Can you try to describe the taste? I have a recipe that is calling for juniper berries. I was also wondering if anyone knows where I could buy them in Southern California. Thanks!
2007-09-02 09:01:49 · 0 answers · asked by Anonymous in Food & Drink ➔ Other - Food & Drink
So far, you've had a couple of answers with good but also misleading information in them.
1. I would never use juniper berries from bushes in an urban environment. Who knows what they're contaminated with? If you want to collect some from the wild, go to the Sierra at about 8,000 feet and collect them from mountain Junipers. I know this is a long way from southern Cal, but I collect juniper on Carson Pass (highway 88) near Caples Lake.
2. Junipers are definitely used in food in Europe, especially sauerkraut and Polish sausage. True, they are for flavor, and many people spit out the actual berry when they bite on one, but there is nothing wrong with eating one if you can handle the strong taste. They are also used medicinally. Here is a web site I think you will enjoy (I have two cousins studying pharmacy at this university):
http://www.uni-graz.at/~katzer/engl/Juni_com.html
I tried to find a place on the net that sells juniper berries, but found only places that sell extracts.
2007-09-02 09:54:58 · answer #1 · answered by Lisa B 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
They are the defining flavor in gin. If you have never tasted either juniper berries or gin it is difficult to describe. There certainly is no substitute for it.
You may be able to find juniper berries for sale at a farmers market or specialty food store but it might be easier just to pick your own from juniper bushes on or near your yard.
Bert
2007-09-02 09:12:40 · answer #2 · answered by Bert C 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
I found juniper berries at "Fresh Market" here in Richmond, VA. After reading Chipotle restaurant's ingredients for the pork carnivals, I decided to try them. Work out wonderfully. I've had gin but don't notice the comparison due to other spices.
2016-08-27 12:10:30 · answer #3 · answered by phoenix61004 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I totally agree with Lisa B . I have used them many times cooking sauerkraut because it is tradition in ...well Austria at least and I guess it enhances the flavor of certain foods . People also use them in different gravy's..like beef gravy or venison gravy or gulash. I personally don't like the taste of the berry by itself , these berries have a very strong , intense and strange flavor to it. I only know the berries as "dried seasoning" because they are mostly sold dried I believe. The german name for them would be Wacholderbeeren.
2007-09-04 13:34:43 · answer #4 · answered by starz.. 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
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juniper is just one of the flavorings in most gins there are also things like lemon peel, and many hother herbs and spices that add to the flavoring also depends on the gin, cheap gins tend to taste like you are drinking pine sol (not that i would try that) while nicer gins have smooth herbal taste that is hard to describe
2016-04-11 07:27:16 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Juniper berries are used to make the alcoholic beverage known as Gin. That's what they taste like. They're not suitable for eating or cooking with.
2007-09-02 09:16:03 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 3⤋
They taste like a pine tree. Sort of.
You should be able to find them at just about any grocery store in the spice rack.Really. In So. Cal. that would be Ralphs, Vons, Stater Bros. Commonly used in scandanavian and northern european cooking.
2007-09-03 02:26:32 · answer #7 · answered by Charles C 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The British conquered the world on juniper berry flavored gin (and tonic for the malaria). RScott
2016-03-16 05:12:22 · answer #8 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
it's a dry floral/piney taste
2014-09-20 21:31:28 · answer #9 · answered by Nathan 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