Extraordinary Strawberries for an Extraordinary dish

Hi everyone. I have a question. When we where talking in another forum topic (mission strawberry seed) about strawberries, I got a question that is more related to this part of the forum.

I found that you have differend strawberry varieties (even white ones), that can taste quit different from other strawberries (according to the discription of the strawberry, I haven't tried to taste them myself yet). And where I am talking about this moment are not the "average" strawberry that is also sold at the grocery, but the rare ones that are grown probably by strawberryfreaks. What I wanted to know if they realy taste so much different and if there is someone who made jelly (or something else) by using only one type of strawberries and what it was like or made somekind of 12 types of strawberry jelly (or something else) by mixing different types of strawberries, and how did that taste? Because if they realy taste all different, than they also contribute differently to the taste of the dish you have made.

Hi,

I have started to grow strawberries, admittedly they are not doing well, however I did make jam from some berries that I picked at a u-pick place. The difference in taste is amazing. I made a freezer jam (and traditional canned jam,) which is an unnatural bright red and several types of mixed berry jams. My husband now refuses to eat commercial jam, so I guess I will be picking more berries in the spring. I also made some jam from berries purchased at the grocery, while the jam is good it is not as good as the local berries. I hope this offers some encouragement.

Patty in Yorktown

So when I do this I would take the risk to spoil myself for the rest of my life?

I must also say that I am very interested in those white strawberries I saw. I can imagine that you would get a white jam from this. I was also thinking about the effect on a strawberry pie when you use different types of strawberries. And then sort them on colour on the pie. That would be an interesting talk between your guests I think (e.g. white strawberries in the center and the most dark red ones on the border or something like that).

What I conclude from this is that mixing different types of strawberries probably would not give an awefull taste but something different and new kind of taste, which probably also depend on how much of a type of strawberry you use and how strong the taste of this strawberry is.

Yes, you risk a life time of expensive strawberries. I would think that many different berries in a pie would blend the taste, so none of the berries would stand out. I know that this is the way coffee brands are produced, to insure a uniform taste. Have fun experimenting.

Patty in Yorktown

Zephyros, I believe if you used several colors and varieties of berries in a fresh fruit tart, and topped them with a thin layer of melted jam, it would make a beautiful and tasty dessert. You could also make a pretty parfait or trifle with different colors of fresh berries.

However, if you mashed them all together for jam or a strawberry shortcake, as Patty said you would lose each unique color and flavor and all would taste like one variety of berry. For those types of uses I would recommend finding one variety with a flavor you like - some are sweet, some are acid, and some are sweet and tart at the same time. (And, unfortunately, some of the market varieties out there are just very bland.)

You are making me hungry for fresh berries. Come on, spring!

I am with Ander on the fresh fruit tart. You could use a clear glaze (I forget what it's called) and then the melted jam would not distort the taste of the individual berries.

I also would not mix them up in a jam. Not only would you lose the colors/flavors, but you will probably never get the same mix twice, so it would not be a repeatable flavor. That being said, there are mixed berry jams out there (Bonne Maman makes one) which use strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and blueberries) which are quite tasty, so if you want to try a strawberry mashup, by all means experiment with it.

The yellow strawberries I grew were a lot smaller than the red ones we're used to. It would take a LOT of them to make a jam...so for the foreseeable future, they will be for fresh eating only. Assuming I can get any from whatever was nibbling on them so earnestly in the garden!

Megan wrote:I am with Ander on the fresh fruit tart. You could use a clear glaze (I forget what it's called) and then the melted jam would not distort the taste of the individual berries.

Good idea, Megan. (I sometimes use melted jelly instead of jam. I usually use apple or apricot jelly on mixed fruit tarts.)

Recipe for Clear Glaze

Well, my mom suggested to try only one type of strawberry in each jam first (to determine the taste of each strawberrie type), and than later on mix and match to get the ultimate strawberry jam (and to get myself really ruined for life this way). This means you have to really write down what you are doing to know how you got the taste (piece of cake for the scientist in me). I think it is a verry good idea.

So it looks I am going to fall for temptation. Because I was also looking into a magazine (was a verry wrong idea) from last summer with nice strawberry recipies in it. I hope the strawberrieplants grow verry fast when I buy them, because it looks like I am going to sit next to it untill I spot the first strawberries.

How many plants are you going to have, Zephyros? It takes several to get enough berries to make jam.

I've got no idea yet. Because I know that if I am really going to do what I want to do with all those strawberries, I need three times the garden (okay, it is a bit exaggerated, but there are too many nice things you can do with strawberries, if you got my point).

The thing is, I saw a really nice offer from a gardencenter on the internet. This gardencenter also sells old, rare, extraordinary types of strawberries. They got them in white, the got them big, sweet and even almost purple/black. They also sell a package containing 9 strawberry plants, and these are all comming from different types, for those people that can't pick their favorite.

Probably, 9 plants are sufficient to make some jam from it (I don't need 6 kg). And the main reason to start this topic was because I saw this offer on the internet. But like we discussed, if I mix the different types the extraordinary taste from some types of strawberries might be lost. My mom suggested to make a jam from each type of strawberry, only something between 125 - 200 grams (~1 small jar), to taste the different types and to know what you would like the best, although she knew that would take a lot of time. But I think, the effort would be worthwhile, to do it once, like a little science experiment. And than to select the strawberry I like the most and propagate it so I obtain more plants from it. I think it would be more a waste of time and money if I buy an amount of plants to make 1 kg of jam from each type and to find out I didn't like this type of strawberry as much as I thought I would be.