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Do you hull your strawberries? Lots of dishes call for it, including my go-to recipe for Strawberry Shortcake and one of my favorite summer sweets, Strawberry Tiramisù. But, I usually just cut off the ends of berries, making sure that any remnants of the stem are removed. At least that was what I did before I discovered my strawberry huller. My huller, which resembles a mini set of tongs with tips that are shaped like adorable little strawberries, came in last year's Christmas stocking. I didn't give the huller much thought until I came across it in my kitchen drawer the other day. It being summer I had some strawberries on hand and decided to give my strawberry huller a try.
To use a huller, push the tips into the top of a strawberry (around the stem), grip, twist, pull, and you're done. The advantage to using a huller is that you lose much less fruit than if you just cut the ends off of your berries. This could probably be accomplished with a small, sharp knife, but I think a huller is more fun and perhaps safer if you're a bit clumsy like me.
There are several options when it comes to huller design, but I recommend one with pointed tips. The strawberry-shaped tips on my huller aren't just cute—they also make it easy to puncture the berry. There are fancier versions on the market. A few months back, our resident kitchen-gadget expert, Gina Provenzano, posted about an OXO strawberry huller. It seems a bit more sophisticated and high-tech than mine and may even be more efficient, but I've gotten used to mine and it definitely gets the job done. Unfortunately, I don't have source information for my specific huller, but this one seems pretty similar.
