Stop Cooking Strawberries

Cooked strawberries are gross, but here are a few strawberry recipes anyway.

Way up here near the tip of Michigan’s pinky finger, our local strawberries have finally ripened. I snagged a flat of tiny Earliglow berries from a local farmer yesterday. These itty-bitty, electric red, deeply flavorful, coveted berries only appear for a week or so. Bakers, cooks, berry lovers, and preservers line up on a country lane to claim their fruit. The best strawberry jam out there—the one made by American Spoon—uses these exact berries in their preserves. (This jam is so good that my husband opened a jar when I was out of town and had to text me about how good it was.)

We already ate a whole quart of berries, and I used another to make a batch of my Very Strawberry Ice Cream. On the docket is a Fresh Strawberry Pie with a Pretzel Crust and a big batch of Strawberry Tarragon Shortcake—both recipes are in my forthcoming cookbook, available for preorder now! Oh, and probably a strawberry spritz or two. You’ll notice a theme here. None of these strawberry recipes involve cooking the fruit.

Don’t worry berries, I won’t cook you.

I loathe cooked strawberries. I will never forget the grey-ish pink stewed strawberries at my grade-school cafeteria, looking like weird little slugs swimming in a mauve puddle. And the texture—I can’t even. It’s like a snot blob. Somehow the flavor was nothing at all like a strawberry—more like a dulled approximation of what it once was.

Even as an adult, I’m always disappointed by a cooked strawberry. Whether in a pie, crumble, scone, or even a slow-roasted strawberry, the flavor seems muted—a ghost of its former self. I still can’t get over that slimy texture.

When you cook these delicate morsels, you destroy much of their pure, vibrant, ultra-complex character. And that’s not just my opinion: it’s science. Fresh strawberries contain more than 360 volatile compounds, which are the molecules that give them their enchanting aroma and taste. This article summarizes studies that examined the number of volatile compounds in various preparations. The research confirms: for the best berry essence, avoid cooking them.

Roasting or making jam can concentrate some elements, but it destroys even more of their aromatic complexity. Jam tastes delicious, but it’s a far cry from a fresh strawberry. According to the analysis, freeze-drying retains many more of the aromatic compounds (and aroma is part of taste) than cooking them does. Freeze dried strawberries are a secret flavor weapon in baking.

Sourdough, Quark, Strawberries, Pepper, Salt, & Balsamic. 10/10

Some fruits, such as tart cherries, apricots, quince, and some plums actually benefit from cooking—their flavor transformed by the process. If the rock-hard yet aromatic quince is at one end of the spectrum—a fruit that can only be eaten cooked—I put strawberries on the other end—never cook them.

One exception: Strawberry jam. Cook the strawberries way, way, way down with a hefty dose of sugar, then I’ll bite. Yes, I am a man of contradictions.

Here are some no-cook strawberry recipes + one rhubarb recipe I can’t help but share again. I’m making most of these recipes this weekend.

Happy Baking & Ice Cream Making,
Martin