Strawberries washed in milk

In the first recipe, berries were to be washed in skim milk (the milk which remained after the cream was skimmed off) "to take off any grit and sand."  Recipes for berries in cream and whipped cream Whips... 

So instead of rinsing your strawberries in water, think milk.  Some more, wiser, advice - pick the berries carefully - worms.  And what is the healthiest way to eat raw or dried fruit?  Plenty of sugar and bread!

Some recipes -

Raspberries or Strawberries in Cream.

Pick out some of the finest strawberries, and lay them aside; pick the others very nicely, and wash them in sweet skim milk; let them drain, to take off any grit or sand; lay them in layers into the dish; if there are any red raspberries, pick them very carefully, particularly upon account of worms, and lay a few over each layer, and dredge it over with fine sugar; heap them up in the middle, and pour sweetened cream over them; garnish the cream round with the reserved strawberries, and strew some upon the top, and sift sugar over.

If there are no red raspberries, squeeze the juice from some white, and add it to the cream.

Raspberries or mulberries may be served in the same way, or the fruit, cream, and sugar served separately, as they are eaten in so many ways, or alone, with wine, sugar, and bread. The healthiest way of eating raw or dried fruits, is with sugar and bread, or bread alone.

Domestic Economy, and Cookery: For Rich and Poor... London: 1827

Strawberry Whips.

Put three wineglassfuls of the juice to ten ounces of white sugar; add the juice of a lemon, and a pint and a half of cream. Froth the cream in a syllabub-churn, and remove the froth as it rises, and put into glasses.

Dixie Cookery; Or, How I Managed My Table for Twelve Years. by Maria Massey Barringer of North Carolina.  6th ed.  Boston: 1867

For an interesting collection of pictures on selling cherries tied to a stick or by a scale. HERE

And more strawberries, strawberry shortcake by Eliza Leslie, 1847 HERE

Painting:  Renoir's Strawberries, 1905 from the Musee de l'Orangerie, Paris.

©2015 Patricia Bixler Reber
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