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I usually core strawberries with a paring knife, but if I'm in a big hurry, I cut a V-shaped wedge to remove the top and core. That's almost as fast as slicing off the whole top, but strikes me as less wasteful.

I use the tip of a vegetable peeler. Stick the tip in like a spade, perhaps twist a little if it's a stubborn berry, then pinch with your thumb and lift. Simple and waste-free.

I do the same thing as ShelleyIN -- V-shaped wedge in the top.

I also take a v-shaped wedge off the top. Usually it gets rid of any unripe white parts around the stem as well. It also has the added bonus that when sliced in half, it makes a pretty heart shape, perfect for tarts or other uses where you lay the strawberry halves flat!

Straight across the top, straight down the middle. The little white core tends to fall right out of ripe strawberries after this T-cut.

I take a normal sized drinking straw push it from the bottom threw the strawberry to the top and it takes out the core and the green leaves from the top.

V-shaped wedge ftw!
Actually I was going to be making ugly galettes the other day and started using .... my fingers. Just grabbing the greens and using my finger to gouge out the tough bits attached to the stem. Was it ugly and hypothetically kind of gross to bystanders? Yes. Quick, efficient, and wasteless? Yes!

I have a little tomato corer that works great for strawberries also. It looks like a tiny melon baller with teeth. If the strawberries are teeny tiny I do still have to use a knife so I don't take too much out.

alabaster: fingers work especially with really soft berries, but I do remember getting strawberry juices lodged under my nail when I was a kid - ouch!

I like the vegetable peeler idea; I usually core with a paring knife, but it does take a little longer.

That's how my mom ALWAYS preps strawberries...just buds them. I don't know why people would think it's gross; it's just the stem after all. In the end, it's all good!

whole foods paper towels! (haha)

Bud them - that's a good term and that's what I do. I don't want to waste any strawberry if I can help it.

With a wire egg slicer.

Wire egg slicer. Works like a charm.

I have my grandmother's strawberry huller. It looks like fat tweezers. I always thought it was called a strawberry topper till I tried to find another one.
You just pluck out the stem with a little bit of berry surrounding stem. no knives, no danger, quick and easy.

google search resulted in a good image: http://wendihiebert.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/strawberry-huller.jpg

I've heard that strawberry hullers don't work so well on modern strawberries. It's something to do with the way they're bred now, or something like that. This is heresay, since I've never owned a huller.

Me, I just slice off the top straight across, and nibble on the scraps. But so many strawberries are those wierd conjoined twin or triplet berries anymore, the only way to top them is to cut the V-shaped wedge. Whatever works for the individual berry, and gives me some leftover bits to snack on!

http://www.abreadaday.com

Our pet rabbit adores strawberry - the fruit and the green bits so I cut straight across and give the waste to our rabbit to enjoy.

I've also used a drinking straw, but most of the time I just cut straight across the top. It depends on whether or not I want them to be pretty.

My grandfather used to grow strawberries, so as a kid we always had pints and pints and pints of the best berries ever. Most of the time they just got washed and eaten, but if they did make it long enough to get cut, then they got cored. For me, it doesn't take much more time to core them than it does to slice off the top, and I think most of the strawberries I get now taste better without the white core.

Depends on size (I answered 'Neither' but it's really 'Both!'). Small ones I just cut across the top, larger ones get either a V or cored.

I'm all about using the fingers. A little bit of a dig with the thumbnail usually does the trick. I'll have to remember the veggie peeler idea for when my nails are short, though.

Alton Brown uses a the star pastry tip, and pushes in as far as needed and then twists out. Then, an egg slicer works great to get even slices.

I use a strawberry corer, but I don't worry about taking off much more than the green stem. It's just a quick flick of the wrist (I perfected *that* making strawberry pies when I worked at Shoney's). It's a small little tool and it works great for my tomatoes too. This is the best example I can find:
http://www.parade.com/export/sites/default/food/recipe-tips/images/glossary/c/corer.jpg

I also have a strawberry huller.

huller.

If the strawberries are going into something where they will still be whole (such as in salads, and not in things like baked goods) then I'll cut them vertically and just pick them up, eating right up until the stem. Yum.