Pickled Strawberries.
Pickled strawberries are a good way to extend the season’s bounty. They’ll last longer in the fridge and can be used in salads or as a component of a charcuterie plate. This balanced version is not overly sweet or sour and is perked up by whole peppercorns and a bit of lemon peel.
Ingredients:
1 lb strawberries
2 c white vinegar
2 c water
2 T sugar
1 t whole peppercorns
2 t Kosher salt
1 T dried lemon peel such as Penzey’s, or zest from half a lemon, cut into strips
*We tried pouring hot vs room temperature liquid and found it didn’t make a difference.
Method: wash the strawberries and discard any soft ones; better if the berries are a little green than over-ripe. Cut off the stems and slice in halves or quarters or leave whole, depending on your preference. Transfer to a heat-proof jar.
Combine all other ingredients in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Allow to cool to room temperature* and pour over berries. Cap the jar and refrigerate at least 4 hours and up to a week.
Nice tip to preserve strawberries. Do you know how they got the name STRAWberries? We used to grow these delightful, tasty treats with straw placed underneath the bush to keep the “berries” clean not picking up dirt. Thus, the moniker straw berries. Alas, these are technically not berries because they do not have a seed inside them, so botanically they are not berries. In addition, we use plastic sheets to protect them so they might more properly be called PlasticBERRIES, except, heck, they are not a real berry. Some fruit that are botanically berries include, eggplant, peppers, tomatoes, watermelon, cucumber and pumpkin among many other tasty treats from the garden.
This made my head hurt. If they are not berries, what are they? Also, presumably strawberries have been around longer than people have been cultivating straw and drying it as feed, so what were they called before we had straw?
Before human cultivated this delight they grew by themselves. I don’t know what early English speaking folks called the wild version. The wild version were much smaller and probably not nearly as sweet.
Strawberries are not fruit they are vegetables. Fruit always have seeds inside. Strawberry seeds are outside. It’s complicated.
In the 1960’s, my father gathered wild strawberries. They were tiny, the flavor was intense. I don’t remember that they were very sweet. Ultimately they were mixed with sugar in the fridge. Of course in those days everything was better with sugar.