I read through your articles throughout the last weeks, it was fun!
Re: your latest post:
If you chew resins like mastic or frankincense, you don't want to chew a piece of the same size as a regular chewing gum. One or two little resin kernels are what I usually use.
If the thought doesn't gross you out, you can still burn/heat the resin afterwards.
Chewing spruce resin is also a thing, btw. It's the most bitter tasting of all resins I tried. Mastic is the mildest.
I have a friend who is half Turkish. She once told me about a pudding they make, with a resin they call Sakiz (and the pudding is just called sakiz pudding). It is rice flour, milk, sugar and just a few kernels of the resin added. You boil it until the flour starts to bind. After filling it in bowls, you dust a little bit cinnamon on top.
I never had a real recipe, as they are always just eyeballing it.
I never managed to get the resin to properly dissolve, even though she said it should. I eventually just ground it beforehand and added it like this.
She brought me some sakiz and I instantly suspected it must be mastic after smelling and tasting it. You confirmed it! 😃
Maybe the term sakiz will lead you to some more interesting recipes.
I'm almost sure you must have heard about Trygve Harris and her Frankincense ice cream?
I once made Frankincense chocolate and wanted to try my hands on Frankincense candy as well, but some newly developed malabsorption problems got in my way. :/
I once made a liqueur from the wild cherries around here (Germany) and I noticed the liquid developing an amaretto like aroma after the 5th week or so of maceration. I suspected it might come from the seeds. I think I even read somewhere that the seeds of cherries can be used similar as bitter almonds are.
I can imagine this aroma fits very nicely into an Easter bread. Yours certainly looks delicious!