Methyl anthranilate probably doesn’t sound all that delicious to you, and if you were never friends with chemistry, it might seem downright scary. I promise not to give an organic chemistry lecture here, but please bear with me for a moment. Methyl anthranilate is both fascinating and mouthwatering–this molecule occurs naturally in some of the most fragrant fruit and flowers, from Concord grapes to orange blossom, from mandarins to gardenias. And also in tiny wild strawberries, fraises des bois.
Also known as woodland strawberries (Fragaria Vesca L.), they are only as big as your pinkie nail, but their flavor is so intense that a fistful of berries will perfume an entire room. They smell of caramel, orange flowers and muscat. When you taste them for the first time, you realize that this is what every strawberry flavor tries to imitate.
Until the 18th century, woodland strawberry was the chief cultivated variety, but with the discovery of a Chilean strawberry in the 1700s and the creation of new hybrids by French botanists, it fell out of favor. We have our large, juicy berries, but they’re mild stuff next to fraises des bois. Today, the trend has been reversed, and research is underway to create a strawberry with the aroma of woodland berries.
But it’s still a work in progress, and true wild strawberries are rare and expensive. I’m so obsessed with their flavor that I’ve even tried growing them.* While my yield of 10 berries was enough to give me a rush of pleasure, I began to wonder how I can mimic the best perfumer of all–nature.
Chemical names may not sound romantic, but methyl anthranilate and methyl N-formylanthranilate are the very components that give wild berries their exquisite flavor. Methyl anthranilate is also present in orange blossom water, so why not combine this essence with the cultivated strawberries in a simple compote? The first time I made it, I poured far too much floral water, which instantly overpowered the mild flavor of my berries. A smaller quantity created a more delicate nuance, while adding a touch of lemon juice gave a bright note.
I’m happy enough with the results to share this simple recipe. The orange blossom water gives a beautiful twist even to unexciting supermarket produce. Another trick for amplifying flavor is to toss fruit in sugar and heat it up for a few minutes in a pan or hot oven. Cool to room temperature and then add orange blossom water. It’s as easy as that.
Strawberry Orange Blossom Compote
Delicious over ice cream, angel food cake, or Victoria sponge. Spoon it over pavlovas and garnish with whipped cream. Served over yogurt with some muesli, it makes for a healthy and indulgent breakfast, my favorite kind. Or simply enjoy it on its own, because this flavorful compote really doesn’t require much accompaniment.
You can substitute mild flavored honey for sugar.
1 lb (~500g) strawberries, hulled and sliced in half
sugar to taste
1 teaspoon lemon juice
start with 1/2 teaspoon of orange blossom water and add more if needed
Mix all of the ingredients and leave for 30 minutes to 2 hours to allow flavors to meld. You can keep the compote in the fridge overnight, and while the flavor will be excellent, the strawberries might soften.
Woodland strawberries are easy to grow in the pot, and I highly recommend trying it. The plant looks pretty, and even if all you get is a few berries, the bold flavor more than makes up for the low yield. The leaves and stems are also useful. Dry them in the shade and use them in teas (excellent for digestion) and facial toners.
Photography by Bois de Jasmin
Do you have any favorite strawberry recipes? How do you usually enjoy these berries?
66 Comments
Figuier: Wild strawberries are my favourites! In Sweden they’re called smultron, and they grow beautifully round my parent’s house in late June-mid July. Compared to other Scandinavian wild fruits (bilberries, lingonberries) it’s difficult, even in a good year, to gather more than half a liter or so at a time – they’re a bit sparser on the ground and harder to find.
That’s part of the charm, of course – a traditional way to gather and eat them is to thread them onto a long grass-stalk, then you pick them off with your lips – but a chemist-cook’s recreation with normal strawberries sounds great, thanks for experimenting 🙂 I will definitely try this one out. July 24, 2013 at 8:15am
Victoria: Ah, your description makes me wildly nostalgic. When I was visiting my grandmother, it was right at the tail end of wild strawberry season, and I couldn’t resist buying them every day. It was such an indulgence to eat a big bowl of them with nothing but a bit of milk. The flavor lingers on your lips and fingers for what seems like hours! July 24, 2013 at 9:42am
The Blue Squid: I have a fussy sweet tooth, so the only very sweet things I like are bland sweet things like marshmallow, white chocolate, vanilla ice cream, sponge cake, custard.. You get the idea. So I like eating strawberries by themselves generally. Your recipe looks delicious; I love the idea of a not-too-sweet thing with a hint of sweetness, tanginess and perfuminess. It looks nice and easy too. I think strawberry season’s on here in the Southern Hemisphere, so it could be time to rock and roll with this, so to speak. Nice one! July 24, 2013 at 8:25am
Victoria: I usually eat fruit without any sugar, and strawberries are sweet enough. Here I add a tiny bit of sugar to bring them closer to wild berries (which are much sweeter).
