Cooking4Fun
Senior Cook
Where does blueberry flavor come from? The skins or the insides?
We eat blueberries every day. Our best price AND best taste are the wild blueberries in the freezer section. $12/3 lbs on sale for $9/3 lbs. We've found two brands of wild blueberries and both are excellent. Wild are smaller, tastier, than the regular ones that are usually fresh.
The fresh ones are picked too early, to keep them from spoiling before they're sold. I found this out after growing my ow, The berries were bright blue, and plump, but sour. I left them ripen on the plant for 2 more weeks, and they were very tasty, sweet, juicy, with wonderful flavor.
Seeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North
When I make muffins with fresh blueberries, I fold them into the batter very gently so that they stay whole. I also take about a tablespoon of the dry ingredients and toss with the berries. It helps them stay distributed more evenly rather than all sinking to the bottom. I'm even more careful if I make raspberry muffins. I alternate layers of batter and berries so that the berries don't break.I ask because I am making blueberry muffins and wasn't sure if I should crush them before mixing them in and draining excess juice. They aren't as watery since this is basically blueberry season.
I live in Quebec. I have had local farmed blueberries and I have picked wild blueberries. First off, blueberries aren't blue. They are purple. The wild ones had more and better flavour and they were much smaller than the farmed ones. Either way, they are not a favourite and I never buy either kind. I much prefer raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, gooseberries (I have only had those in Denmark), black currants, and even red currants.
Here's something interesting about blueberries that I found on the web --
"The blueberry is one of the only foods that is truly naturally blue in colour. The pigment that gives blueberries their distinctive colour—called anthocyanin—is the same compound that provides the blueberry's amazing health benefits."
This is great! Thanks, blissful!Cool.
This is a chart of anthocyanins in different foods. https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Anthocyanin-contents-in-foods-of-plant-origin_tbl2_44609005
These are the general health benefits of flavinoids: https://health.clevelandclinic.org/anthocyanins/
I couldn't stop thinking of blueberries last night so I made some whole wheat yeast blueberry pancakes for a late snack. The leftovers won't last long, thanks for the inspiration cooking4fun!
I checked that list of blue foods. Are there many blue vegetables? I would love to make a blue and yellow pizza for Ukraine. Lol.