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Bananas Are Berries, Strawberries Aren't

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141–150 of 174 posts

Re: Bananas Are Berries, Strawberries Aren't

#141
post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You eat apples with salt?! Then again, this is an actual thing in India, albeit with _black_ salt, which is more tangy than bitter and salty.

I put (kosher) salt on Apples and Watermelon and it is delicious.

What’s special about kosher salt?

Re: Bananas Are Berries, Strawberries Aren't

#142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>yes, those delicious red fruits with "berries" literally in the name — aren't officially berries either. Similar to peanuts not being nuts, but in fact legumes.

Strange. I've often see people with peanut allergies have alligeries to nuts like Almonds but not to Legumes like Chickpeas or Lentils.

My wife is allergic to peanuts, lentils, chick peas, etc, but not almonds and the like.

Re: Bananas Are Berries, Strawberries Aren't

#143
Not really a great article because it mostly perpetuates the confusion rather than clears it up.

Context determines whether a strawberry is a berry or not. In common usage it is. Using a scientific horticultural definition it is not. Context usually determines which definition of berry applies implicitly, though if you're communicating in a context where you think it's reasonably ambiguous, you can be explicitly about which definition you're using.

Re: Bananas Are Berries, Strawberries Aren't

#144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>yes, those delicious red fruits with "berries" literally in the name — aren't officially berries either. Similar to peanuts not being nuts, but in fact legumes.

Strange. I've often see people with peanut allergies have alligeries to nuts like Almonds but not to Legumes like Chickpeas or Lentils.

As one commented mentioned these "nut allergies" can be psychosomatic, where the mind is literally triggering the physical reactions based purely on expectation.

On the other hand "nuts" including peanuts are typically processed in the same facilities, so cross-contamination is real too.

Re: Bananas Are Berries, Strawberries Aren't

#145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I put (kosher) salt on Apples and Watermelon and it is delicious.

What’s special about kosher salt?

It has larger grains. It is called "kosher" salt because larger grain salt (typically coarser than even typical kosher salt) is used to drain the blood from meat and fowl, a necessary step in rendering it kosher by Jewish law.

Edit: basically, it is just coarse salt.

Re: Bananas Are Berries, Strawberries Aren't

#146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I put (kosher) salt on Apples and Watermelon and it is delicious.

What’s special about kosher salt?

It's a larger crystal, which makes it easier for the salt to pull water out of the watermelon, versus (I'm guessing) just making its way into the watermelon as a dissolved solid.

My understanding for the mechanism by which the salt makes the fruit sweeter is by increasing the concentration of sugars in the flesh that's now surrounded by salted water.

Kosher salt is named for the application of drawing water from meat (which is itself part of the kosher preparation of meat) so it's not too surprising that the salt is also well suited for drawing water from fruits like watermelon.

I use table salt on watermelon and it's great too. I can believe that kosher salt would be better, but I doubt most people would consider the difference immense. But palates vary, so, if you've got both salts around might as well use the bigger crystal.

Re: Bananas Are Berries, Strawberries Aren't

#147

There's a very good video on this [1] by Innuendo Studios on why this discussion is more or subjective, since it matters in what context you say it and what you mean by it. He does this with the example of a tomato, which by botanical defintion is a fruit. But in culinary terms, it is a vegetable. So when someone says "haha, did you know that a tomato is actually a fruit", it's subjective and can almost have no added…

> Hence, nothing is gained.

I disagree. It's a fun fact, not a reprimand.

Re: Bananas Are Berries, Strawberries Aren't

#148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I put (kosher) salt on Apples and Watermelon and it is delicious.

What’s special about kosher salt?

It's a coarse salt, as mentioned.

But also it doesn't have additives like table salt (e.g. iodine and anti-caking agents). Iodine at least has a definite flavor.

It's also very consistently made (though not between manufacturers) unlike some sea salts, and relatively inexpensive so it's the go-to kitchen salt (as against finishing salt) for a lot of cooks; you know what you get in a pinch every time.

Re: Bananas Are Berries, Strawberries Aren't

#149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What’s special about kosher salt?

It's a larger crystal, which makes it easier for the salt to pull water out of the watermelon, versus (I'm guessing) just making its way into the watermelon as a dissolved solid. My understanding for the mechanism by which the salt makes the fruit sweeter is by increasing the concentration of sugars in the flesh that's now surrounded by salted water. Kosher salt is named for the application of drawing water from meat…

> My understanding for the mechanism by which the salt makes the fruit sweeter ...

Is that correct? AIUI the primary way that salt makes foods taste sweeter is due to the fact it attenuates our sense of "bitter".

Re: Bananas Are Berries, Strawberries Aren't

#150
post #73

I remember hearing some super cliched but kinda funny saying one time: "Knowledge is knowing that tomatoes are a fruit. Wisdom is knowing that you shouldn't put it in a fruit salad."

That makes me wonder how tomato in a fruit salad would actually taste.

I like it. Tomatoes aren't very sweet naturally, so they work well when combined with other very sweet items.
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