Another one of my favorite berries is black currant. It’s an acquire taste though. I once spotted them at a market in NYC and excitedly asked a farmer for 2 lb. He was puzzled, “they taste bitter, why are you buying so many?” 🙂 July 24, 2013 at 9:53am
Jillie: I have just bought some strawberries, and I was thinking that they looked a bit large so are probably not too tasty – your recipe has come at just the right moment, and I will now get my orange blossom water out of the cupboard.
In my old garden I used to grow woodland strawberries, but we were lucky if we got four or five as the birds used to know the moment they were ripe and would get there before us! But I didn’t begrudge them their feast as they were such characters. And they can’t get to the shops to buy their own. July 24, 2013 at 8:48am
Victoria: I was surprised how well my plants took off, and when they finally bore fruit, I couldn’t think of anything better than get some champagne. 4 berries were enough to flavor a couple of flutes. And yes, birds were very interested in my mini strawberry farm! July 24, 2013 at 9:56am
The Blue Squid: Chiming in again! You mentioned in your article that methyl anthranilate is found in gardenia, and a number of odourous fruits. I found this interesting, as the smell of gardenia blossom is, to me, a bit like the smell of the fejoa, which is a green, tangy egg-shaped tree fruit that sometimes crops up in New Zealand. Forgive me if you know of the fejoa and its charms already. I notice the fejoa-ish note sometimes in white floral perfumes such as Fracas and Bubblegum Chic, so I wonder if it is the same chemical. July 24, 2013 at 9:02am
The Blue Squid: Lol at my poor spelling. *feijoa* July 24, 2013 at 9:09am
Victoria: Please don’t apologize for your spelling! It’s all pretty informal here. 🙂
Anyway, feijoa also contains it, and if you grind some feijoa with sugar (either in equal proportions, or by using half as much sugar as fruit), it will taste almost exactly like wild strawberries. You don’t even have to cook it, but do store it in the fridge. When I was little, it was my favorite jam. Unfortunately, I haven’t seen or tasted feijoa for ages. July 24, 2013 at 10:01am
The Blue Squid: Gosh! That’s fascinating about the feijoa spread. Thanks! Unfortunately, like you, I haven’t seen one in a long time. They used to be a common back yard fruit tree when I was a tiny squid in far-off NZ. Since then, they have not been a feature of my life in any way, shape or form. July 25, 2013 at 3:42am
Victoria: I was told that guava is similar, but it doesn’t taste the same to me. Of course, guavas in the European stores are pretty much inedible, too hard and sour. July 25, 2013 at 8:35am
The Blue Squid: I agree; guava is not the same flavour, even when ripe. It is a bit coarse, sweet and powdery compared to feijoa. July 25, 2013 at 8:59am
nikki: Oh how lovely Victoria! Thank you for the chemistry lesson, the more I learn, the more I miss not having had chemistry in a sufficient manner! I love fraises des bois, we found those in the woods of Germany when I grew up, so delicious. I have started using clotted cream with brown sugar on strawberries, very tasty! July 24, 2013 at 9:11am
Victoria: My pleasure! I thought that it was quite fascinating, and it’s fun to see these parallels once you know what to look for.
