Juniper berry

Baie de genièvre

What it is

The only spice we harvest from a conifer — each “berry” is a tiny cone that takes two years to ripen. It gave gin its soul and its name, via the Dutch genever, and it remains the mountain accent in choucroute, game and everything that tastes of a walk through cold pines.

In the kitchen

Crush the berries flat before they go in — whole, they stay mute. Three or four suffice for a whole braise; ten make it a pine forest.

Goes with

Duck Pork Beef Bay leaf Black pepper

Also used with

Arbutus berry Woodcock Snipe Hind Bison Bog myrtle

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