Strawberries from your own garden quickly lose their unique aroma when exposed to a hard jet of water. Of course, you still want to clean the fruit. With our tips, you can do it thoroughly and gently.
Sensible sequence: wash first - then clean
Knowledgeable hobby gardeners never clean freshly harvested strawberries under running water. If it constantly splashes down on the fruit, a large part of the aroma is washed away. In addition, the sepals are initially left in place to prevent the water from seeping into the pulp and diluting the flavor. How to properly clean your strawberries:
- fill a bowl with water
- wash the strawberries carefully with your hands
- place in a colander and let drain
- Alternatively, pat dry with paper towels
- then cut or twist out the sepals
With a large quantity of strawberries, removing the sepals takes a considerable amount of time. In that case, investing in a strawberry destemmer is definitely worth considering. The handy device has three small grippers with which the green leaves are cleaned.
Clean and process without delay
After harvesting, strawberries are only washed and cleaned if they are to be eaten or preserved immediately afterwards. This circumstance applies to all variants of processing. Regardless of whether you want to freeze, pickle or preserve strawberries; only clean the fruit when all the working materials are ready.
tips and tricks
If the fresh strawberries are intended for consumption on the same day, experienced gourmets do not put the fruit in the refrigerator. Instead, they are kept in a colander, ideally hanging from the ceiling. This is not only nice to look at, but the air-washed strawberries develop an optimal aroma at room temperature.