Belgian stores have an incredible variety of sugar, and I’ve fallen in love with the raw dark brown sugar available here. It tastes like floral caramel with a hint of chocolate! July 24, 2013 at 10:03am
Bela: Oh, I’d give anything to be able to taste fraises des bois again – once. They are so perfumed, and different from everything else. I remember them from holidays in Switzerland when I was a child. *salivating like mad* July 24, 2013 at 9:31am
Victoria: One summer I did my dissertation research in Poland, and my most vivid memory of those few months are wild strawberries. They were so unbelievably cheap and plentiful, and I would buy a basket of them every day to enjoy as my lunch. I have never experienced anything like that since then. July 24, 2013 at 10:08am
Tora: I have never had woodland strawberries, only raspberries and blackberries. Those too, are much smaller than their grocery counterpart, and the flavor more concentrated and intense. A lot more seeds, too. I am excited to try this recipe! Thank you so much for sharing this! July 24, 2013 at 9:36am
Victoria: This reminds me of an Indian jasmine grower who said that the less he does to his plant, the better it smells. I also find the flavor of wild raspberries to be incredibly intense. I will happily trade flavor for looks or sweetness. July 24, 2013 at 10:11am
Belle: This sounds like the perfect simple and sweet but healthy breakfast 😉 Strawberries only grow in my country at one place, which is considered the Summer capital here because it’s the coldest city here. I initially disliked them, but now I really like strawberries! I guess I disliked them before because the first ones I remember tasting were quite sour. And how I wish orange blossom water was available locally here, it sounds like a lovely ingredient for baking!
On a side note, have you ever tasted Manila mangoes, Victoria? They’re intensely sweet! July 24, 2013 at 9:40am
Victoria: I haven’t tasted Manila mangoes, only the Mexican, Pakistani and Indian ones, but I would love to. I’m actually making a cold buckwheat noodle salad with mango and eggplant today, because mango is associated with cooling summer food for me for some reason (not sure if it’s really cooling, but it’s certainly at its best in hot months).
You must have lots of jasmine available to you, so you can probably make jasmine water to flavor deserts. It would be a different taste but likewise interesting. July 24, 2013 at 9:45am
Shirinalzebari: Sounds delicious , shall try it July 24, 2013 at 9:47am
Victoria: I hope that you like it! Rose water is another interesting accent for strawberries, but it makes for a completely different effect. July 24, 2013 at 10:12am
solanace: I love how you use floral waters, V!
Frasise des bois are so amazing, a little dry ad bitter, but that smell. Wow! It is so cool that these traditional crops, many of which were almost lost at some point, are getting more and more attention in the recent years. We have many delicious, albeit not extremely productive, species of Andean corn that are being rediscovered too. So much fun! July 24, 2013 at 9:52am
solanace: Oh, sorry for the typos in the first sentence! July 24, 2013 at 9:53am
Victoria: It is blue corn? A friend brought some blue corn flour for me from Chile and the flavor was incredible, so rich and toasty. July 24, 2013 at 10:14am
solanace: There a blue, white, yellow, orange… I got a little bag of seeds from some cool guys who came from Peru, they come in all shapes and colors. (i didn’t manage to grow them, though 🙁 )By the way, not many things are more interesting than na Andean market. Many, many potatoes as well… July 25, 2013 at 12:17pm
Victoria: My friend was telling me about dried potatoes used in Peruvian cooking, which sounded intriguing. In Belgium, the variety of potatoes is almost overwhelming, and I feel that I’m rediscovering this vegetable anew. July 25, 2013 at 3:39pm
Annikky: I’ve never been a big fan of corn (probably also because what’s available where I live is of dubious quality and not fresh), but then I read Chalres C. Mann’s ‘1491’. He dedicates a big part of the book to corn/maize and all of it is fascinating. This is where I saw the heritage cultivars for the first time and it was instant love. They a so varied and beautiful, I especially liked the multicoloured ones – like pearls on strings. July 26, 2013 at 4:03am
Austenfan: Lovely recipe! I have been making fruit salads the past few days and as I don’t have orange blossom water (yet) I use different kinds of Eau-de-Vie instead. Poire Williams goes well with strawberries, melons and the like. I actually like my fruitsalads better after a day (or two). They don’t look s pretty but the flavour is amazing. July 24, 2013 at 10:50am
Austenfan: s means “as” July 24, 2013 at 10:51am
Victoria: I do too. But some people don’t like the soggy texture of berries which have been macerating for too long. I have a bottle of Poire Williams in my eau de vie collection, and it smells like ripe, sweet pears. It’s too strong for me to drink on its own, but in a dessert, it’s wonderful. July 24, 2013 at 11:50am
Austenfan: I know, which is why I keep that delicacy for myself.
