tips to routine recipes. Spruce tips can be used in salmon gravlax, often served as an appetizer, or in full-on salmon courses. Spruce tip salmon seasoned with spruce tip syrup, salt, pepper, and fresh spruce tips is a moist and delightful dinner dish.

You can also wield spruce tips to season pork, chicken, fish and steaks. Whip up some spruce tip compound butter to easily flavor proteins like halibut, beef and lamb. Finalize by serving with spruce tip-infused side dishes like mashed potatoes with a swirl of spruce tips, or an asparagus and spruce tip risotto.

Spruce Tip Drink Recipes

A variety of comforting and thirst-quenching beverages can be quickly concocted with the help of some spruce tips. Make a spruce tip tea with fresh spruce tips to be served hot or cold – the flavor will be bright and resinous. Add lemon or honey to accentuate. Spruce tip milk tea and spruce tip soda are two more delightfully refreshing choices. Spruce tip syrup can be added to several drinks as well, be they mocktails or cocktails.

For adults of drinking age, a cocktail known as the Merry Woodsman is a spectacular treat made from spruce tip simple syrup, spruce tip infused vodka, elderflower liqueur, seltzer and ginger spices. Pickled spruce tips can garnish martinis and other cocktails in the same way as green olives. For more spruce tip tipples, consider a spruce tip gin fizz, a spruce tip gimlet or even spruce tip eggnog. Spruce tip liquor and spruce tip-infused vodka are a few more options for fashioning your own inventive cocktails.

Cocktails

Spruce Tip Snack Recipes

When searching for inspiring snacks imbued with the flavor of bright and flavorful spruce tips, there is a wealth of selections to choose from. Bake spruce tips and briny capers into a puffy, soft focaccia bread. Serve with cheese and cured meats. Goat cheese marinated with spruce tips and juniper, as well as spruce tip bresaola, are two amazing choices!

Charcuterie boards can also be upgraded with a dash of spruce tip honey or spruce tip pesto (you can also use it anywhere you use regular basil pesto). Some more small plates to tide tummies over until the next meal include spruce tip gravlax served with crackers or bite-sized crostini or dipping sauces like spruce tip aioli and spruce tip yogurt sauce. Artichokes and fishcakes are two great examples of snacks to pair with these creamy, spruce tip condiments.

And to finish it all off there’s spruce tip granita – a fresh and frozen citrusy treat.

Spruce Tip Gravlax

Spruce Tip Dessert Recipes

Did you think warm and piney spruce tips were only for savory meals? Incorrect! These bright and citrusy tree tips can enhance a plateful of decadent desserts. A lavish spruce tip cake crafted from mint sponge cake moistened with spruce tip syrup and topped with spruce tip sugar and lemon zest frosting is just one exceptional example. Other sweet creations include spruce tip almond cake, bundt cake, and cornmeal cake with creamy tangerine-flavored frosting.

Spruce-tip shortbread cookies and rustic pies are fantastic desserts, especially when served with a scoop of homemade spruce-tip ice cream. Spruce-tip creme brulee and spruce-tip panna cotta are two more delightful ideas that are sure to please and impress. Are you looking to infuse some spruce-tip flavor into a dessert but are short on time? Just pop a few candied spruce tips on top of your favorite classic dessert.

Spruce Tip Maple Syrup

Preserving Spruce Tips

Although spruce tips are ideally used fresh off the tree, they can be stored through freezing or drying. Some recommend blanching the tips before freezing to help remove the bitterness and give your spruce tips a more mild flavor.

Freezing is often considered the preferred option for preservation. You can either bag spruce tips in freezer bags and push out as much air as you can before sealing or vacuum seal spruce tips before freezing to preserve the most flavor. Frozen spruce tips will last up to one year.

Spruce tips can also be dried for tea. According to Farm To Jar, you can dry spruce tips with an oven or dehydrator. Heat at 100 °F for six hours or until dry. Store in a glass container in a dark, cool, and dry location.

Other options for preservation include spruce tip jelly, spruce tip vinegar, as well as spruce tip sugar, salt or syrup.

Spruce Tip Jelly

Cultured & Fermented Spruce Tip Recipes

A good amount of recipes exist in which spruce tips can be fermented or cultured, but spruce tip beer is plainly the most popular. This foraged brew can be made with either champagne yeast or ale yeast, which leads to rich amber ales with citrusy flavor profiles or milder pale ales.

Spruce tip wine and spruce tip mead are other fermented drinks. For less potent fermentations, experiment with spruce tip kombucha. This recipe for balsam fir kombucha can be easily adapted for any variety of spruce tips. Spruce tip pickles are another spectacular fermented choice. Use them to garnish soups, salads, and fish, or mix them into a vinaigrette.