Blackberry

About

Wild blackberries have a more intense combination of sharpness, mustiness, and spice than store-bought or cultivated berries, which tend to be simply sweet. There are hundreds of wild blackberry varieties, and flavor can differ even between berries picked a few feet apart, sometimes showing notes of rose, mint, cedar, clove, or tropical fruit beyond the basic berry taste. Fully ripe, matte blue-black berries are sweeter than shiny black ones, though the shiny ones hold their shape better. Blackberries work well in fruity, spicy roles alongside vanilla cakes or game sauces, but their strongest affinity by far is with apple.

Pairs well with blackberry

• WoAlmondAlmond's sweetness tempers blackberry's wild, slightly spicy tartness in a blackberry-almond crumble, where a buttery flour topping is…
• FrAppleApple is the dominant flavor when paired with blackberry, which contributes a spicy top note rather than driving the combination.
• MeBeefBlackberry sauce, more commonly served with duck or venison, also works with beef -- its tartness and slightly spicy, herbaceous flavor…
• FfVanillaFresh blackberries, gently stewed with sugar without making them fully sweet, then cooled and strained, pair well with vanilla ice cream,…
• ChGoat CheeseBanon, a French goat cheese dipped in brandy and wrapped in chestnut leaves, develops rich, fruity, woody notes with additional aging that…
• FfRaspberryBlackberry and raspberry, from the same genus, share flavor characteristics but differ in blackberry's muskier, cedar-like notes; they can…
• CrPeachRipe late-summer peaches are rich enough to suit the spicier flavors of autumn fruits like blackberry, and the two combine well in a…