I’ve visited Poland twice and was amazed by their excellent strawberries. They only have them in June but they were delicious. My very kind friends would buy me a kilo everyday. July 24, 2013 at 12:44pm
Victoria: The regular strawberries are delicious there too. I suspect that it is because they haven’t started growing the same commercial variety we get elsewhere. When I buy strawberries in Ukraine at a farmer’s market or help my grandmother pick them from her garden, I notice they keep their perfect shape for a short while before they start getting bruised and soft. Not so with the supermarket berries with which you can play ping pong. July 24, 2013 at 2:27pm
Austenfan: I giggled at the ping pong comment. You are right. I think I had regular strawberries there. But they were much smaller than the ones I see at supermarkets here. Also they were only available for a month so they can’t have been tampered with that much. I loved that you could buy them anywhere; at bus stops for instance. There would always be an elderly lady selling a few kilos of them. In general the quality of the vegetables sold in their markets was really outstanding.
When I was a child we often spent our holidays in Norway. I remember excellent strawberries there as well. You had these strawberry farms where you had to pick them yourself. Needless to say that I didn’t contribute much. I remember photographs of myself at the age of around 5 or 6 years surreptitiously eating them. July 24, 2013 at 3:39pm
Victoria: I love those ladies. They usually have just a handful of things, and the produce may not be picture perfect, but it tastes wonderful.
By the way, my mother-in-law tried wild strawberries for the first time when she was visiting recently, and then after a visit to the museums in Amsterdam she observed that it’s the same berry appearing in many Flemish still lives. There is even a painting (I need to look up the name of the artist) which features a big bowl of fraises des bois. July 24, 2013 at 4:39pm
Austenfan: It is probably the one by Adriaan Coorte and it’s called “Stilleven met bosaardbeien”. It belongs to the Mauritshuis collection and while that is undergoing major restoration work it is currently in the Haags Gemeentemuseum. I saw it there a few weeks ago. The painter is originally from Middelburg in Zeeland. Which is not quite Flanders, but close.
http://www.mauritshuis.nl/index.aspx?FilterId=974&ChapterId=1163&ContentId=14607 July 24, 2013 at 5:06pm
Victoria: Yes, that’s the one! Once again, I turned to google and realized that Adriaen Coorte painted quite a few still lives with strawberries. There are at least half a dozen attributed to him.
Last year I wrote a post about scented references in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. I just remembered where else I’ve seen wild strawberries–as part of the background for Triptych of the Virgin and Child with Saints (picture #1 in the post):
https://boisdejasmin.com/2012/05/scented-trail-through-the-art-institute-of-chicago.html July 24, 2013 at 5:52pm
Austenfan: Thanks for reminding me of that post!
I recently went to the Haags Gemeentemuseum and saw the strawberries, which is why I knew which painting you were talking about.
I visited the museum with the 13 year old daughter of a friend of mine who displayed a great preference for still lives and the View of Delft by Vermeer. It was interesting to make that visit with her as she had such a fresh outlook on the paintings.
On another note, I just now tried that pu erh au jasmin (from Nong Cha) that I mentioned a couple of weeks ago. Give it a go, it is superb, I can’t describe it. It’s like a soft woody jasmin, no sharpness, no bitterness, no corners, just soft curves. July 28, 2013 at 11:35am
Victoria: Soft curves, jasmine and tea is all I need to hear. To be honest, I would love that in a perfume bottle too. July 28, 2013 at 4:32pm
Austenfan: That would be truly wonderful. Now you go and find that perfumer! July 29, 2013 at 5:19am
Ann: Last year we moved into this lovely old Tudor (well, ersatz Tudor circa 1927) that sits on half an acre of gardens and oak trees, and, voila, there was a carpet of fraises des bois along one side of the property. I was so excited. But sadly the pretty red fruits poking out from the curly leaves had absolutely no flavor at all. Purely decorative! What a waste. What genius thought to engineer flavorless fruit you should only look at. Now when people notice the berries and start to coo… I have to explain that they are just a tease, a joke left by the previous gardener, only to look at, not to play with… 🙁 July 24, 2013 at 12:00pm
Victoria: My mom has those too, and I was so excited when I spotted them. However, once I tasted and discovered that they have no flavor at all, it was a major disappointment. Our botanist neighbor told us that those are mock strawberries, which are not even in the same genus as real, edible strawberries. If it helps any, I just googled the Latin name, because I didn’t remember it off the top of my head, and they are Potentilla indica. Fraises des bois are Fragaria vesca. July 24, 2013 at 12:09pm
Ann: That is interesting that they are not even in the same genus a proper strawberries. I shall now tell my disappointed visitors that those lovely, dark red luciousnesses are in fact Potentilla Destitutiones, genus infractus pectus!
