Test Kitchen tips: Strawberries 101 (plus 29 recipes)

April 18, 2012 12:35 PM PT

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

With strawberries showing up in the market now, how do you know what to look for? Here are some tips on choosing, storing and using berries, courtesy of Food Editor Russ Parsons:

Choose the best berries by aroma, not color or size. The flavor of strawberries is complex; only by sniffing around will you be able to get the best. Once you’ve found the ones that smell the sweetest, check the underside of the box to make sure there’s no spoilage.
Store strawberries at room temperature for as long as possible. The chemical compounds that make up much of the berries’ flavor are cold-sensitive, and chilling will diminish the taste.
Wash strawberries in plenty of cold running water, but do it before removing the green caps. This helps prevent the berries from soaking up moisture and diluting the flavor.
Remember that sugar draws moisture out of berries. In some cases, this is bad -- if you want the berries to remain firm, sugar them just before serving or they’ll go limp. In other cases it is a big help -- sugar strawberries for ice cream well in advance of freezing and you won’t end up with ice cubes in your ice cream.
The red color of strawberries comes from the pigment anthocyanin, which is not heat-stable. If you cook strawberries alone, that lovely crimson color will turn to a bruised purple. But acidity stabilizes the pigment, so add some lemon or orange juice (or bake the berries with rhubarb) and the color will remain red.

Now that you know what to look for, what would you like to do with them? For some ideas, we’ve included a list of 29 recipes (including that strawberry pie above) below the jump.

If you have any kitchen tips or questions you’d like me to explore, leave a comment below or shoot me an email at noelle.carter@latimes.com.

ALSO:

Go behind the scenes at the Test Kitchen

134 recipes for your favorite restaurant dishes

Browse hundreds of recipes from the L.A. Times Test Kitchen

-- Noelle Carter
twitter/noellecarter

Strawberry pie

Bruleed strawberries and cream

Chocolate-glazed nut torte with strawberries in Sephardi syrup

Quark crepes with fresh strawberries

Strawberry shortcake skewers

Cinnamon toast with lavender strawberries