Strawberry

Fragaria × ananassa · Berry

6 varieties40 pairings

The garden strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa) is a bright-red, heart-shaped soft fruit prized for its fragrant, sweet-tart flesh — eaten raw by the handful, macerated with sugar, folded into creams and jams, and baked into shortcakes and tarts.

Picking a good onedrag

UnderripeOverripe

Red to the capFirm enough to hull and slice cleanly. Tarts, salads, and it still has a few days of fridge life.Buy it

ColourRed over the whole surface

SmellSweet when you lift the lid

FleshFirm, barely yields

StemGreen and fresh, lying flat

Reading a just ripe one. Move the slider and the rest of this page — nutrition, pairings — re-scores with it.

What one gives you

94%

Usable yield

12 g · cap off

13 g

Typical weight

one specimen

Keeping ittap a band

A domestic fridge holds it about 5× longer than the counter.

Humidity

90-95%

Vented clamshell: drier and they shrivel; wetter and grey mould takes hold.

Airflow

Vented, never sealed wet

Cool fast in a single layer, vented punnet. Wash only as you eat; cull fuzzy berries.

Neither gives it off nor ripens to it

Make almost none, so nothing beside them ripens — and they will not ripen to it: sugar is set at picking; a banana in the bag only warms them. Cold buys time.

Preparing