What do we know about pine cones?

Various pine cone designs (Dyck Arboretum, Hesston College)

Pine cones are the seed-bearing organs of conifers and cycads (trees with cones and needle-like or scale-like leaves that are typically evergreen). Conifers are members of the group of plants called gymnosperms, and in addition to having cones and needles, they do not have flowers but their seeds are "naked". That means they are exposed on the cones instead of being protected inside an ovary or fruit like angiosperms (flowering plants).

Cycad Encephalartos lehmannii from South Africa with its one cone

(South African National Biodiversity Institute)

Pine cones come in many sizes and shapes. Sizes range from 2.5-5 cm (1-2 inches) to >50 cm (>20 inches). They can be long and slender or rounded or oblong. Some have thin parts (bracts, see below), while others are thick and look almost like a wood carving. Many have single cones growing independently, others have pretty clusters, and others like Lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) show twisted groupings.

Various shapes and groupings of pine cones.

Top left, white pine; Top middle, Coulter pine; top right, Lodgepole pine.

Bottom left, Scots pine; bottom center, Bosnian pine; bottom right; Ponderosa pine.

Images from AZ Animals.

Some remain closed until humidity or moisture conditions are right. One, the Lodgepole pine, opens only after fire exposure. 

There are male and female pine cones. Males are smaller than females, and they tend to hang from lower branches while females are higher. Since they produce pollen, they are also called pollen cones. They are also lighter in color and softer. They fall off every year. On the other hand, female cones are hard and woody, and they produce seeds, so they care sometimes called woody cones or seed cones. They take 2–3 years to mature, stay on the tree after releasing seeds, and may remain attached for several years (decades for Lodgepole pine).

Male and female cones from Doublas fir (Allerma)

In true fir trees (genus Abies), the cones do not fall off whole like pine or spruce cones. After the seeds mature inside, the cone scales loosen and drop off one at a time. Seeds are released gradually, leaving just a bare central spike (the cone axis) sticking up.

Abies fir cone whole (left) and fallen apart with age (right) (Wikimedia)

With angiosperms, pollen is carried by wind, rain, insects, animals, or just close contact. But with gymnosperms, only the wind carried pollen to spaces inside the cone body (or strobilus). Notice that the leaf-like tips of the female cone body are not the seeds. They are called scales and two types are there for protection (seed scale) or support (bract scale). Both are modified leaves! 

Seeds form deep inside near the central stem of the cone, and pollen needs to get that far to meet up with the ovule to fertilize it and create a seed. When the scale opens, it allows the seed to fall out.

Diagram of female pine cone in cross section (from Libre Texts)

But female cones don't always look this open. When the air is dry, the cone scales lose moisture. As they dry, the scales shrink unevenly. This causes them to bend outward. The seeds are then released to gravity or the wind. Since this happens in dry weather, seeds have a greater change to float on the wind farther to spread the growth of more pines.

Video showing a pine cone opening as daylight dries the air

You can force pine cones to open and close yourself. Put open cones in warm water and watch them close. Or to dry them, you could heat closed ones in a microwave oven and watch them open.

The bract are very tightly bound when cones are closed. As they open, you can even hear them make a cracking or snapping sound.

 

Videos demonstrating the sound of female pine cones opening

The seeds of pine cones are sometimes edible, and in those cases they are called pine nuts. The following are pine nuts you can eat:

• Pinus pinea (Mediterranean/European variety, Italian stone pine)
• Pinus koraiensis (China, Korea, parts of Japan)
• Pinus sibirica (East Asia)
• Pinus edulis (Colorado pinyon)
• Pinus monophylla (American Southwest)
• Pinus lambertiana (sugar pine, Western United States (California, Oregon, parts of Nevada))

Many pine nuts can be eaten, but they may simply be too small to make it economical, whether on a large scale or in simple foraging in the woods by yourself. In all cases, the shells must be removed before the seed inside can be eaten.

