"500g (1lb) strawberries, washed, hulled & halved"

[blue room]

500g (1lb) strawberries, washed, hulled & halved
Is there an accepted recipe-speak meaning of the above?
*Do I weigh the berries before or after the hulling?*
It's for strawberry curd, so I want the proportions to be right, I want it to be thick enough.

[gembellina]

I'd say buy a pound punnet of strawberries and use the whole lot. But really I want to know how it turns out and whether I should make some!

[GretchenS]

Me too and especially the rhubarb which I adore and do not have enough uses for!

[blue room]

I've never made curd, but I've done both lemon and grapefruit meringue pies from scratch -- I think those fillings are practically curd? So I know the thickening is affected by many things. My original question was mostly an annoyed reaction to ALL the instructions written like that -- berries, flour, whatever. Even if there are rules like the ones Caitlin McGrath mentioned, is the writer of your recipe following them? I would say "a pound of hulled strawberries" rather than "a pound of strawberries, hulled".
Only the first phrase makes it clear that the berries are already hulled when they get weighed.
I do understand that in this particular recipe I should weigh first, hull later. Probably.

[twyst]

"I've never made curd, but I've done both lemon and grapefruit meringue pies from scratch -- I think those fillings are practically curd? "

You have in fact made lemon curd then :P
They are indeed the same thing.

[paulj]

Can anyone with experience with other fruit curds comment on how sensitive they are to ratios? Lemon curb is perhaps the most common one.

[hotoynoodle]

i make lemon curd often and it does not depend on NASA-style exactitude.

[blue room]

Haha, yes, -- it's pie not pi.

[hotoynoodle]

typically, i make scottish-style, which uses honey instead of sugar.

i've never thought to make strawberry! that sounds really good. i think i'd still add some orange or lemon zest to it though. acid counterpoint and all.

(wheels turning...)

[paulj]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/foo...

is a UK recipe that equates 500g with 1 lb 2 oz.

[paulj]

Is this the recipe?
http://australianfood.about.com/od/br...

Besides the question of how much weight is lost in hulling, other variables are
how much water is lost to evaporation while cooking the berries?
exactly how much do 2 large eggs weigh?

Doesn't a curd depend more on the eggs for thickening than the pectin in the fruit?

[babette feasts]

A large egg is around 50 grams (excluding the shell).

[paulj]

If this recipe is Australian
"Large 50.0g – 58.2g"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_...

[blue room]

Yes, that's the recipe. (Isn't it pretty?) I saw a recipe yesterday for cookie bars topped with rhubarb curd http://www.notderbypie.com/rhubarb-cu...
and now want to make both strawberry *and* rhubarb curd to see how they could be used for desserts.

[pine time]

will you please share the cookie base recipe? Gracias.

[blue room]

Here is the one I planned on:
http://food52.com/recipes/4338_rhubarb_curd_shortbread
but there is a Julia Child recipe too that I want to study further!
http://northeastlocavore.blogspot.com...

[ipsedixit]

I agree with GretchenS and Caitlin McGrath that it's the weight before hulling.

But that said, how much of a difference in weight is lost from hulling a pound of strawberries? An ounce or two? Will that even make a difference in the final recipe?

[JerryMe]

Strawberry curd!?! I'm sorry that I can't give you a definitive answer on the weight, sequence, etc' however, it will be delicious!

[maxie]

I'm with Gretchen and Caitlin on this, both because of recipe language, and because strawberries frequently come in 8 oz or one pound containers.

[FoodPopulist]

Having thought about it a bit more, I would guess that if the recipe gives all measurements by weight, then it is more likely to be written by an author who desires precision and you should weight the berries after hulling. If the recipe gives measurements of ingredients such as flour and sugar by volume rather than weight, then possibly it means to weigh before hulling.

[paulj]

I think the weight is specified because fruit like this is usually sold by weight. And because strawberries vary so much in size, a volume measure would be less reliable (what's the void space when you put 2 large berries in a cup measure?).

Also equating 1lb with 500g is not precise. It is a convenient equivalence that I often use, but a closer equivalence is 453.59237 g. So clearly the author means, buy a pound of berries (or half a killogram if that's how they are sold in your market), and use that.

[FoodPopulist]

Since how much material is removed in hulling strawberries is not exactly the same from strawberry to strawberry, a well-written recipe should have the weight be after hulling, if the goal is to make the proportions the same every time.

Not every cookbook is well-written.

[hotoynoodle]

and 500 gms is 17.6 oz, not 16.

[babette feasts]

Yes, a pound is 454 grams, but hey, what's 10% more or less?

[Caitlin McGrath]

I agree with GretchenS, weight before hulling. This is standard recipe-writing.

500g (1lb) strawberries, washed, hulled & halved vs 500g (1lb) washed, hulled & halved strawberries

is like:

1 cup flour, sifted vs 1 cup sifted flour

In the first instances, the measuring happens before the processing; in the second instances, the processing happens before the measuring.

[blue room]

Is there a written-down source for "standard recipe-writing" rules? (For American recipes?)
I understand the difference, but it is oh so easy to think that "1 cup flour, sifted" and "1 cup sifted flour" are identical in meaning.

[Caitlin McGrath]

I have Recipes Into Type: A handbook for cookbook writers and editors

http://www.amazon.com/Recipes-into-type-handbook-cookbook/dp/1892526018

There's also The Recipe Writer's Handbook

http://www.amazon.com/Recipe-Writers-...

[greygarious]

That is a mistake that can be avoided by reading carefully. Part of learning to follow recipes is to pay attention to the way in which the measurement is written. 40-50 years ago, it was a given that unless otherwise specified, flour was sifted before measurement. This is what American teens learned in home ec class. As years went by, that changed. I have heard that a change in the method of flour milling was the reason. If you work from old cookbooks, you need to know this.

In New England, berries are usually sold by volume, in pint or quart containers. Weights vary a lot. Two pints usually weigh more than a quart, which would not be the case with more compact ingredients. Your recipe absolutely means the weight before hulling. You need to allow for slight variations. Taste before you jar the final product. You may need to adjust sweetness, add lemon, etc. Slavish adherence to a recipe is not a guarantee of success.

[FoodPopulist]

What is the difference between 500g flour, sifted and 500g sifted flour?

[maxie]

Nothing, but there is a difference between 1 cup flour, sifted and 1 cup sifted flour. That is why weight is more accurate.

[blue room]

Hmm -- one vote for weigh now, one vote for weigh later --see what I mean?

[twyst]

It would generally mean after hulling in a professional recipe, but in a home cookbook its the other way around USUALLY.

Also, strawberries have enough pectin in them to where getting your curd to set up shouldnt be an issue.

[GretchenS]

Yes, according to accepted recipe-speak, it means you take 500g of strawberries, and then wash, hull and halve them. Otherwise it would say 500g of washed, hulled strawberries. Good luck with the srawberry curd!!!