Curious paradox. While tourtières, fruit cakes and other traditional holiday dishes are full of exotic spices (cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, etc.), we still rarely use forest herbs from Quebec, such as conifer needles.
“Some chefs already use them, but they tell us that they do not know them well enough to exploit them for their true value,” explains Véronique Perreault, professor at the Institut de tourisme et d’hôtellerie du Québec (ITHQ). The researcher co-directs the GastronomiQc Lab, a joint research unit of ITHQ and Laval University which aims to promote innovation and promote Quebec gastronomy.
His team prepared extracts of balsam fir, black spruce and white spruce in order to document their “aromatic profile”. We sometimes used mature needles, sometimes buds, which were macerated in cold water, infused in boiling water, or infused in oil, under vacuum.
The extracts were then tasted blind by around twenty volunteers from the culinary field. The tasting took place in individual cubicles with a stripped-down environment, in order to avoid external influences. “We can of course analyze aromatic molecules in the laboratory. But it is wise to also see what is actually perceived and named by people, because each individual has different perception thresholds,” underlines the expert.
In addition to describing the taste (bitter, sweet, sour, etc.) and the mouth feel (sweet, intense, astringent, etc.) of 14 different samples, the panelists had to describe the aromas. Citrus fruits, dried herbs, nuts, alcohol… it didn’t just taste like “pine”!
“We were able to confirm that the species of tree, the level of maturity of the needles and the culinary treatment have an effect on the aromatic profile,” indicates Véronique Perreault. The panelists also had to choose their four favorite extracts and suggest ways to use them. Among their suggestions? In a cranberry cocktail, with game or haddock, in jelly with a cheese platter…
The results, presented last summer at an international tourism conference held in Montreal, should soon be published in a scholarly journal. Knowledge that will be used to train the next generation, hopes Véronique Perreault: “Ideally, young people would learn to work with these products from school; not just randomly from their jobs in big restaurants. »
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