What are the following ingredients?

[boyshanks]

What are pearl onions? How do they taste? And what can they be substituted with?

What are juniper berries? How do they taste? What can they be substituted with?

A cornish hen recipe calls for both of these to be cooked inside the hen.


Thanks
Donna

[Bergy]

Hi; Pearl onions are just small white onions usually used for pickling. They look lovely but you can use cut up onion if they are not available. Juniper berries are one of the ingredients for flavoring Gin. However Gin is also flavored with other herbs etc. I can't help you with describing the flavor but suggest that you go to a specialty food store and see if they have any canned ones. It would depend on the other ingredients that you are putting into the cornish hen what else will compliment the flavor. You may want to look ar my recipe"BBQ Balsamic Cornish Hens" if you cant get the Juniper berries. You can do this recipe in the oven you don't have to BBQ them. Cheers Bergy

[Mary Scheffert]

I was wondering if you could substitute capers for the juniper berries?
According to The Joy of Cooking cookbook, juniper berries are "prized for seasoning game & bean dishes." Also, "1/2 teaspoon of these berries soaked for a long time in a marinade or stewed in a dish for a long period gives a flavor equivalent to 1/4 cup of gin."
I would think that any large grocery chain with a decent deli or specialty foods section would have them.
Hope that helps some!
-Mary