European pine nuts after shell has been removed (Wikipedia)

Of course, many animals eat pine nuts. Squirrels, chipmunks, birds like crossbills, woodpeckers, and jays, even bears are the main foragers. They are all after the fiber and nutrients in the seeds, such as 

• Vitamin K
• Manganese
• Protein
• Thiamin
• Zinc
• Phosphorus 
• Magnesium

Pine nuts also contain 670 kcal/100 grams, 13–14 g of protein/100 grams, 68 g of fat/100 grams (mostly unsaturated heart-healthy, but also some polyunsaturated and monounsaturated),  13 g of carbohydrate/100 grams, and a fatty acid like pinolenic acid.

If you want to collect pine nuts in the forest, here is one video to show how it can be done with a gentle method. Here is another video with a bit harsher method. Both offer some good tips that the other one doesn't. 

Screenshots from the two videos above

Squirrels tend to eat green immature female cone seeds, but they will eat mature nuts, too. The immature seeds are more tender. And, with green cones, there is less chance that some of the seeds might have fallen out of the cone, so they get more per cone!

Upper cone uneaten, bottom cone completely eaten (Discover Wildlife)

Did you know that squirrels might be considered left- or right-handed? You can tell by the way they pick at a cone vs hold it as they eat. The hand rolling the cone is what is used to judge lefthandedness or righthandedness. The other one merely steadies it. According to one website, "Squirrels will start at the bottom and work their way upwards in a spiralling motion. If the spirals go [counter]clockwise then they are left handed, and if they go clockwise then they are right handed!" Other researchers at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid classified 893 pine cones they found as "left-gnawed" or "right-gnawed". The type of cone didn't matter, but populations of red squirrels only 30 km away from each other were either lefties or righties.

This squirrel appears to favor his right paw to turn the cone.

Researchers from the State University of New York also learned that the farther away a squirrel is from its home, the shorter time it takes to each nuts. When they ate 200 seeds 5 meters (16.5 ft.) from cover, they held each seed for a little over five seconds, but when they were 15 m (50 ft.) from cover, they handled each seed for less than two seconds. That's not their idea of "fast food", but more closely related to self-preservation. Sitting in the open further from cover is more dangerous.

Data from the study described above. Handling time in seconds.

Recipes for human consumption of pine cones are more numerous than you might think. 

A Russian recipe for jam boils them for 30 min, allows them to sit for 12 hours, then removes the cones and adds sugar. A few finishing touches produces a thick jam. Another recipe simply alternates cones and sugar, and over time a honey-like syrup is formed. Another chops and brews very young cones to make a tea.

This video shows how to make pickled pine cones. 

Mugolio is another sweet syrup, but this takes longer. This website has a lot of details, but essentially you just add brown sugar to green pine cones, cover, and wait a month or more.

Mugolio at different stages (Forager Chef)

Why Pizza And Beer Taste So Good Together According To Science

Link to article

Pizza is an Italian food that comes in many varieties. It may be thick or thin crust, deep dish style, and topped with just about everything from vegetables, to meats, to seafood, and even pineapple. About 5 billion are sold worldwide every year, with the U.S. commanding the lead with 3 billion of them (some say 4 billion if you include frozen pizza). Beer is an alcoholic beverage that is usually made from water, malted grains (usually barley), hops, and yeast. Over 190 billion liters are sold annually, with the most in China. Many people find the combination of eating pizza and drinking beer a satisfying experience. Let's see if there is a scientific reason that this may be so.

A mug of beer and a slice of pepperoni pizza (Chowhound)

While pizza is a food that many attribute to Italy, its origins are a little fuzzy. The word "pizza" was first recorded in 997 CE in Gaeta, which is a seaside resort in Lazio, Italy between Rome and Naples. It might have come from any of three sources:

• Germanic people settling in Italy and speaking Lombardic ("pizzo", meaning bite or mouthful)
• the Greek word “pitta”, which means a round, flatbread baked in an oven
• the Latin word "pinsere", meaning to press.

