Note: In the following recipes (with the exception of uncooked sun preserves), any light colored syrup may be substituted for sugar by using equal weights of berries and syrup and adding one cup sugar to each quart syrup. If boiling is required, boil slowly.
Serving Strawberries in the South
Folks ’way down South eat strawberries in wholesale lots and make them up in many tasteful ways. A favorite breakfast dish in the South is to sprinkle hot waffles with sugar and then spread over them plenty of freshly mashed strawberries. Another good dish is hot toast moistened with butter and cream and then covered with mashed or cut berries.
The pie-eating members of the family will enjoy the Southern way of making strawberry custard pie. Make your favorite recipe for custard pie with milk, eggs, sugar and grated nutmeg, but leave out the strawberry juice or any acid flavoring; then, just before serving, cut some berries in half and spread them thickly over the top of the pie, and cover with a meringue flavored with lemon juice.
Strawberry Tarts
Line tart tins with nice puff paste, filling with plum pits, corn or some such thing so they will keep their shape while baking. When done, fill with sweetened strawberries and heap up with whipped cream.
Fancy Shortcake
Pour one cupful boiling water over two cups sugar, boil for five minutes, then cool. Separate the whites from yolks of four eggs and beat the yolks until thick; then add the syrup to them, beating constantly; now add two cups flour sifted with one and one-half teaspoons baking powder; add a pinch of salt and one teaspoon lemon juice, then fold in the whites, beaten stiff and dry; spread in two round layer cake tins, bake in a quick oven. When done, remove to warm platter; spread with fine sugar and crushed berries. Place on top a thick meringue of beaten egg whites seasoned with sugar and arrange berries about the cake.
Bottling Sun-Preserved Strawberries
Strawberries hold the color and shape better when preserved in the sun. Weigh the fruit; to each pound allow three-quarters of a pound of sugar; put a layer of sugar, a layer of fruit, another layer of sugar on a large granite or stoneware platter, cover with glass and stand in the hot sun. As the sun cools toward evening bring them in and put them out again the next day. Lift each berry carefully with a fork and arrange them neatly in tumblers or bottles. Boil the syrup for five or six minutes, pour it over the fruit, cover with the glass and let them stand all night in a cold place. Next morning cover the jars with melted paraffine, over which stretch tissue paper and fasten it down with white of egg. When the covers are dry brush them over with water.