Bright and tangy, dried barberries are an essential ingredient in Persian cuisine, where they’re used to bring brightness to rice, stews, and beyond. Here’s how to buy, store, and use these ruby-red berries.
My love affair with barberries began in childhood, sparked by their tiny, ruby-red, jewel-like appearance. As a child growing up in Iran, I would carefully pick them out of fluffy mounds of cooked rice, their vibrant color making them an easy target. I would put them directly into my mouth, just to feel that burst of tanginess, a flavor so bright it made my tongue tingle. Even as an adult, I still believe there’s no such thing as too many barberries in a dish—a sentiment, I am happy to report, my wife wholeheartedly agrees with.
Dried barberries are a defining ingredient in Persian cuisine. Although they have been a staple in Middle Eastern cooking for centuries, they remain largely unknown in Western kitchens. These miniature red berries resemble raisins in appearance, but their distinctively tangy flavor is what makes them so special. They may still be little-known outside of Persian and Middle Eastern kitchens, but barberries deserve a spot in every cook’s pantry. Their sharp, citrusy brightness can transform rich dishes, perk up simple grains, and add color and complexity in ways few other ingredients can.
Serious Eats / Nader Mehravari
The Etymology of Barberries
In Persian, barberries are called zereshk (pronounced ze-reshk, with ze as in the English word zest), an old Persian word recorded as early as the 10th century CE. The English word barberry appeared much later, around the 14th century CE. Its etymological path probably began with Arabic barbāris, which passed into Medieval Latin as berberis, then into Middle English as berberie, and finally developed into Modern English barberry. It is not known for certain, but it is likely that the native English word berry influenced this final form, shifting -beris to -berry. The word berry itself is very old, inherited from Germanic languages and appearing in Old English texts (pre-1150). Alongside apple, it is one of the only fruit names in Modern English that has descended from native Germanic roots.
What Exactly Is a Barberry?
Botanically speaking, barberries are the fruit of the approximately 500 species of shrubs within the genus Berberis. These plants can be evergreen or deciduous and can grow up to 15 feet tall. According to British Local Food, barberries are native to Europe and Asia but are now found across much of the world, with the exception of Antarctica and Australia. In addition to growing wild, they are often planted as ornamental shrubs in gardens and parks, although their use is now restricted in several US states because they are considered invasive.
Key characteristics of many barberry species include bright yellow flowers, thorny stems, and small, oblong fruits that hang in clusters. The berries are typically 7 to 10 millimeters (¼ to ⅜ of an inch) long and have a bright red color when fresh, which deepens to a jewel-like crimson when dried. From a botanical standpoint, barberries are true berries: fleshy fruits that develop from the ovary of a single flower, containing multiple seeds embedded in the pulp and lacking a hard pit or stone. This sets them apart from many fruits popularly called “berries” but which are not botanically so, such as strawberries (accessory fruits) or raspberries (aggregates of many tiny drupes).
The most notable varieties for culinary use are common barberry (Berberis vulgaris), also known as European barberry, and a seedless cultivar of the Iranian barberry (Berberis integerrima). Although most species of barberries produce edible fruit, not all are equally palatable. For example, the fruits of some ornamental varieties have tough seeds and a bitter flavor. Unless you are very familiar with the different species of barberries, foraging them yourself in the wild—or from roadside bushes where they sometimes grow—is not recommended.
Serious Eats / Nader Mehravari
The History of Barberries
Barberries are ancient plants. Some historians believe there is evidence of barberries used for medicinal purposes as early as 650 BCE, as documented on the clay tablets in the library of Assyrian emperor Ashurbanipal.
In Iran and the Arab world before the 18th century, barberries were known mainly through medical and pharmacological texts, where they were associated with cooling, astringent, and digestive benefits. Persian and Arab physicians documented their properties, and this knowledge spread westward. Clear evidence of culinary use appears in 13th- and 14th-century cookery books.
