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In an alcohol-free mocktail, as a flavoring for pickles or used as an infusion for cream, your Christmas tree can get a new lease on life by being recycled in your kitchen. Here's how to enjoy the Christmas spirit a little more.
In an alcohol-free mocktail, as a flavoring for pickles or used as an infusion for cream, your Christmas tree can get a new lease on life by being recycled in your kitchen. Here's how to enjoy the Christmas spirit a little more.
The holidays have just ended and you're already nostalgic for the distinctive smell your Christmas tree brought to your home when you first put it up in your living room a few weeks ago. Thinking about this delicious aroma is exactly what gives this symbol of Christmas a second life before it is definitively discarded. Used primarily as a decorative element, these coniferous plants can have a genuine place in the kitchen by becoming an ingredient. Since the release of her book in September 2020, London-based author Julia Georgallis has been promoting recipes using Christmas tree branches and needles. Translated into French and German in May 2021, "How to Eat Your Christmas Tree" is a book entirely devoted to food preparation using parts of the evergreen and named by the New York Times as a top book to give as a gift.
It all started in 2015 when the British baker launched a series of dinners focusing on cooking with fir and other evergreen trees to engage consumers in thinking about the waste generated by the holiday season. According to the author, 40 million trees are cut down each year in the UK and the US for the holiday season. In her book, she reports that Christmas trees would absorb 880 million tonnes of carbon over their lifetime if they were allowed to grow for at least one more year, keeping in mind that they are cut down on average after eight to ten years.
A few precautions to be taken
Fir, spruce, pine... Julia Georgallis uses different kinds of Christmas trees in her kitchen. However, before even thinking about getting behind the stove, the culinary author warns that you have to make sure you're dealing with an edible variety. In particular, she warns about the use of yew, which can sometimes be used as a Christmas tree and which cannot be eaten under any circumstances; its berries and leaves are toxic. Moreover, it should be noted that Christmas tree needles can not be eaten as they are. Also, it is important to choose a Christmas tree that has not undergone any chemical treatment and that comes from a responsible production.
So how can you eat your Christmas tree?
In an interview with the Guardian, Julia Georgallis notes that needles can be used in the same way as rosemary or bay leaves are used in cooking. The Londoner works in particular with pine branches, which are found in different species, such as the Nordmann. The chef revisits cured fish, which is prepared with a large amount of salt. She seasons a trout filet with a generous handful of fir needles, before wrapping it. The fish will be impregnated with the aroma of the conifer when it is refrigerated for at least 24 hours.
Those who have decided to observe "Dry January," which involves putting a pause on alcohol consumption for a month, can use pieces of their Christmas tree to enhance the flavors of their fruit juice or infused mocktails. Simply dip a half-index-sized piece of bark to bring herbal flavors to the liquid. The author also uses fir pieces to flavor her canned vegetables and pickles.
Buds, an ingredient in their own right
If you have chosen a tree that can be replanted, you should be aware that next spring when the first buds come out, you'll be able to eat them in many cases.
In addition to famous Danish chef Rene Redzepi of Noma, many star chefs in France have already sniffed out coniferous trees as an interesting culinary element. Most people already know about fir honey, but have you heard of fir bud vinegar? Peninsula Paris pastry chef Anne Coruble used one to pair with the freshness of fennel and candied lemon in a yogurt cream in a Christmas log cake. The festive dessert was based on a soft lemon pine cookie.
Meanwhile in Annecy, the chef of the Auberge du Père Bise, Jean Sulpice, has been using fir buds in his cooking for a long time for instance to flavor his maître d'hôtel butter. In Megève, chef Emmanuel Renaut makes a syrup by macerating buds with sugar to obtain a liquid that the Flocons de Sel chef then transforms into fir jelly. However, it should be noted that these cooking tricks are only suitable for fresh Christmas trees, and not those that look tired out with dry and fallen branches... When the fir bud is dry, it can be used in a cup of tea, in the manner of chef Anne-Sophie Pic's preparation, a mixture of sencha tea and fir buds sold in her grocery store.