Map of Italy showing the location of Gaeta

Flatbreads are widely cooked all over the Mediterranean countries. Sixth century BC Persian soldiers at it with dates and cheese on top. Greeks made plakous with toppings such as herbs, onion, cheese, and garlic. A Roman bread covered with cheese spreads called moretum, and fruits was called adorea or libum adoreum. Tomatoes were introduced to Italy in the 1540s by Spanish merchants selling goods from the Americas. By the late 1700s, poor people in Naples began putting tomatoes on top of their flatbreads. In 1889, Italy's Queen Margherita became tired of the gourmet French food and then ordered the most famous  pizza-maker there,  Raffaele Esposito, to make pizza for her. He made three types: pizza marinara with garlic, pizza Napoli with anchovies and a third with tomato sauce, mozzarella and basil leaves. The third one was her favorite, and it bears her name now. 

Image of a Margherita pizza; Queen Margherita of Italy (Lifestyle)

Naples grew to be populated with many poor people, so cheap & fast meals were necessary. That area of Italy also developed higher heat ovens than northern Italy, so foods like flatbreads could be cooked faster. The higher heat also helped to evaporate water from tomatoes to avoid soggy crusts. This is essentially how pizza of today evolved. 

Beer has been around much longer, several thousand years. Pottery from China and Iran showed traces from 5,000 years ago, as did a "beer jar" from 2300 BC in Egypt. There is even 13,000 year-old evidence from nomads in Israel. There, depressions called mortars were found in cave bedrock floors, and these bowl-shaped mortars had residue of barley starch from various stages of fermentation.

Stone floor mortars in Israeli caves showing traces of beer materials (BBC)

Early beer was more like porridge, and people often used a straw to drink only the liquid top portion when the grain settled out. During the Middle Ages (5th to 15th centuries), beer was more common than water for consumption possibly because water sources were frequently contaminated, while brewing's boiling process killed bacteria. But early beers contained less alcohol content than now, so it was acceptable even for children. It is possible that people soaked grain in water simply to soften it, and heating helped to encourage that, but it also changed the taste. Coincidentally, it may have also started a fermentation process.

Drinking beer through a straw in Egypt, 1300 BCE (gethistories.com)

Generally, beer begins by soaking, germinating, and roasting grains to release the starches and change them into sugar. This is called malting. Next, they are crushed (milled) and soaked in hot water to activate enzymes that change the materials to fermentable sugars (a wort). It is then boiled, hops are added (known sincee 822 CE) for flavoring. Finally, yeast is added to digest the sugars and convert them to alcohol and carbon dioxide. Romans called their beer "cerevisia", and the most common yeast for beer brewing is Saccharomyces cerevisiae in its honor.

Beer-making process (Micet)

Beer had been touted for medicinal and health-promoting properties over the centuries. Recently, it was learned that barley fiber and polyphenols in it can be broken down in the gut to form short-chair fatty acids (SCFA). Those are good for metabolism (regulating blood sugar) and calming an immune response (thus easing inflammation). They also strengthen the walls of the intestine as the by-product butyrate feeds colon lining cells. These effects are good only in low doses.

So, beer and pizza have yeast in common. But that really doesn't relate to why people think beer and pizza go together well, although some would say taking in two yeasty products harmonize the meal.

Pizza can be salty, fatty (with cheese and oil), and a bit acidic from the tomato sauce. The bitterness in beer comes from hops, and your body naturally responds by producing saliva to counteract the dry sensation. Saliva helps peel fat off your mouth, breaks up oily films there, and speeds swallowing and clearing of the early digestive tract. The carbonation (essentially dissolved carbon dioxide in the form of a mild acid) adds to that clearance. Your mouth is then ready for another bite. 

