Over-ripe strawberries and no time

June 24, 2018 9:20 AM

I have six punnets of strawberries and lots of cream left over from a wedding yesterday. As the strawberries were left in a hot car for a few hours they are going to be too ripe to give to friends as originally planned. (The cream was refrigerated.) What to Do? More limitations inside...

They are not hulled and I have no time or energy to make anything fussy tonight - looking for something I can do quickly this evening when guests finally depart.
Can I freeze them as they are and then use them for jam or a compote later? Could I macerate and fish out the hulls later?
Or do I need to knuckle down and hull them all now? (Speed tips welcome)
Bonus points for low sugar options or using up the cream (although that is in the fridge and can still be passed on as it is)

posted by Heloise9 to Food & Drink (18 answers total)

I have had tremendous luck with dried strawberries - they’re delicious. You’d ideally want to at least halve them, though.
posted by restless_nomad at 9:38 AM on June 24, 2018

If you made them into strawberry purée now, you could buy yourself some time to make ice cream or sorbet later.
posted by kittydelsol at 9:42 AM on June 24, 2018 [3 favorites]

Best answer: I'd freeze them and then use them for smoothies/jam/compote/fruit leather--I use frozen strawberries for jam all the time, and it's fine. If you have the energy to chop off the tops, that'll make it much easier for future you, but even if you don't, lopping tops off half-frozen berries isn't the worst task. (Or don't bother, if you do smoothies or fruit leather--the leaves are perfectly edible, and will pretty much disappear.)
posted by mishafletch at 9:44 AM on June 24, 2018 [7 favorites]

For ice cream, you don't need to puree them now. It would be best if they were hulled before freezing.

If you're thinking, "I see no point in having an ice-cream machine", I must tell you: you have not tasted ice cream until you've tasted homemade ice cream without any gum fillers. It's best fresh (have people over to share!), but even after later, when it's difficult to get out of the container, it's a really transcendant food.

The freezing/unfreezing process will make them pretty mushy, which is good for ice cream; some chunks remaining is also good for ice cream.

Bonus: you can put 3-4x as much strawberries in as your ice cream recipe calls for and _it only gets better_. DO be conservative about how much sugar you add; enough strawberries, if they're sweet enough, and you may not need to add any sugar.

If you decide not to make ice cream out of your frozen mushy strawberries, you can always look for a recipe like strawberry pie, strawberry cheesecake, or the like.

OR you can make a strawberry compote and serve that over plain cheesecake, pound cake, or something like that.
posted by amtho at 9:51 AM on June 24, 2018 [5 favorites]

Best answer: My speed tip for hulling is mildly appalling to some, but hey, it means I eat more strawberries than I otherwise would: I just quickly slice off the tops, not worrying much about either minimizing waste or getting the leaves perfectly out of the way (because any sliced off leaf bits that end up on the berries will be washed away when I rinse them).

I'd save them to turn into syrup, because strawberry syrup is a divine base for a soda or cocktail, and also great on ice cream and pancakes.
posted by rhiannonstone at 9:55 AM on June 24, 2018 [2 favorites]

Best answer: This is the greatest problem to have. If you don't want to hull them I would make a syrup. Throw them all in a pot, hulls and all. Add water at least an inch above the berries. Add sugar to taste, probably a cup or two. I know it seems like a lot but it will preserve color and flavor. If you're feeling fancy maybe use honey. Add a vanilla bean or a little lemon zest to make it special. Boil until it's the right thickness for you and strain. Put in the fridge. Add to ice tea, lemonade, yogurt or ice cream. Put it in cocktails. Make a salad dressing out of it with white wine vinegar and olive oil.
posted by Bistyfrass at 10:04 AM on June 24, 2018 [2 favorites]

I’ve heard you can hull strawberries quickly by pushing a straw up through the bottom. There are tons of videos showing how to do this.
posted by FencingGal at 10:09 AM on June 24, 2018 [3 favorites]

Make yourself some infused liquor? Either just the strawberries or add some mint, rhubarb, lemon, jalapeno...Here's a quite in-depth description of the process, but with some good details and suggestions: in a nutshell: combine your fruit and alcohol, refrigerate, strain, drink.
In a similar strain, you could also do a shrub.
posted by queseyo at 10:37 AM on June 24, 2018 [3 favorites]

Best answer: Here's the Serious Eats instructions on infusing liquor.
posted by queseyo at 10:41 AM on June 24, 2018

Freeze them and make fresh strawberry ice cream. To freeze wash, dry, and halve the strawberries, put them on a cookie sheet and freeze flat. When they're frozen toss them in a storage zip lock bag. I pull in five lbs at a time every other day from our garden these days, I've had to get creative.