Thanks as always for your lyrical take on something I’d stopped paying attention to! I also adore Concord grapes, which I find extremely complex in taste and smell, and divine in stews and jellies! July 24, 2013 at 12:26pm
Victoria: Our neighbor did call it a “noxious weed”! 🙂
I love the smell of Concord grapes, musky, sweet, lush. Peanut butter and grape jelly is one of my favorite snacks. July 24, 2013 at 2:22pm
Andy: Yes, as Victoria said, Potentilla indica! Such a disappointment! I had the very same experience finding these “mock strawberries” in a local park. I thought I had finally found some fraises des bois in the states, only to be disappointed. Luckily for me, there are also wild blackberries that grow in that same park, so I managed to have a nice snack that day nonetheless. Unfortunately, it seems I have a habit of eating things in the wild that I am probably supposed to leave alone! July 24, 2013 at 11:50pm
Victoria: If it were anyone else, I would be worries, but with your knowledge of plants, Andy, I’m certain that you won’t eat just about anything. 🙂 July 25, 2013 at 8:18am
Lisa A-Q: This is really exciting to read. I have these strawberries growing this year and I can’t wait to try them. Your photos are stunning. Methyl anthranilate is interesting and I’ve been working with it trying to tame an ylang ylang fragrance in the works. Thanks for the recipe and the tip on leaves & stems. I’ll keep this in mind for later. July 24, 2013 at 12:35pm
Victoria: Thank you, Lisa! It’s the smell of childhood summers for me, or at least, one of them. I envy your strawberry patch, and I wish you a plentiful harvest! July 24, 2013 at 2:24pm
minette: these are the best strawberries! my mother grew them in strawberry pots when i was little, and i’ve never had any better than those! July 24, 2013 at 2:51pm
Victoria: They grow so well in pots. I was really surprised to discover that. July 24, 2013 at 4:35pm
Emma M: Oh, yum; adding this to my list of recipes to try. And I love the pretty teacup in your photos, Victoria.
I’m eager to try growing my own wild strawberries too – though most plants I try to cultivate end up getting mauled by my pet cats! July 24, 2013 at 5:37pm
Victoria: It’s the only one that survived the move. The rest were shattered, and I’m afraid that it returns time and again as my prop. 🙂
My mom’s cats destroy all of her plants, but their favorite seemed to be a mini palm tree. They effectively used it as a scratching post. July 24, 2013 at 5:56pm
Andy: I love this idea for macerating strawberries with orange blossom water. Pavlova is one of my all-time favorite desserts, so naturally I am imagining this atop a featherweight meringue disc heaped with whipped cream. Mmm!
