Adventures in Russian food #9

While in Kazan, I got the opportunity to try something truly unusual. Pinecone jelly.

According to Galia, if you pick pinecones while they are still green and soft, you can boil them in a sugar solution and then preserve them.

They taste pretty much as you'd expect: pine-y, mildly sweet. The texture is similar to undercooked bamboo or ginger, it's pretty woody and fibrous. The interesting thing about it is that there is still resin in the cone and when you eat it, if feels as if it coats the inside of your mouth. It's somewhat astringent feeling and your mouth feels tacky for some time afterward.