How to Hull Strawberries and Why

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Whether you get strawberries at a farmers market or at the grocery, the aroma of a fresh strawberry is one of nature’s great treats. 

Do you know how to hull them and why you should do it? Maybe those aren’t burning questions in your life. Still, if you love strawberries it is essential information. 

But first, a few fun facts and tips.

Fun Facts About Strawberries

• Strawberries are members of the rose family.
• Strawberries are high in Vitamin C. A serving of 10 large strawberries has more Vitamin C than an orange and fewer calories. The Vitamin C content in a strawberry degrades over time, so a fresher berry has more Vitamin C than an older one. 
• There is a museum in Belgium devoted entirely to strawberries.

Tips on Buying, Storing, & Using Strawberries

• Buy bright, unblemished strawberries with fresh-looking green tops. If not used immediately, keep them refrigerated for no longer than a few days. 
• Here’s the best way to store strawberries. 
• Do not rinse strawberries until just before you intend to use them. Never leave them submerged in water, as that will cause them to lose flavor and will dim their bright red color.

How to Hull Strawberries and Why

• First the why. Strawberries have a rather tough inner core. You want to remove it for the same reason you remove the tough inner core of a pineapple – it’s not pleasant to eat. Hulling strawberries takes off both the green cap of leaves and that core. 
• There are 3 ways to hull a strawberry:

1. 1. The coring method – Using a knife, cut down into the strawberry from the side and aiming toward the middle. Then move the knife around the strawberry always on the side of the green cap and aiming toward the middle. Remove the plug. this works. but it also tends to take out more of the inside of the strawberry than is necessary. I know there are single-use gadgets called strawberry hullers. I have never used one, but from what I’ve read, they work OK. They suffer from the same problem as the knife coring method – they tend to take out too much of the strawberry.
   2. Using a straw – There are all sorts of YouTube videos claiming this method works. I tried it multiple times and it does work on small strawberries, but not on large ones. 
   3. The 2-step slit-and-core method – This is my preferred method. Slice off the top with a small, sharp knife. After you remove the top, core the strawberry. With the top gone, you can see how much you need to remove from the center and limit your coring to the tough core.

So now that you are a strawberry expert, go out and enjoy the strawberry bounty!

PS – coming up on Tuesday – A fresh strawberry and thyme bellini!