Should You Wash Raspberries and How to Do It Right
I’d never really thought about it before, but now the question came up: do you need to wash raspberries?
Raspberries
Many of us have known since childhood that you shouldn’t wash raspberries: water makes them go mushy and lose their flavor. So what should you do?
Why you should wash them anyway
The environment isn’t great these days: dust, acid rain, viruses, bacteria and all that. Plus, bugs and larvae often hide inside the berries. So I would wash raspberries, especially ones bought at a market.
How to wash raspberries
- Wash them right before eating, not in advance: washed raspberries go mushy quickly, and after half an hour they’re not great.
- If the berries might have bugs or larvae, first soak them for a couple of minutes in a weak salt solution: the bugs will crawl out and float to the top.
- Then gently rinse the berries in a colander under a gentle stream of running water, without stirring them by hand.
- Let the water drain, spread the raspberries on a paper towel and eat them right away.
What if they’re from your own garden
Many people don’t wash raspberries from their own bushes at all, where nobody has sprayed them and there’s no road dust: they pick them and eat them straight away, as they taste better that way. If the berries are clean, it’s your call; if they’re visibly dirty, give them a rinse.