Mulberry

Morus · Berry

40 pairings

The mulberry is the soft, elongated aggregate fruit of the mulberry tree, genus Morus, ripening through white and red to a deep purple-black depending on the species and stage. Each fruit is a tight cluster of tiny juicy capsules strung along a slender stalk, eating with a honeyed, grape-like sweetness and a mild tartness that floods the mouth with dark, staining juice. Despite looking almost exactly like a blackberry, it grows not on a bramble but high on a deciduous tree, and has fed people and silkworms across Asia and the temperate world for millennia.

Picking a good onedrag

Red-shouldered, firm, sharpWeeping, fuzzed, fermenting

Dark to the stalkThe only one firm enough to carry home whole and keep a few days. Tarts, pies, folded through a batter at the last moment.Buy it

ColourDark to the stalk, even colour

The stalkGreen, the tip beginning to dry

FleshPlump, gives a little, dry to the finger

SmellHoneyed and grape-like as you lift the lid

What to look for, from red-shouldered, firm, sharp to weeping, fuzzed, fermenting.

What one gives you

100%

Usable yield

1.5 g · nothing to trim, stalk and all

1.5 g

Typical weight

one specimen

Keeping ittap a band

A domestic fridge holds it about 4× longer than the counter.

Humidity

90-95%

90-95% keeps them plump, but never wash before storing: free water on the skin is what starts grey mould, not the damp air.

Airflow

Vented, never sealed damp

A vented punnet, one shallow layer, chilled fast. Sealed damp they sweat and rot, and one fuzzed fruit takes its neighbours with it.

Makes it, and softens in it

Unusually for a berry it makes ethylene as it ripens and softens faster in it, so keep the punnet clear of apples and bananas.

Preparing