Fresh Strawberries in glass jars - two weeks and still perfect
This really isn't about cooking so I moved it up here to benefit the people who don't follow the Home Cooking board.
I'm not into cooking so I don't follow that board often and I have to think there might be other people like me and would miss this great tip.
A few years ago during the annual post about how to keep strawberries fresh, someone mentioned just putting unwashed strawberries in a glass jar, screwing on the top and putting it in the fridge.
That is it.
I tried it and reported a week ago on Home Cooking that the berries were still perfect. Well, two weeks after purchase, the berries are still perfect.
No, that's not true. The green tops have started to dry out, but other than that ... crispy, sweet berry.
A poster last week said this worked with other berries like raspberries.
I would guess the berries have to be in good condition before going in the jar, no bruised berries.
The caveat is tht these are indestructable supermarket strawberries, but even then, I've never had those berries last two weeks.
Under my old method ... tupperware with berries between two paper towels with the lid sealed ... the berries lasted a week at most before looking tired.
In the glass jars, the berries themselves look as perfect as they did two weeks ago.
I have two berries left, so will report in on week three ... and maybe four?
I did another jar where I put a paper towel on the bottom, but like the tupperware berries, they looked tired after a week, but not as tired as if they were in tupperware.
Again, if this belongs on Home Cooking, I'll be happy to move it there and sorry for the inconvenience, but really this isn't cooking, is it? Although for people like me who have to look up how to boil eggs every Easter, it is as close as I get. Even last week I was a little torn about which board to put it on.
rworange
Apr 05, 2006 01:57PM
Do you fill the jar with strawberries or only have a single layer on the bottom?
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This is a limited experiment. I thought I would sacrifice eight strawberries if it didn't work out.
So, I just plopped four strawberries in two jelly jars. No single layer. I don't know why this works. This week the glass jar started to slightly cloud like when your car windshield starts to cloud.
As soon as it stops raining I'll buy some berries at farmers markets and try this in larger jars ... however, the single serving jelly jars with a half dozen berries might be a good idea.
The jar is half full now, so it doesn't seem that volume matters.
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Do you refrigerate the jar? Thanks.
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Yep. But I might experiment leaving a few on the counter when fresh strawberry season is in full swing and berries are dirt cheap, so to speak.
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One strawberry made it successfully three weeks and the other one needed to be tossed.
However, it seems what happens when strawberries are kept in glass jars is that they continue to ripen.
The berry that went bad went bad in the way that a strawberry too long on the vine goes bad, not the way that they sort of rot and turn moldy in the fridge.
This bad berry was just over-ripe.
This may be the reason that the berries in the jar kept so long. They were early season berries, the type that have spots of white at the top.
This is just the best way that I've ever found to keep berries. I hope it stops raining someday so I can try it out on farmers market berries. One vendor lost his whole crop because of the rain and hail.
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