How to find the perfect strawberry
Find today’s varieties mushy and tasteless? Our expert reveals . . .
They are the quintessential British summer t r eat, as integral to Wimbledon as the tennis itself — and at long l ast strawberries are in season. even better, growers are predicting a record-breaking British crop this year, with the mild and sunny winter making them unusually sweet and juicy.
Such is our love affair with the fruit that there are now more varieties in the shops than ever, and scientists this week even released a formula for the perfect ratio of berries to cream.
So, just which sort should you choose, and what is the best way to eat them? To help you make the most of this year’s glorious crop, cookery expert ROSE
PRINCE gives her guide to buying, storing and serving the perfect strawberry …
WHAT SHOULD YOU LOOK FOR IN A STRAWBERRY?
A REALLY ripe strawberry should be shiny, with a good colour inside and out. you want ones with a fragrant aroma, even shape and a lush green stalk, rather than a droopy one. A good test of whether your strawberry is ripe is that when you pull off the green stem, the white inner core should come out, too.
WHEN SHOULD YOU EAT THEM?
TRADITIONALLY, the British strawberry season runs between June and october. It’s started early this year owing to the warm weather — though the fruit can now be grown in climate-controlled glasshouses, too, which is why many arrived on supermarket shelves as early as March.
But I never buy strawberries out of season. For me, they are about sun and celebration, and I’d rather keep them as a special summer treat. In general, they tend to taste best when the weather is warmest — between June and August — but different varieties fruit at different times of the year.
peak season is June and early July, and that is when the prices are lowest, during the glut. But unless you plan to make jam, you can’t buy i n bulk because t he f r ui t doesn’t keep long.
WHICH ARE THE BEST VARIETIES?
The main varieties you’ll find in supermarkets are elsanta and Sonata. Sonata are orange-red and have a sweet, strong flavour.
elsanta strawberries get a bad press for being slightly tasteless — which is a shame, as they can be delicious and are the ones you’re most likely to find.
The problem is they have been bred to have a long shelf life, so they can look ripe on the outside but, when you bite into them, the flesh is pale and hard and the taste sour.
So when buying elsanta, don’t just judge by colour: sniff them to make sure they smell strongly and haven’t been picked too early.
More unusual varieties to look out for include the deliciously sweet Ava, which comes f rom Scotland and i s sold with i ts confetti-like white petals attached, so it’s especially pretty. It has a woodland taste, combined with very red, sweet flesh.
Jubilee strawberries, grown in Kent and available at Marks & Spencer, have a lovely traditional flavour that reminds me of childhood days trailing behind my mother as she picked strawberries in our garden.
Cambridge Favourite is another variety worth looking out for.
The ultimate luxury is the wild strawberry, but they’re hard to find and often eye-wateringly expensive.
My personal favourite among the cultivated strawberries is a French variety called Mara des Bois, which you might be lucky enough to track down at a local farmers’ market.
This variety combines t he woodland flavour of wild strawberries with the size and juiciness of a cultivated crop, but unfortunately they don’t have the shelf-life to be sold in supermarkets.
WHY ARE SCOTTISH STRAWBERRIES SO GOOD?
GIVEN our cool climate, Scotland seems an unlikely place to produce so many wonderful strawberries. But we have long been renowned for great soft fruits, particularly around Arbroath and north of Dundee, which has a mild climate and the right soil.
Farmers also use the Seaton System, in which fruit and vegetables are grown in polytunnels on tabletops, away from pests and consequently free from pesticides. This system was developed by a team of farmers working in Scotland.
WHERE’S THE BEST PLACE TO BUY STRAWBERRIES?
SUPERMARKETS are rarely the best place to find delicious straw- berries (M&S being an honourable exception), mainly because they cold- store the berries to extend their shelf-life.
The longer the strawberries are stored, the more the delicious sugars turn to starch and the zingy flavours are lost.
A supermarket strawberry might be picked unripe to give it a long shelf-life, and then be on sale anything between two and ten days after picking. It’s normally stored at around 4 degrees, fridge temperature. When you buy freshly picked strawberries, which have been stored at room temperature, you can tell immediately because they will give out a lovely fragrance. Also, they won’t feel cold to the t ouch, or be c overed with condensation.
Ideally, you should pick your own strawberries either f rom your garden or at a fruit farm. not only do you get to sample before you buy, but you’re getting t he strawberries at their ripe peak.
Specialist greengrocers and local street markets are also good places to find flavoursome strawberries that will have been picked the day before. however, I am distrustful of roadside traders: all too often it seems they’re just selling the same varieties as the supermarkets.
SHOULD YOU BUY ORGANIC?
IF POSSIBLE, yes, because you don’t want t o consume any pesticides along with your fruit.
But nowadays, many strawberries are grown in polytunnels, using natural methods like predatory insects to kill pests, so that’s less of a problem. What is important is that strawberries receive plenty of visits from bees. The better pollinated the berries, the larger and more developed they become. A skinny, seedy strawberry — what the farmers call a ‘cat-faced’ strawberry — hasn’t been sufficiently pollinated. That means less flesh, less juice and consequently less flavour.
WHAT ABOUT SIZE — IS BIGGER BETTER?
AS LONG as the berry is fleshy, the size shouldn’t matter, but I must admit I am rather distrustful of those enormous berries the size of apples. For some reason, they almost always seem to be tasteless, wat er y and under-ripe.
The size of a strawberry is usually down to its breed and good pollination. It’s not an indication of age or ripeness. Misshapen berries are better kept for making jam.
HOW SHOULD YOU STORE THEM?
The simple answer is : you shouldn’t. ripe strawberries need to be eaten as soon as possible, ideally within the day. They should be kept at room temperature, because the flavour is stronger when the fruit hasn’t been chilled.
of course, if you put them in the fridge that will keep them longer, but i nevitably the strawberry starts to lose its sweetness and some of its juice. If I’m not eating mine immediately, I usually decant them out of the punnet into a bowl to let them breathe, and put a cloth over the top to keep the flies off.
Although there might be a warning on the packet to wash the berries before serving them, I never do this because the berries go soggy and start to rot almost instantly. In my view, there isn’t much risk from pesticides these days, even with non-organic fruit.
CAN YOU RESCUE A BAD PACK OF STRAWBERRIES?
IF, DESPITE all your efforts, you find yourself with a punnet of insipid, under-ripe fruit, then they can be saved with a sprinkling of vinegar.
Slice the berries in half and dress them with a drizzle of syrupy balsamic vinegar, using about two teaspoons for a punnet. (If you don’t have the syrupy variety to hand, you can achieve the effect by dissolving sugar into normal balsamic vinegar.)
Serve the fruit scattered with torn basil leaves and perhaps some Greek yogurt as a really sophisticated dinner party pudding. The addition of the balsamic vinegar gives the dish the tasty tang of really ripe strawberries.
Some people swear by grinding black pepper onto strawberries, but I’ve never been convinced by this idea.
Apart from anything else, I dislike the gritty texture of the pepper on the soft berries.
Finally, there’s nothing quite so delicious as a home-made strawberry jelly, made by mixing fresh strawberry juice and prosecco with gelatine leaves. That, to me, is the true taste of a British summer.