Strawberries are very fragile fruits. Ideally, they should not be in contact with each other. Otherwise they rub against each other and very quickly start fermentation, oxidation and rotting reactions. Always ideally, they are picked by hand and placed next to each other. This prevents the fruit from becoming too dehydrated.

Just like tomatoes, studies have shown that certain volatile flavors degrade with the cold of refrigerators. Tomatoes or strawberries in a cold room have much less flavor, but sometimes you don’t necessarily have a choice. The best would be to buy them in small quantities and consume them during the day without going through the cold.

Why do strawberries have different aromas?

Eating a strawberry means eating a texture, eating natural sugars (sucrose, fructose and glucose present), a little natural acidity too, and aromatic molecules. In a strawberry, like in other foods, there are around 350 to 400 molecules.

What will distinguish the Plougastel strawberry from the wild strawberry, or the gariguette, is the relative proportion of these molecules and the aromas.
Some appear more tart, others sweeter, others greener / fresher. You can make an aroma wheel out of strawberries just like wine, coffee, or chocolate.

The aromatic wheel

You often hear about food and wine pairings thanks to aromatic wheels, it is possible to do the same in the kitchen and in the pastry shop. Strawberries contain citrus, herbaceous green, spicy and fruity-caramel notes.

Above all, this makes it possible to innovate and offer new flavor combinations. Otherwise, you might feel like you’re always eating the strawberry-raspberry, vanilla-strawberry, and strawberry-lemon duo. From this analysis, it is possible to combine products which also contain these aromatic profiles.

Possible associations

Strawberries contain “herbaceous green” notes which denote products rich in chlorophylls. There is the freshness of fresh grass, leaves, greens etc… Rhubarb is both sour and green, so it’s perfect with strawberries.

Strawberry-rhubarb, works as mint, basil, dill, cucumber, watermelon-bean, fresh peas-fresh oregano, marjoram. All of these products are “green” on the palate, and go perfectly with strawberries because they share many common molecules.

Tomato-gariguette-mozzarella salad

For the more daring, there are: seaweed, chard, elderberry, chamomile. It all works with strawberries as well.

Gariguette in particular is perfect for these marriages of herbaceous flavors. You can also try the green zebra tomatoes. A tomato and strawberry salad in which you add a vanilla oil or a very green first pressed olive oil, and mozzarella, makes an entry that becomes original and delicious.

The “spicy notes”

The presence of spicy notes in strawberries means that it is possible to associate them with pepper. Try to put a little pepper in a strawberry coulis and you will be surprised, it also works very well with cloves, camphor. Pepper with citrus notes, such as treetop pepper (Vietnam) or Japanese Sancho pepper is also a great idea.

A less confusing dish to try at home is strawberry-pineapple-pepper. It is necessary to infuse peppercorns in water and a little sugar.
Place thin slices of pineapple which will soak into it, add strawberries. The combination on the palate is harmonious because all these products contain many common molecules.

The interest of pineapple

Strawberry-pineapple-pepper forms a perfect triptych on the palate. Pineapple contains both green notes, many esters (another family of aromatic molecules), and caramelized notes: furaneol.

Furaneol is a molecule found in many fruits, but also in beer, soy sauce, caramel, and other cooked or fermented ingredients. You leave the freshness, the acidity and the green-herbaceous of the fruit, to fall in the cooked, sweet, caramelized notes, cotton candy / candy… All this contains furaneol. It is then better to go to the Mara des Bois or the Elsanta strawberry. Strawberry jam, strawberry syrup, cooked coulis etc….

Sometimes very surprising leads

Reinforce these “furanol” flavors by adding a dash of soy sauce or a few drops of balsamic vinegar, raw or cooked pineapple, roasted peaches, dark chocolate, coconut, lamb, butter.

It’s all about balance. You have to be daring, like lamb-strawberry-kombu, it may seem complicated at first.
A few scampi in butter, a garnish with broad beans, peas, and a few touches of strawberries, and the dish takes off.

A homemade coulis recipe

A swim of strawberries, a coulis full of good molecules.

• In a bain-marie, cook cut strawberries (rather Mara des bois) with a little pepper (sancho for example), a lemon zest, a little water.
• Cook covered. Ideally cook in an airtight container to keep all the volatile flavors and aromas that will not fly around the room. 80 ° C max at least 30 min. The fruit disintegrates, the flavors diffuse.
• Let cool. Switch to Chinese to recover only the juice. There will be furanol, citrus, and spicy notes.

The green note is missing, so you can use raw gariguette strawberries again. Cut them and place them on the coulis. A few sprouts of oregano, ice mint, and enjoy immediately.

Here is a swim of raw and cooked strawberries with 4 aromatic notes of strawberries.