I thought I hated strawberry ice cream until I ate fresh strawberry ice cream. I use this recipe which has a lot of citrus juice in it so it ends up with a very pleasant tartness and not just sweetness.

Also a good use for slightly overripe strawberries is French Strawberry Cake. They essentially turn into jam as you bake it so the cake is moist and delicious.

(I never hull my berries, just slice the green part off. Ain't nobody got time for that.)
posted by lydhre at 11:06 AM on June 24, 2018 [3 favorites]

Freeze them and then blend the frozen strawberries with vanilla almond milk for a super easy, super tasty sorbet. Bonus: it's also vegan and lactose/gluten free.
posted by floweredfish at 11:14 AM on June 24, 2018 [1 favorite]

Make shortcakes using the recipe on the Bisquick box, or make biscuits and add a tablespoon of sugar. They're fast & easy. Make strawberry shortcake.
posted by theora55 at 11:33 AM on June 24, 2018

Strawberry compote is liquid fruit crack and goes with anything sweet and/or breakfasty. The best recipe I know is from the Kona Café at Walt Disney's Polynesian Resort. (They bring you a little jug of it with your Tonga Toast, and I drank the extra out of the jug with zero shame.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 11:46 AM on June 24, 2018 [1 favorite]

(Meant to add, it keeps well in the fridge, if it lasts that long.)
posted by The Underpants Monster at 11:48 AM on June 24, 2018

Best answer: My Farmer's Market vendors urged me to just put a flat of strawberries into the freezer without washing or hulling. (Same deal with blueberries and raspberries, btw). They were right, in that the berries lasted much longer, held their shape, and didn't stick together at all. When I take them out for re-use (usually mixed with yogurt in the morning), I partially thaw them, slick off the top and slide them into whatever size I want, and then soak them for anywhere from 3-10 minutes.

The results are delicious.
posted by dancing_angel at 11:01 PM on June 24, 2018 [2 favorites]

I make strawberry sauce, which is fast and useful in a number of ways, including as a topping for cheesecake, ice cream, key lime pie, cake, waffles, toast, etc. And for strawberry sauce, dead ripe strawberries are best 'cause they're the most flavorful.

Hull them fast by just slicing off the tops. Put about six cups worth into a wide deep skillet or large saucepan, add sugar to taste. Stir in 2-4 Tablespoons instant pectin (don't worry about being exact). Cook over high heat until it starts to thicken - usually 10-15 minutes. Taste while cooking and add additional sugar if you want. If you want it thicker, sprinkle some more pectin over it and stir in and cook a bit longer. Optional: use a stick blender to puree it to your preferred consistency.
Pack the sauce into containers and freeze.
posted by Lunaloon at 8:45 AM on June 25, 2018

I make a lot of jam out of just-hitting-overripe fruit: all you need is sugar, a lemon or two, a pot, and a thermometer.

* Hull the berries by slicing of the tops.
* Measure how much you have, then dump into a pot.
* Add half as much sugar and the juice of a lemon (two if you have more than, say, 4 cups of berries).
* Turn on the heat. Mash the fruit a little with a fork or a wooden spoon or a potato masher; doesn't have to be perfectly pureed, just crush the berries a little. (If they're soft this will be easy.) Set a thermometer in the mixture and let it come to a boil.
* Let it come to 220 degrees farenheit and boil for one more minute. Then take off the heat and pour that into jars.
* This can be frozen, or just left in the fridge. Sealing for shelf-stable storage is also dead easy, and I can add that instruction if you like.

My hunch is that with six punnets, you'd get four pint jars at most. Jam cooks down rather a bit, and cutting off the tops will bring the volume down some as well.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:17 AM on June 25, 2018

Response by poster: So far we have vodka infusing, some frozen, and a pot of syrup for breakfast. Thanks everyone!
posted by Heloise9 at 1:05 PM on June 26, 2018 [1 favorite]