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| Pear Preserves using unripe pears! Yumm! |
If you are ever fortunate enough to locate an unattended pear tree and wondered what to do with your windfall, here is a fantastic recipe. There are many different types of pear trees. Some are eating pears and some are cooking pears. While both come off the tree hard, cooking pears tend to stay hard and do not soften with time. Which ever pear that you have, if it is hard, this is the recipe for you. It actually requires unripe pears since they will keep their shape and not dissolve with cooking. However, they will soften to perfection.
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| Unloved pears from the front of an ancient apartment building at my old college! |
Ingredients:
4 1/2 quarts (18 cups) peeled, seed removed, and chopped small hard unripe pears
2 t cinnamon
1 t nutmeg
16 oz can crushed pineapple (2 small cans)
4 cups white sugar
2 cups brown sugar
3 T lemon juice
Lemon juice for chopping
Directions:
Chop pears, placing them into water with lemon juice to keep from turning brown.
Drain once chopped.
In a large stock pot, place half the pears, sprinkle with half the sugar, half the spices and half the pineapple. Repeat with remaining halves.
Refrigerate over night. The next day juice will have accumulated.
Add lemon juice. Simmer until pears are soft and sauce is at desired thickness. Stir occasionally, more often toward the end. This will take between 2 and 4 hours. If pears are ready and sauce has not thickened as desired, remove some juice and add 2 tablespoons of corn starch. Mix and then return to pot to thicken.
Place in sterilized jars and water bath can for 15 minutes.
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| This is really, really good! |
You're darn right.
ReplyDeleteWe made a killer salsa from pears. Sweet-hot and to die for. The hard ones cook down wonderfully. The ingredients were:
Pears
Sweet red peppers
Jalepenos
Onions
Chopped garlic
Black pepper
Salt
Cumin
Red (hot) pepper
... and some amount of vinegar.
My gosh. Really awesome. Now I wish I had some pears lying around. They're not as easy to find in Florida as they were in TN.
David the Good: I have on my kitchen counter right now all the ingredients you listed above so as to lacto-ferment them all into a salsa (instead of the vinegar). Can you give any more details--like measurements? Are you sure these are all the ingredients? Is it OK if I use super hot "bonnet peppers" in place of cayenne for the red hot peppers? Is it OK if I use a few orange and yellow peppers along with the red (b/c I couldn't get all red sweet peppers)? Hope you see this! -- Nancy in TN
DeleteThanks, I am going to have to try that as well!!
ReplyDeleteI came across your site after finding my first fruit tree to forage from in Nashville and I decided to google for other foragers in the area. I've loved your content I've read so far, and I'm excited to learn from someone who has been doing it for awhile!
ReplyDeleteHi Holly! Glad you are here! Of course I love this topic, and it is great meeting someone local who does as well!
ReplyDeleteDr. Mom, Do you ever lead educational foraging tours for groups? Are you up for driving an hour south to do so? How much would you charge? If this is possible, please contact me through info@CreativeCountryLiving.com. Thanks! -- Nancy
ReplyDeleteMy tree is so loaded with growing fruit that some have fallen off. I hate to waste them. I have an old-timey sausage grinder. Without shredding or chopping (I'm nearly 80, but still strong), is there any way I could use the grinder instead? I haven't used it, but I've kept it around. Thanks.
ReplyDeletePatricia, you probably could use a grinder as some recipes do include skin. However, you may still need to core them to remove the seeds.
ReplyDeleteOk so i got some very hard pears from the food bank and I just cant waste food soo found your website, cooking about 20 rock hard tasteless pears and luckily had everything except i substituted coconut nectar and stevia for the sugar and two cuties for the lemons. ( we made do with what we had) the house smells great and the dish came out wonderful!
ReplyDeleteCan someone help me with the doses of cups please? Have all ingredients but rather lost with cup measurements? Many thanks!
