What’s in Season: Spice it up with juniper berries

Juniper berries come from the eastern red cedar, including a towering tree near the Trailside Nature Museum at Ward Pound Ridge Reservation. Below right is park naturalist Kaatje Ten Holder. Amy Sowder Photos

By AMY SOWDER

It looks almost ink-black and rock-hard like a peppercorn. 

But pop a fresh juniper berry in your mouth, and your taste buds will awaken to a delightful citrusy sweetness. Then gradually, piney spice notes will arrive and linger.

Juniper berries are not just suited to gin and gamey meats — cheers to that. 

And they’re not even berries. They’re female seed cones, said naturalist Kaatje Ten Holder at the Trailside Nature Museum. Accessed from the Cross River entrance of the Ward Pound Ridge Reservation, the Westchester County Park museum hosted an event Nov. 9, detailing the Lenape people’s traditional food practices and the use of native plants.

Participants learned about the Munsee “Wolf Tribe” Lenapes, who lived in the Pound Ridge-Cross River area more than 300 years before Europeans arrived.

Hunting, foraging and cooking were community activities, not tasks individual to each family. 

“It was really like a communal effort,” Ten Holder said.

And that’s a good thing too, considering the time and labor required to prepare acorns by leaching and boiling them to remove the tannins,  and the creation of pemmican, “the first protein bar,” using dried meat pulverized into a powder with animal fat, Ten Holder said. There’s also black birch tea with its culinary and medicinal properties, Johnnycakes made from masa and sassafrass, the original root of today’s rootbeer soda.

Those little berries, though.

The Lenapes used the small, berry-like cones to season their meat. They’re in season right now, the naturalist said. Ten Holder gathered her juniper berries from the towering eastern red cedar by the museum’s parking lot. Despite its convincing appearance to the contrary, the tree is not a true cedar, but rather a juniper bush as its botanical name, Juniperus virginiana, implies.

But it all depends on the cycle and age of the tree, Ten Holder said, so your juniper berries could be ready other times of year. The berrylike cones change color as they mature, becoming greenish-white, then whitish-blue, and lastly bluish-black. If you don’t already have a few eastern red cedars in your yard, don’t automatically go the Penzeys or McCormick spice jar route. 

Just keep a lookout: They’re a great foraging food. 

“If you do gather them and just decide to dry them, it’s normally best to leave that blue husk on until you’re ready to use them, because if you do crack them and then dry them, then you’re not going to get the best flavor,” Ten Holder said.

Beware — don’t eat juniper berries in large amounts. They could be toxic. They’re fun in moderation, however, so don’t let that scare you. Trying them in a tea is a good start.

Popular in Northern European cuisines such as Scandinavia, Germany and the Alsace region of France, juniper berries are great in meaty marinades and sometimes poultry. It’s an essential spice in the authentic version of sauerbraten, a roast beef that’s marinated for several days, often served with spaetzle or dumplings. Or, juniper berries spice up a good sausage and sauerkraut dish. 

Think stews and other heavy, wintry meals — even an assertive fish like salmon. One food blogger has added them to hazelnut chocolate cookies. They can even be used to spice up some braised red cabbage or make a juniper berry simple syrup to zhuzh up drinks.

This local berry-that’s-not-a-berry from the Eastern Red Cedar tree is best prepared crushed with a mortar and pestle, or for more subtle flavor, left whole.