Welcome to the summary page for FabulousFusionFood's Spice guide to Juniper Berries along with all the Juniper Berries containing recipes presented on this site, with 43 recipes in total.

This is a continuation of an entire series of pages that will, I hope, allow my visitors to better navigate this site. As well as displaying recipes by name, country and region of origin I am now planning a whole series of pages where recipes can be located by meal type and main ingredient. This page gives a listing of all the Cornish recipes added to this site.

These recipes, all contain as a major flavouring.

The Common Juniper Juniperus communis is a large woody shrub and a member of the Cupressaceae (cypress) family of conifers. It is found in sub-arctic and temperate zones throughout the Northern Hemisphere and is known in the Americas, Europe and Asia. The Common Juniper bears needle-like leaves arranged in whorls of three and it's dioecious, with separate male and female plants. Like all conifers it bears seed cones, but these are spherical and berry-like, green ripening in 18 months to purple-black with a blue waxy coating.

The astringent blue-black seed cones, known colloquially as 'juniper berries' (they are actually cones or pseudofruit) are usually sold dried and used to flavour meats, sauces, and stuffings. They are generally crushed before use to release their flavour. These cones are also an essential ingredient in the making of gin. It's also possible to use the berries, when roasted, to make a coffee substitute. A flour can also be made from the roasted berries which can be baked into cakes (though these need both sugar/honey and salt added to the mixture to counteract the bitterness of the berries).

Juniper berries are highly aromatic with a sweet slightly pine-like scent, though there is a marked bitter after-taste. As might be expected 10% of the cones are formed from resin. Surprisingly, 33% is composed of sugars. The aromatic nature of the cones is due to the essential oil, which mainly contains monoterpenes (the majority of which are α- and β-pinene).

The English name, juniper, derives from the French genièvre, which came into English as juniper and supplanted the Old English cwicbēam (quickbean). The French name is derived from the Classical Latin iuni­perus. The etymology of the Latin name remains unknown. It could be a loan-word from cis-Alpine Celtic, or it could refer to the god Jupiter.

In modern cookery, juniper is mostly used to flavour meats (especially venison), though it is also an important flavouring in making southern German sauerkraut. In France, various preserves and jams are made with juniper.