Early European settlers brought the common barberry to North America. The plant’s dense, spiny growth made it a popular choice for hedges, its thorns deterring livestock and poultry. The wood was used for tool handles, and the bark provided a yellow dye. According to the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service, it was also valued for its fresh fruit, which was used to make sauces, jellies, and wines. As agriculture expanded westward, so did the barberry, which adapted well and spread across the Midwest, carried by farmers and dispersed by birds and animals.
Certain types of barberries have escaped cultivation and become invasive. In North America, the Japanese barberry (Berberis thunbergii) and the common European barberry that’s used for cooking (Berberis vulgaris) are especially problematic. The latter is a concern because it can host wheat stem rust, a fungus that devastates grain crops, so many regions have enforced eradication programs. Today, fresh, edible barberries are almost impossible to find in Europe or North America.
Edible barberries are primarily cultivated in Iran, especially in South Khorasan Province. The harvest season, from late September to November, sees shrubs heavy with small, bright red berries. Harvesting is done by hand, often by shaking the trunk or tapping the branches to make the fruit fall. Due to their high-water content and thin skin, fresh barberries are highly perishable, lasting no more than a few days after harvest. This limits how far they can be distributed without spoilage, making them economically unfeasible to export. As a result, fresh barberries are rarely available outside of Iran and neighboring countries like Afghanistan and Turkey. Due to this short shelf life, most of the harvest is dried. Iran produces about 95% of the world’s dried barberries, with South Khorasan at the center of production. Drying preserves their vibrant flavor and makes them suitable for storage and trade.
Serious Eats / Nader Mehravari
How to Use Barberries in Everyday Cooking
Barberries may be small, but they deliver a mighty, bright, citrusy zing that balances rich flavors and adds spark to a wide variety of dishes. They’ve been doing just that for centuries in Persian and Middle Eastern cuisine, with evidence of their use appearing in the 13th-century Syrian cookbook Scents and Flavors (translated by Charles Perry), and even in the food-filled verses of the 14th-century Persian poet Boshaq At’emeh. Here are some of the most delicious ways to use them in Persian cooking (and beyond):
- Over saffron rice. The classic zereshk polo combines barberries with fluffy, buttery chelow (steamed Persian rice), creating a striking contrast of scarlet berries against white grains. You can slip them in at the end of parboiling, mix them through the rice before steaming, or—restaurant-style—quickly sauté them in butter and sugar and sprinkle them over the finished dish.
- In stews and braises. Their citrusy sharpness cuts beautifully through the richness of lamb, beef, or chicken thighs, bringing balance and brightness to hearty dishes.
- In stuffings and dumplings. Mixed with rice, ground meat, or cheese, barberries provide a tangy pop and chewy texture. They’re tucked into Persian favorites like stuffed peppers, zucchini, eggplant, grape leaves, and the giant herbed meat dumplings known as koofteh tabrizi.
- With eggs. A spoonful of barberries livens up scrambled eggs, omelettes, frittatas, and Persian kookoos such as herb-packed kookoo sabzi or potato-based kookoo sibzamini.
- In salads. A handful of barberries brings a sweet-tart punch to green or grain salads.
In jams and jellies. Thanks to their naturally high pectin, cooked barberries quickly thicken into a tangy preserve when simmered down with sugar.
Serious Eats / Nader Mehravari
Buying and Storing Barberries
Seedless Persian dried barberries, also sold as zereshk, are easy to find in Iranian and Middle Eastern grocery stores, some well-stocked specialty food shops, and online. When buying, look for berries that are a vivid red, slightly shriveled yet still pliable—more like raisins than dry and brittle.
To preserve their freshness, store your dried barberries in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to six months. If you purchase a larger amount, keep a small portion in the fridge for regular use and freeze the rest in an airtight container for up to a year. Without proper storage, their color, flavor, and texture may deteriorate.
Serious Eats / Nader Mehravari
The Takeaway
Dried barberries are inexpensive, easy to store, and endlessly versatile—well worth adding to your pantry and experimenting with in your cooking. Their tart pop of flavor can brighten dishes, cut through rich meals, or lend contrast to baked goods. Seek them out and keep a bag on hand—you’ll find yourself reaching for them far more often than you’d expect.
