Schwartzenbeeren Barbeque Sauce

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We’re still in peak grilling season here in the Midwest, and for many people grilling is synonymous with barbeque. It’s also the time of year when we start hauling in a lot of things from the garden, which either end up on the grill or at least used in a side dish alongside those things that were. Peppers, tomatoes, corn, beans, squash – all summer staples that are right at home when you’re cooking on the grill in the backyard. But what happens when you have something in your garden that doesn’t traditionally get used in a good-old American BBQ? Like when Chele and I planted an obscure European berry called “schwartzenbeeren” that is primarily used for a specific dessert and has very few other recipes posted online? Sure, we could just make kuchen to serve for dessert after our brats and barbeque pork chops (which is not at all a bad idea). But if you’ve been following this blog at all, Chele and I rarely settle for the obvious answer, and we certainly don’t like leaving new and interesting ingredients out of the spotlight. So with our schwartzenbeeren plants being loaded up with ripe berries right in the middle of barbeque season, we looked for a way for them to take center stage. And there is simply nothing more central to barbeque than barbeque sauce!

Thus was our schwartzenbeeren barbeque sauce born. This is a sweet, subtly tart sauce with rich aromatic spices and just a tinge of heat (which you could certainly crank up if you desired). On the grill, this sauce is fantastic on pork and virtually any type of bird – we’ve tried this on chicken, duck, and pheasant so far, and all are winners. I especially recommend this on pheasant! It is simply unbelievable! It is also a great condiment on burgers. My personal favorite is to use this with some sharp cheddar and a pile of crispy French-fried onions. Chele and I also used this on some bison burgers with some slices of avocado and fresh mango, which we loved but was admittedly a bit messy. It’s got a flavor that simply can’t be compared to anything else I’ve tried, and it’s sure to get attention when cooking out for a group. You could also try making this with similar heirloom berries like “Wonderberries”, or even wild foraged American Black Nightshade if you are so inclined, but the flavor will be a bit different. For those less adventurous (or simply unable to acquire enough of these berries), you could use commercially available fruits such as blueberries or blackberries instead (in which case the flavor will be entirely different, but still excellent).

OK, by now I’m sure that many of you who aren’t already in the know are asking “what in the holy hell is this ‘schwartzenbeeren’ thing?”. So for the curious, here is, a little background on these unusual little berries. Schwartzenbeeren (which literally translates as “black berries”) are a particular variety of Solanum nigrium developed and grown in the Volga region, an area in Russia settled by German immigrants in the 1760s. Among Volga Germans, schwartzenbeeren is prized for making kuchen (while “kuchen” simply means “cake” in German, Volga Germans traditionally use this term specifically to refer to a type of tart made with fruit and custard or sweetened cheese). The berries are very small (usually less than the size of a pea), have dull black skins when ripe, and are filled with numerous tiny seeds. The flavor of the ripe fruit is tough to describe – moderately sweet, and slightly tart, but not really comparable to anything else that might be familiar to the average American.

As some of you may recognize, Solanum nigrum is also known as Common or Black Nightshade. It is a plant that is found almost worldwide – either naturally or introduced – and has numerous regional varieties that may or may not represent separate species (depending on who you talk to). The wild and naturalized varieties are considered a valuable food crop in some parts of the world, and an agricultural pest in others. There is also a confusing morass of opinions and misinformation around their toxicity. Invariably when I see someone posting a picture of S. nigrum online and asking for help identifying it, one of the first responses will be “That’s Deadly Nightshade! DEADLY!!! Do you hear me!? Don’t go touch it! Don’t go near it! Don’t speak to anyone who has gazed upon it!”… Ok, I’m exaggerating just a little, but you really can sense the hysteria behind posts like these. I’ve even seen serious articles from major universities making claims about the supposed toxicity of S. nigrum and its close relatives. Yet people around the world have been eating them for centuries, and developing cultivated strains like schwartzenbeeren, garden huckleberries, and “Wonderberries” to improve upon their culinary use. It is likely that people have confused the true Deadly Nightshade, also known as Belladonna, with humble (and delicious) Solanum nigrum. While Belladonna is also sometimes unhelpfully referred to as “Black Nightshade”, it really doesn’t look much like S. nigrum at all beyond having black berries (And to make matters worse, Google search results tend to push information regarding Belladonna to the top when searching for the edibility of Black Nightshade). Fortunately, all of that confusion can be avoided if you grow your own cultivated varieties (like schwartzenbeeren) from seed sourced from a reputable supplier (Chele and I got our original stock from Baker Creek). If you know you are starting with an edible plant, you don’t need to worry about misidentifying it.

Even when you do know you have the right plant, the controversy isn’t over. Opinions vary wildly on the “safe” preparation of Black Nighsthade (including schwartzenbeeren). Most contend that only cooked, ripe berries are safe to be eaten, and that anything else is toxic. This is undoubtedly the safest approach, but it is solidly contradicted by the fact that the leaves of the plant are commonly boiled and eaten by countless people around the world. This would at least indicate that much of the plant is safe to eat if cooked. But there are still others out there that don’t consider the berries to be toxic in any capacity, and happily eat them raw (I personally have sampled raw ripe berries of both schwartzenbeeren and wild American Black Nightshade with no ill effects). Wild food expert Samuel Thayer looks at this in depth in his book Nature’s Garden, and comes to the conclusion that much of the worry about black nightshade is largely myth and confusion – I highly recommend reading it if you want to know more on the subject.

As for my own experience with using schwartzenbeeren in this recipe, I highly recommend you stick with fully ripe berries. These will have dull, entirely black skin with dark purple juice inside. Underripe berries may fool you because they can look black on the exterior, but will still be green on the inside. Try not to use too many of those in your recipes – not because they will harm you, but because they simply don’t taste as good. Fortunately, much like their more familiar relative the tomato, they will continue to ripen after they’ve been picked. I like to harvest mine a few days to a week before I plan to use them, and store them in the refrigerator. By that point, they should pretty much all be fully ripe and ready to be sauced!