I haven’t been able to find any fraise des bois here in the states ever, so I am eager to try this just to get an idea of what they might be like. Interesting to learn some more about Methyl anthranilate too. When I took chemistry, I remember asking my chemistry teacher if he had any anthranilic acid (among others) when we were making esters. While he seemed amused by my enthusiasm, he politely had to tell me that, no, he did not happen to have any of the acids I was looking for. I think he must have thought I was acting a bit crazed, but I was desperately hoping to synthesize one of the more exciting esters I was familiar with from the world of perfumes. As it would turn out, I ended up making the decidedly non perfume-friendly isoamyl acetate. The synthetic banana note was still fun to create, though since it is apparently also a bee pheromone, I don’t expect it will be a part of the next big launch. 🙂
Anyway, in my paleta cookbook, the author mentions in the strawberry paleta recipe to use fraise des bois if possible. Nonetheless, making them with regular strawberries perfumed the whole kitchen! As you puree them with sugar syrup and lemon, the scent of strawberry literally seems to explode out into the entire space. Amazing! July 25, 2013 at 12:20am
Victoria: But it’s essential for a banana flavor! 🙂 It’s funny that when I was a student, organic chemistry was my least favorite subject, and it took me much longer to find it interesting. I suppose, it might have something to do with how it was taught. July 25, 2013 at 8:33am
maja: My parents grow regular strawberries. An old variety packed with flavour. Sometimes when the summer is too hot and dry the small ones would have the intense smell and taste of wild strawberries. In the last years we had around 40 kg of them so I had to come up with lots of ideas. Heidi Swanson’s roasted strawberries had a nice twist, black pepper strawberry jam, mint strawberry jam, red fruit crumble, summer pies and of course a huge bowl of fresh strawberries with a little bit of rose water. 🙂
I don’t find wild strawberries close to my grandma’s home as much as I used to. And it’s a shame since they are a part of my most vivid childhood memories. July 25, 2013 at 3:29am
Victoria: Sounds like a delicious problem to have on hand! My grandmother was complaining that this year’s harvest was too low–only 20kg. 🙂 July 25, 2013 at 8:34am
Sazzly Glimmer: From experience I have found that strawberries are just a nightmare to grow! I have so many raspberry plants they are turning into a jungle but I love them so much!! Definitely give them a try! July 25, 2013 at 4:36am
Victoria: My grandmother grows several varieties, and the cultivated strawberries are a lot of work. You have to trim them and replant them time to time, which is very time consuming. The wild strawberry, on the other hand, is a hardy little plant and doesn’t need all that much work. The leaves also makes a pretty cover. July 25, 2013 at 8:38am
Nicola: Thank you Victoria for the tip and a great blog! I have orange blossom water in the cupboard that was bought on a whim for a Yotam Ottolenghi recipe (Watercress, Pistacio and Orange Blossom salad, which was yummy by the way). The Blackcurrants are having a pumper crop this season as are my Japanese Wineberries (if you haven’t tried these, they are a cross between a red currant and a rasberry) and the wild Bilburries (a tiny relative to your Blueberry) are just ready here in the Forest of Dean…I think I will happily tinker with your tip this weekend! Many Thanks from across the pond x July 25, 2013 at 8:38am
Victoria: Thank you for solving the Japanese Wineberry mystery for me. There were several bushes near my old house, and I never knew what they were called. They certainly didn’t taste exactly like raspberry, even though they resembled it. Your berry crops make me envious!
I love Ottolenghi’s recipes and cooked through his Jerusalem a few months ago. He’s very creative with his flavor pairings. July 25, 2013 at 8:42am
Karina: I love the scent of strawberries – I’ve always thought they have such a pretty scent, like the orange blossom flower! I will definitely be trying this recipe, thank you Victoria for more kitchen inspiration! July 26, 2013 at 2:42am
Victoria: The first time I’ve tried this combination I wondered why I haven’t thought of it sooner. Sometimes, of course, I just want to enjoy strawberries for their own flavor, but it’s fun to accentuate it. July 26, 2013 at 2:34pm
Annikky: I will restrain myself and not start an ode to wild strawberries, but I really do love them. I pick some every year and eat either as they are or with milk and a little sugar. Heaven.
When it comes to regular strawberries, I really recommend trying them in savoury recipes as well. They generally don’t work in something that needs heat, but are excellent in salads. Salmon (raw or slightly smoked), avocado and strawberries is a wonderful combination, as is mozzarella, strawberries and basil with some pepper and a good balsamic vinegar. July 26, 2013 at 4:16am
Victoria: Oh, please do! I never get tired of hearing more about wild berries. 🙂
Anyway, I followed your advice and made mozzarella, strawberry and balsamic vinegar salad for dinner. I forgot basil, which was an oversight (I blame this horrid heat!), since its peppery-licorice note goes perfectly with strawberries. It was absolutely delicious, and it was the first time I’ve tried mozzarella with strawberries. I will be making it again and again, while the season lasts. Thank you! July 26, 2013 at 2:36pm
Annikky: So glad you enjoyed it – I love this combination and it’s ridiculously easy to make, too. It’ll taste even better with basil! July 26, 2013 at 3:44pm
Karina: I was surprised the first time I saw strawberries in a savoury salad, but realised they can indeed be sweet or savoury. I would never have thought they would go with cheese and balsamic vinegar though, will have to give that a try! July 26, 2013 at 6:17pm