Scope This Cool Video And Learn How You Can Harvest and Eat Pine Pollen
I've eaten a lot of weird stuff in my day...
Since I was a little lad with a life before radio, I always worked in kitchens. As I got older, I moved from the dish room, to the line, to running the whole show. I've hosted wild game dinners, and have an extremely adventurous palate. I'll basically try anything once when it comes to food. And often, I've been surprised by what I tried.
I've had alligator, rattlesnake, weird organ meats, scrambled blood, veal brains... all sorts of bizarre stuff. More often than not, it's all delicious. Although, sometimes you come across those things that just don't agree with you. I have friends who love sea urchin roe, for instance. Personally I hate it. But I also love tamale from lobster, which a LOT of people think is the grossest thing they've ever tried.
But I can honestly say, I've never, ever tried pine pollen. Would you?
I came across this YouTube video in a post on Reddit. Most of the commenters seemed to think this video was a joke, but I found several others talking about the process as well. But like most people said in the comments as well, it's hard to watch this video without your nose itching.
If you're wondering what pine pollen looks like specifically, it's the yellow stuff you see covering everything in the late spring/early summer. Whether it's gathered up along the shoreline at camp, or all over your windshield in the summer, it's literally everywhere. collecting it isn't really a problem around here, that's for sure.
What on Earth would you use it for in cooking?
Actually, I bet it's great to cook with. The lady in the video makes some weird spruce cookies that looked vile, but again, I'll try anything once. But, I could also see it used in bread making or something like that. Just add it to your dry ingredients and I bet it adds a ton of flavor. The woman in the video describes the flavor as piney and nutty.
The video also makes it really clear how to go about harvesting the pollen. So if this does strike your fancy, you'll be able to figure out the process easily. But if you're allergic to pollen, I imagine you're just going to go ahead and start sneezing right now. Might as well not wait, right?