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Strawberries Served Whole, Uncooked
These berries may be served unhulled, to be dipped in sugar and eaten with the fingers. Place in the heart of head lettuce or other bed of green, if to be served from a large receptacle, or on lettuce or other large single leaves if from individual dishes. If served hulled, strawberries should have sugar placed on them at least an hour before serving. The addition of a cup of orange or pineapple juice will add to the flavour.
A serving method rather than a cooked dish, but the timing instruction is the whole point of it. A few notes on quantities the original leaves open.
- The hour of macerationSugar on hulled berries an hour ahead is not decoration; it draws juice out by osmosis and gives a light syrup. Much beyond two hours at room temperature and the fruit slumps, so refrigerate if you need to hold it longer.
- How much sugarThe original gives none. Figure 2 to 4 tablespoons of granulated sugar per quart of hulled berries, adjusted to how ripe they are. Toss gently rather than stirring, which bruises.
- The cup of juiceThe original gives no quantity of berries, so a cup of juice may be a great deal of liquid; add it after the sugar has drawn its own syrup, or the fruit sits in a thin wash. Fresh pineapple juice contains bromelain, an enzyme that acts on protein; canned or heated juice does not, and any softening of the berries themselves is slight.
- Unhulled serviceFor the dip-in-sugar version, leave the stem caps on and dry the berries completely after washing. Wet fruit clumps the sugar into a paste instead of taking a light coat.
- The lettuce bedHead lettuce here means iceberg or a firm butterhead, chosen for the cup shape rather than for eating. Any large, cold, undamaged leaf serves; it is a platter, not a salad.
- YieldA quart of strawberries serves four generously, six as a light course after a heavy meal.
Serving strawberries whole and uncooked with a dish of sugar for dipping was a mark of good fruit rather than good cookery — the point was that the berries needed nothing done to them. The arrangement on lettuce belongs to an American convention of the early twentieth century, when a bed of greens was a common way of presenting cold fruit and salads. The suggestion of orange or pineapple juice reflects a newer development, and compilers of fruit books were keen to show the combination off.