Carbonation adds gas to the stomach, of course, leading to a filled sensation. But the stretching of the stomach walls stimulates a belching reflex, and after a burp, a person feels better and perhaps more ready to eat. In addition, some of the gas moves out of the stomach and pushes partially digested food down into the small intestine. The bubbles relieve some of the stomach pressure that way, but they also break up food particles a little, so your fullness is a bit lighter than with larger chunks of food there. But it's important to sip not drink large amounts of beer, to get just the right amount of carbonation acting properly.

Left, carbonation moving food down.

Right, carbonation building up to burp.

The mild sweetness from the malt component of beer helps to counteract tomato sauce's acidity, too.

People would often say that they just like the combination of beer and pizza flavors. No special reason given. One helps the other go down better, they say. 

The Sprecher Brewing Company of Milwaukee, Wisconsin came up with a Mama Mia! Pizza Beer to supposedly kill two birds with one stone. This "culinary beer" was made with basil, oregano, tomato and garlic. It didn't do well, and it is no longer on the market.

Image from The Beer Cast

Reviews were pretty average on its overall taste, citing a strong oregano and tomato sauce-like. Critic The Takeout described it as follows:

"In spite of showy displays of sniffing and swirling, the overwhelming first reaction was along the lines of, "Huh, tastes like beer." Further sipping and swishing gradually revealed subtle undertones that can only be described as "vaguely Italian-y," and subsequent burps affirmed that there was, indeed, pizza in this beer."

Another rater said "if I wanted pizza, I would eat pizza and not drink it”.

Some people advocate for drinking wine not beer with pizza. Considering that the two beverages are fermented with the same yeast, it may come down to a matter of personal preference in alcohol. Wine maker The Federalist claims, "If the sauce is red/tomato based, I'm reaching for the Federalist zinfandel," the reason being, "Its juicy berry notes, spice, and soft tannins would work so well with the acidity of the tomato sauce and the richness coming from the cheese." Wine maker Corey Garner says to avoid wines that are "overly tannic, like a young cabernet or young Nebbiolo, which might clash with the acidity of the tomato sauce, creating more of a harsh rather than harmonious vibe."

Tannins are polyphenols from grape skins, seeds, and stems, so once again this type of chemical works like the polyphenol in beer. So, the cheese fat and proteins bind to the tannins in wine before the tannins bind to saliva and get washed away. 

Not all pizzas have a tomato base, and Corey Garner has this to say about choosing a different wine with "a white-sauced veggie pizza, I would go with something crisp and refreshing, The Federalist sauvignon blanc would highlight the fresh vegetable flavors while still cutting through any of the creamy, fatty cheese elements." Nicole Bean (owner and operator of Pizaro's Pizza Napoletana in Houston, Texas) makes even more specific suggestions: she advises ordering white wine with "white pizza (no tomato sauce), fish, chicken, mushrooms, leeks, arugula, and prosciutto or pesto."

Pairing pizza with wine. Suggestions by WineSelectors.com

But there is even more involved. Researchers Robert J. Harrington (University of Arkansas), Daniel C. Miszczak (University of Guelph), and Michael C. Ottenbacher (San Diego State University) published a paper in 2008 on "The impact of beer type, pizza spiciness  and gender on match perceptions". They interviewed 34 men and women ages 20-70 for their reaction to lager, ale and stout beer with two pizzas identical (thin crust, herb tomato-based pizza sauce, and shredded pizza cheeses) except for addition of crushed red pepper. 

• 90% of males said the lager was the best match for the non-spicy pizza, and 10% said it was stout. In contrast, the females said lager was the best match (54.2%), followed by ale (41.7%) and stout (4.2%). 
• For the spicy pizza, the males preferred the lager and ale equally at 40% each followed by the stout at 20%. Females voted for the ale (58.3%) first, then lager (37.5%), and finally the stout (4.2%).

Image from freepik.com

So for some reason, males' taste preferences changed far more than females' when spiciness was added. The study concluded that "restaurateurs need server training programs and communication methods that save time and increase suggestions of pairings for customers." 

So, there might actually be some usefulness in doing this sort of research.