Juniper & Elderberry Braised Short Ribs: The Ultimate Modern Spin On A Classic

Eating wild food is a radical act of remembering and honoring our shared heritage. This delicious short ribs recipe utilizes foraged juniper berries for a one-of-a-kind comfort dish!

Enjoy this savory, aromatic dish blending deep earthy tones with bright, tart berry notes. This combination pairs perfectly with creamy polenta or roasted root vegetables. 

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Led by a quest for exceptional flavor and ecologically sound harvesting, author Marie Viljoen tames the feral kitchen, making it recognizable and welcoming to regular cooks.

The following excerpt is from Forage, Harvest, Feast by Marie Viljoen. It has been adapted for the web.

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Juniper

I find it thrilling to be able to cycle fifteen minutes one way and cycle home again with a small bagful of just-picked ripe juniper berries, collected from eastern red cedars (Juniperus virginiana) growing in Brooklyn. These trees are often used in city landscaping because of their hardiness, and this is a boon to urban and suburban wild spice collectors.

Few city dwellers realize that this pricy spice is theirs for the picking at double the flavor. Two cupfuls will last my small household all year. Their vital, sweet taste is incomparably better (to me) than the drier, dustier version we buy in a store.

Every two to three years, the female trees bear “fruit,” which are really seed cones resembling a berry.

They are perfectly smooth and blue and when ripe taste like juniper candy. The males bear pale yellow-brown seed cones that have characteristic scales and points— these produce pollen in early spring.

It is a flavorful ingredient, like cattail pollen in application, but much finer. (Wear a mask when working with the pollen to avoid inhaling it.)

I collect ripe juniper in late winter or early spring.

Raw, they are very palatable as long as they are ripe. Never be tempted to eat a handful at a time; juniper is meant to be used in small doses (like most spices), or it can be toxic. The fruit and foliage have a long history of use in Native American medicine.

Picking the juniper berries does not harm the tree, and there is plenty left for the birds (cedar waxwings love them), since who can reach all the way up, anyway?

Juniper leads to a lot of naming confusion.

The crop I collect comes from J. virginiana— known as eastern red cedar, or red cedar. In this context the word cedar makes me want pull my hair out. These trees are not cedars, botanically speaking—those would be Cedrus, belonging to the Pinacea family (pines). Junipers are the genus Juniperus, belonging to the Cupressaceae family, which, wait for it, is known as the cyprus family!

It is worth being aware of this semantic murk so that you head for the correct tree, especially in print or online. Yes, juniper berries (which are not berries) come from a tree called cedar. Which isn’t. Luckily, the fruit is very distinctive. Round, smooth, various shades of powdery blue.

Eastern red cedar is widespread east of the Rockies and all the way into Canada. But there are enough species to cover the country, and their “fruit” is edible, though each varies in flavor.

Juniperus communis—common or dwarf juniper—has a very broad range (and includes Eurasia, unusually), but some of its populations Stateside are threatened and even endangered.

Juniperus californica and J. occidentalis occur on the West Coast, and the Southwest hosts a slew of junipers in its famous piñon-juniper biome (and also often referred to as cedar or cedar berries), including J. osteosperma, J. grandis, J. monosperma. The Rockies? J. scopulorum.

There is a native juniper for everybody.

I typically include juniper in slow-cooked and wintry dishes like borscht, sweet red cabbage, meatball sauces, and game dishes, and also in desserts with fruit. But its scented resin is beautiful with early-summer strawberries— fresh or in ice cream. Baking and roasting fruit (plums, pears, quinces) and root vegetables (carrots, parsnips, beets) with juniper infuses them with its strong character. Make your own gin with vodka and juniper, or grind them with salt or sugar to perfume cured meats and fish and to enervate cocktail glass rims.

 

Short Ribs Braised with Juniper, Bayberry, and Elderberry Recipe

serves 4

Succulent comfort food, and very good surrounded by a pale green moat of Nettle Grits, Sweetfern Polenta, or a side of Juniper Red Cabbage. In early winter I use frozen elderberry juice and the last of the tenacious bayberry leaves.

Ingredients

• 3 boneless short ribs (about 1 pound/
• 453 g each), each cut into 3 pieces
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Black pepper
• 2 cups (500 ml) red wine, divided
• 1/2 cup (125 ml) Elderberry Juice (from 2 cups elderberries)
• 20 bayberry leaves
• 16 juniper berries
• 8 large shallots, halved
• 3 large carrots, unpeeled, cut into
• thick batons

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).

Season the meat with salt and pepper. Place it in a Dutch oven. Add 1 cup of the red wine along with the Elderberry Juice, bayberry, and juniper.

Transfer the covered pot to the oven. After an hour turn the ribs and add the shallots and carrots. Continue cooking for another hour, then remove the foil or lid. Cook for a third hour, until the ribs have browned and the liquid has reduced. During this hour check to make sure that the wine is not reducing completely and add some water to the pan if the level drops to a sizzle. After 3 hours of cooking, the ribs will be fork-tender.

Remove the pot from the oven. Transfer the ribs, shallots, and carrots to a serving bowl and cover. Pour off any fat floating above the delicious cooking juices. Skim off the juniper berries and remove the bay leaves. Add the cup of wine you have kept in reserve and cook off over high heat until the sauce has reduced to about a quarter of the quantity you started with. Taste for seasoning and add some salt and pepper if you feel they are necessary. Pour the juices over the waiting ribs and vegetables.

Serve from a big, warmed dish at the table, drizzling a spoonful of sauce over each portion as it is plated.

 

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Recommended Reads

Elderflowers and Elderberries

Wild Flavors to Fire Up Your Grill: Foraging for Wood and Aromatics