ReplyDelete18 cups of pears after you have peeled, cored and chopped.
DeleteA cup is 8 oz
ReplyDeleteI didn't have any pineapple, but had a ton of pears! Is the pineapple just for taste or is it essential for it to keep longer (the acidity in the pineapple)?
ReplyDeleteGuess we will find out! Spent two hours chopping! Can't wait to finish it, thank you.
To my dismay,yesterday I found a large branch on one of my pear trees had broken and was hanging down due to being weighed down by so many pears. I went ahead and cut the branch off and picked all the pears off the broken branch. Excluding the ones that were way too small, there were maybe about 25 or 30 pears. They were all coming along nicely, but none were ripe and they were all too hard to eat. After finding this blog, I decided to peel and core all of the pears. Put as many pear halves that would fit in a large pot of water and boiled for maybe 35 or 40 minutes. Added cane sugar, vanilla, and Karo corn syrup to the boiling water. Just whatever I had in the cabinet. Removed one of the pear halves after maybe 30 minutes. It had softened up nicely but was still firm and not at all mushy. Easily chopped up with a table knife. Let the mix cool down and refrigerated overnight. Chopped up some of the pear halves this morning in a bowl, sprinkled on more cane sugar, cinnamon and a dash of nutmeg. I thought they were quite good! I read somewhere that these hard unripe pears don't soften up when cooked, but that wasn't true. Glad I didn't toss them on the compost pile. Will make another batch with the remaining pears.
ReplyDeleteDo you have the measurements on the ingredients for sweet-hot salsa
ReplyDeleteHow long will it last for once it's cooked? Thanks smells great as I'm doing a batch now
ReplyDeleteGot a bunch sent to me in Central California from an Oregon provider & will use some of these tips to make them edible. A Father's Day gift.
ReplyDeleteHave a hard pear tree in the yard. Am cooking pear butter for the 1st time. Hope it comes out ok, and libbed the ingredients.
ReplyDeleteSame here in Ohio, and eager to use our hard pears and make them more palatable. That salsa, from David, sounds great!
ReplyDeleteThe Official Website of Author David The Good
ReplyDeleteThe Best Pear Salsa Recipe Ever
Many people have asked about our pear salsa recipe. It’s about time I share it!
https://www.thesurvivalgardener.com/best-pear-salsa-recipe/
These hard pears don't ripen on the tree. Pick and set aside for two weeks.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, I have done them many ways,cook straight from the tree,age a few days,and age two weeks. They all work. Probably sweeter and easier to peel and cut if aged.
I too have a "hard" pear tree that always has an abundance of fruit. Last year I made pear preserves, pear honey, pear jam and pear butter. This year I am only making the preserves, honey and jam. I generally sit my sliced pears with the required sugar in the fridge overnight and then cook the next day. I am going to try making jelly using the cores this year. Any suggestions?
ReplyDeletePineapple? Do you drain or add the juice?
ReplyDeleteHave a large prolific hard pear tree. Hardest part of prepping them is the peeling. Have used them to make pear upside down cake but cut pieces real small. Have also made a baked pear like the baked apples at Cracker Barrel. Also make a pear sauce to over waffles and pancakes (cooking, adding sugar, thickening with cornstarch and serve warm).Plus we just eat them raw when ripe and they are similiar to an apple. If anyone has a suggestion for easy peeling, let me know. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteI put the pears in my instant pot and pressure cook for 3 minutes. Let sit 3 more minutes then release the pressure and place pears in cold water to cool. When they are cool they easily peel with a paring knife. Have made this recipe twice this year. Perfect both times!
DeleteSounds like a plan. Helene knocked many onto ground so this will really help.
DeleteI put the pears in my instant pot and pressure cook for 3 minutes. Let sit 3 more minutes then release the pressure and place pears in cold water to cool. When they are cool they easily peel with a paring knife. Have made this recipe twice this year. Perfect both times!
ReplyDelete