Pears

[jackyspratty]

Hi everyone, we have been given a big bag of cooking pears, very hard, don't really ripen, does anyone have any good ideas for chutneys jams etc. Much appreciated x

[Scottishnewbie]

just about to be in the same position myself so hope someone will come along soon!!

[annacruachan]

Sweet Pear Chutney

3lb pears
1lb onions, peeled and chopped
1lb green tomatoes, sliced
1/2lb stoned raisins, chopped
1/2lb celery, finely chopped
11/2lb demerara sugar
1/4 level teasp cayenne pepper
1/4 level teasp ground ginger
1/2oz salt
6 peppercorns in muslin bag
2pts malt vinegar

Yields approx 4lb

Peel, core and slice the pears.
Place pears, onions, tomatoes and raisins in a large pan and simmer gently until tender with no added liquid.
Add the remaining ingredients and simmer 3 - 3 1/2 hrs until it reaches the desired consistency.
Remove bag of peppercorns. Pot and cover.

I must add that I have not made this myself - found it in an old book - but shall be doing so soon as I bought 3lb of pears rather cheaply today!

Good luck!

[jackyspratty]

Ooh, thankyou, will give this a go. The pears are very very hard, and I'm told they never ripen on the tree. Don't have much flavour either! So this sounds just the thing.

[weekendwellies]

Does this work with soft pears too, or d'ya think it might be too mushy? I have loads of them, got a good crop this year. Even have plenty to give over to the wasps, too.

[jackyspratty]

Don't know if it will work on soft fruit? Mine are rock hard don't seem to ripen and are pretty tasteless!!

[Peanut]

I've got hard cooking pears too....just found this Waitrose recipe, quite strong flavours which will be good for my relatively tastless cooking pears!

Ocado: Recipes:Apple and Pear Chutney

[jackyspratty]

Thanks very much peanut, I'll give this a go tomorrow. Thanks

[Peanut]

I've found another which I'm going to do too, yes I have a lot of tasteless pears!

thepassionatecook: Spicy pear chutney

[bazzaboy]

Pears are a pain... they don't keep well and are either too hard or suddenly too soft. Even the squirrels don't seem to be able to master pears, I've watched them pick a pear, nibble it, decide it's too hard, chuck it away and then pick another identical one with similar results... Wasteful! (I think the answer is probably to eat the squirrels but that's another story.) But meantime if you get fed up using surplus hard pears for chutney and have a slow cooker you could try poaching them as a tasty desert. Peel, halve and core the pears and poach them on a low setting for several hours (they're so hard they retain their shape but go soft and take on the flavours of the liquid). For the poaching liquid put together something appropriately tasty, for example some wine, sugar, piece of ginger and mixed spices wouldn't go far wrong. Serve with custard, cream, yogurt or ice-cream etc. Reduces the stock of useless pears.... b.

[Scottishnewbie]

BB - can you freeze them at this point do you think?

[bazzaboy]

Freeze? oh, dunno, I always eat them! I think they'd go mushy... You could probably successfully bottle them in the poaching liquid/syrup but that's not a process I'm familiar with so hopefully others could advise. With the right jars (Lakeland?) and procedure it's probably not that difficult... b.

[bazzaboy]

Been scouring the Internet for How To Bottle Pears (not that successfully I hasten to add, seems unbelievably complicated....) and came across the memorable line "Bottled pears? Not heard of that since World War Two!" Oops, showing my age, granny used to do it but granny's not been around for the best part of 60 years so now up to GYO to spread the skill... So how do you do it (simply! simply! please...)? b.

[weekendwellies]

Found this link - seems appropriate and suitably easy

http://www.cottagesmallholder.com/bo...ars-recipe-101

[bazzaboy]

Found this link - seems appropriate and suitably easy

http://www.cottagesmallholder.com/bo...ars-recipe-101

LOL... thanks WeekEndWellies... There's also PW's "Sticky" at the top of this section. But are you being ironic when you say "suitably easy" as this version has you boiling the pears for SIX HOURS!! Even JackySpratty's rock-hard pears should respond to that! I'm not sure what the green lobby would think of the fuel expense for a few pears or what value the nutritionists will still find in the pears but as a process (compared to, say, freezing, drying or vacuum packing) it seems very labour and time intensive, costly and potentially even risky....

Yesterday I asked in a helpful local kitchen/cook's shop if the process was still much the same as granny did half a century ago and they thought, with the exception of some of the more specialised pressure equipment etc, largely yes, still much the same. A golden opportunity for some bright inventor on Dragon's Den perhaps, a new self-sealing container that takes some of the faff out of the process? Until that happens I think I'll be content to just eat the fresh ones....

Meantime for those of greater determination to understand and employ this process further, I've found YouTube offers several (American) demo videos - e.g. search for "Home Canning". Two that I found quite instructive on the finer points were:
Home Canning Basics - Part 1- Introduction
YouTube - Home Canning Basics - Part 1- Introduction
and
Home Canning Basics - Part 4 - Water Bath Canning
YouTube - Home Canning Basics - Part 4 - Water Bath Canning

Hope that helps... b.