Sunday, July 22, 2012

Extending Berry Life

The only bad thing about berries is how quickly they turn on you.

I was raised to never, ever wash berries unless you were prepared to eat them ASAP!  Avoiding this sage advice would surely result in a moldy, mushy mess within a day.

Recently, however, I came across some advice that went against this ancient wisdom with one little twist - adding vinegar to the water.

Here's the deal...

As soon as you get your precious berries home, soak them in 10 parts Water to 1 part Vinegar (white or apple cider).  I don't like to measure so I just coat the bottom of a bowl with Vinegar and then fill the rest with Water.  Soak just a few minutes then: drain, rinse, dry & store in fridge.

It's believed that the vinegar will kill any mold spores and other bacteria that might be on the surface of the berry that could cause it to rot quicker.

While the berries this season have been too good for me to keep them in the house long enough to test this theory, I can tell you that they won't taste like vinegar.  Reports say that raspberries will last a week or more and strawberries will last almost two weeks before turning on you.

And when you are ready to chow down, try mixing the berries with a little water and Vanilla Sugar or just go straight for the chocolate!

Berry On!
The Hoff

No comments:

Post a Comment