Barberries: anyone use them?

[The Old Foodie]

I did a blog post today about <a href = "http://theoldfoodie.blogspot.com/2006/09/barberrying-we-will-go.html"> barberries </a>, which used to be very common in recipes from medieval times up until sometime in the nineteenth century when the use of them seemed to fade away. I am very curious about them - they seemed to be so widespread, now nothing!

A couple of commenters have told me that they are available in Middle Eastern shops (dried, I think), so now I am on a search for them.

I have a lot of historic recipes using barberries, but am keen to know if any of you use them in "modern" recipes. Both commenters happened to be Jewish - is that co-incidence, or do they feature in Jewish cuisine?

[edited to fix the link, I hope!]

Edited September 18, 2006 by The Old Foodie (log)

[Nina C.]

Hi Janet - coincidentally I have also been seeing barberries recently in my historical research, and wondered what they were. Apparently they are known as the poor man's red currant, and can be used in jams and jellies. I read that they were dried like raisins in India, although it is certainly possible that they are also used this way in middle eastern countries.

Here's a gardening article on barberries that talks about them making a comeback after being almost erradicated in the 1960s. http://canadiangardening.com/plants/bravo_barberries.shtml

and here is a contemporary Persian recipe that uses dried barberries

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/231921

I don't know anything about what happened to them in the 19th century though!

Edited September 18, 2006 by Nina C. (log)

[The Old Foodie]

and here is a contemporary Persian recipe that uses dried barberries

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/231921

I don't know anything about what happened to them in the 19th century though!

←

Hello Nina - strange, the recipe on the Epicurious site gives the barberries as an alternative to fenugreek - from what I have read of barberries the flavour does not sound at all like fenugreek, so the dish would end up quite different depending on which one was used.

I suspect that in the 19th C the collection of barberries just got too difficult (the thorns and all) and other ingredients were substituted (one just cant get good servants who are prepared to do foraging in the wild anymore, can one?).

[lapin d'or]

Hi,

I have purchased dried barberries from an ethnic foodstore where they were labelled as zeresk. I first had them in a Perisan restaurant in Paris in a delightful chicken and rice dish. The closest recipe I have found to this is 'Teheran Zeresk' which is in Claudia Roden's Middle Eastern Food recipe book. The rice is cooked in a mould with the chicken in the middle and if you can get it right you get a lovely crispy layer of buttery rice on the outside.

The berries have a very sharp taste which contrasts well with the saffron/butter/chicken flavours.

Jill

[helenjp]

I think that possibly the biggest reason is that B. vulgaris was pretty much replaced as a hedging plant by other varieties of barberry with berries that don't taste as good - for example, the b. glaucocarpa which formed the farm hedges of my youth, and which is now banned in New Zealand.

Also, b. vulgaris berries are edible, but the leaves etc. are not (although they are used medicinally). That may have led people to think that the whole plant was poisonous.

Maybe the growth of trade also brought sweeter dried fruits such as currants and raisins within reach of ordinary people's purses, and as those ordinary people moved away from farms and into towns, the barberry hedges would have been less accessible too.

And then, British food moved away from sweet/sour tastes in main dishes too! Even knowing what a barberry tastes like, it is hard to imagine mainstream applications, apart from the syrups/jams/tarts that hips, haws, and berries are still used for.

Barberry syrup with soda sounds like a nice drink though...

[Shaya]

I have a lot of historic recipes using barberries, but am keen to know if any of you use them in "modern" recipes. Both commenters happened to be Jewish - is that co-incidence, or do they feature in Jewish cuisine?

←

My Mother and Grandmother use them in Persian dishes, from rice to fillings for little appetizers. However, I'm not sure if they are a Jewish tradition per-se; I always felt they came from the Persian and not the (Sephardic) Jewish part of my heritage.

[The Old Foodie]

Barberry syrup with soda sounds like a nice drink though...

←

I found a recipe for you. It is from "The new experienced English-housekeeper, for the use and ease of ladies, housekeepers, cooks, &c. written purely from her own practice ..." by Sarah Martin (1795).

Barberry Syrup.

Take barberries, beat them and squeeze out the juice, to a quart of juice take a pound and a quarter of sugar, stir till the sugar is melted, set it on the fire; skim it and boil it gently half and hour, when cold bottle and cork it close.

Now all we need are some fancy mixing ideas from those mixologists over in the other forums!

[Adam Balic]

The major reason why barberries where lost from Anglo-cuisines was due to it's deliberate eradication. It has (or was thought to) have a symbiotic relationship with the rust (fungus) disease Puccinia graminis of wheat. There are lots of 19th century articles about this in the UK and USA.

It is easy enough find in middle eastern stores. One issue in historic English/american recipes is that the fruits seem to be more often candied or preserved in syrup then dried, so there is a difference there.

The dried fruit when fresh is a bright red colour and soft, as it gets older it becomes harder and a dark brown colour, not nearly as nice.

I'm not sure that it would be allowed into Australia, due to the rust issue, but I have seen barberry fruit leather and syrups of sale in Melbourne.

This galantine is adapted from a 17th century English recipe by Robert May. The red flecks are barberries.

Edited September 19, 2006 by Adam Balic (log)

[The Old Foodie]

Thanks Adam, it seems that you are right about the rust panic. Apparently barberries were introduced into Australia in 1859, but the only significant population (?crop) was in Tasmania. I dont suppose there are any left now (Taswegians please reply).

Your galantine looks fabulous. Now, if only I could get hold of a sturgeon, there is a great recipe with barberries somewhere!

I should be able to get hold of some dried berries at the weekend, but for any Aussies reading this but not near any ethnic markets or shops, they can apparently be ordered through <a href = "http://www.ozevillage.com.au/herbies/index.html">HERBIES SPICES</a>

[andiesenji]

I buy barberries in the local middle-eastern market. I use them in my tea mixtures and in a mincemeat recipe - made with meat - to cut some of the sweetness from the other dried fruits.

I have also used the dried berries in pemmican and also cooked them with rice.

Barberry recipes

and some more about barberries

[andiesenji]

Also, there are some states in which the plants are banned because they are an invasive pest plant.