Berries

Preparation

1. Bland

   Step 1

   Sprinkle them with brown sugar, confectioners’ sugar, or one of the slightly sweet seasonings, such as nutmeg, cinnamon, or anise seed. If there is some juice, drop a whole cardamom or two into it during storage. A sprinkle of lemon juice (or orange or even lime) will perk up many a berry.

2. Frozen to the box

   Step 2

   Run cold tap water into the box and the berries will detach themselves almost at once.

3. Leafy, twiggy

   Step 3

   Sometimes there are lots of little leaves and twigs mixed in with berries, especially if you’ve picked them yourself. The fastest way to deleaf and detwig a large pail of berries is to pour them from one container to another across the path of an electric fan or a vacuum cleaner hose fastened to the blowing instead of sucking nozzle. Please aim the air in the right direction. Otherwise see a good first-aid text on removing berry twigs from the ear.

4. Moldy

   Step 4

   Pick out the moldy ones and taste a few of the rest to make sure that they don’t already taste moldy. Next time you get fresh berries, you can follow food scientist Harold McGee’s advice for inhibiting the mold: plunge the berries into 120°F water for 30 seconds, drain, and let them dry before refrigerating them. Better yet, freeze them (as described in Too Many) if you need to keep them for more than a few days. But be aware that they will be mushier when defrosted.

5. Not enough

   Step 5

   Apples combine well with berries in pies, crisps, cobblers, and grunts (yes, that is a real dessert). Or use vanilla pudding to make a berry cream pie. Layer the berries and pudding into the crust, or mix them together and fill ’er up. Top with a meringue, and everyone will think that was what you planned all along.

   Step 6

   For a shortcake, combine berries with fresh peaches, nectarines, or even pears. If you use pears, mix them with a sauce made from 1/4 cup water, 2 tablespoons sugar, and 1/4 teaspoon almond extract to give them more flavor.

6. Overripe

   Step 7

   Make fruit sauce. Clean the berries as well as you can, eliminating all the fuzzy ones. Mash the rest with sugar to taste (start with 1 tablespoon per cup of berries) and serve over pancakes or waffles. Or over ice cream or shortcake, or cream, or all three.

   Step 8

   Or use them in a deep-dish pie or a cobbler. Overripe berries are very juicy, but this won’t matter since you’re only using a top crust.

7. Sour

   Step 9

   Stir them with sugar and allow them to stand at room temperature for at least an hour. Use about 1 tablespoon sugar per cup of berries.

8. Thawed

   Step 10

   See Appendix B for info on frozen foods that have thawed out too soon.

9. Too many

   Step 11

   Clean the berries and spread them out one layer deep on a baking sheet. Freeze until firm and then pour them into some sort of storage container (freezer bags do nicely). Then, when berries are out of season, you will have the equivalent of fresh ones and not the sugar-soaked kind you usually have to settle for.

   Step 12

   Another alternative is to make jelly or jam. Consult any good cookbook for directions. Making jam isn’t nearly as hard as most people think it is.

10. Wet

    Step 13

    Nobody likes a wet berry. Line a big tray or baking sheet with paper towels. Pour the berries on it. Pat them gently with more paper towels.