Doris and Jilly Cook » pears

Brandied Pears

dorisandjilly — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 11:55:44 +0000

Like regular canned pears, only drunk.

Brandied Pears

5 pounds ripe, yet firm, pears
Sugar syrup, at your preferred level of sweetness (I like 1 sugar: 2 water)
Several cups brandy

1) Put on a pot for a boiling water bath and sterilize your jars. I used 2 quarts and 2 pints. Life will be easier if you use wide-mouth jars. Heat up appropriate lids to match.

2) Heat up (or make) your simple syrup.

3) Peel and core your pears. Stuff them as tightly as possible into the jars, cut-side down. Pour 1 c. brandy into each of the quart jars and 1/2 c. brandy into each of the pint jars. Top them off with syrup. Run a spatula or knife around the edges to remove air bubbles, then add more syrup if necessary.

4) Screw on the lids and transfer the jars to the hot water bath. Process pints 20 minutes and quarts 25 minutes.

Let these sit for at least a month before opening to allow the flavors to pervade the fruit. Eat them on their own or over ice cream, and don’t forget the best part: pear brandy. You could boil it down to make a sauce, if you wanted, or just serve it in little tiny portions as a digestif.

Canned Pears with Star Anise

dorisandjilly — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 12:55:31 +0000

Normally, I am a fan of the hot-pack approach to canning fruit, as it helps you fit more fruit into each jar. A recipe in last month’s New York Times, however, convinced me that it’s silly to poach pears separately, since a water-bath canning process will effectively poach the pears for you. I found their recipe, with its thyme, vinegar, and peppercorns, a bit fussy and decided to take a more straightforward approach: simple syrup + star anise. Since I still had some Seckel pears left over from my last trip to Mood’s, I left them whole. It really is the kind of thing that invites endless variation: if you like peppercorns and thyme with your pears, then by all means, you should try it. I suspect ginger would be particularly nice.

Canned Pears with Star Anise

5 pounds pears
4 cups syrup, at your preferred level of sweetness (I like 1:2 sugar: water)
Juice of one lemon
4 star anise

1) Start a boiling water bath large enough to cover 2 quart jars or 4 pint jars. Dissolve the sugar in water and bring the syrup to a boil. Add the lemon juice. While you’re waiting, peel your pears. If they’re small, leave them whole; if they’re large, cut them in half and remove the core. Cut out any bad spots. Don’t forget to warm up your lids.

2) Fit as many pears as possible into each jar, along with 1 star anise per pint jar or 2 per quart jar. Of course, you may need more jars. Cover the pears with syrup, run a knife or spatula along the inside of the jar to remove any air bubbles, and add more syrup if necessary.

3) Process quarts for 25 minutes or pints for 20 minutes in a boiling water bath. Remember to remove the bands and wipe down the jars, as they may be sticky.

Dehydrated Fruit

dorisandjilly — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 12:55:01 +0000

The problem with dehydrated fruit is that the people who live with you tend to eat it before winter comes. The only solution? Dehydrate more fruit.

I’d give you drying times, but they’re sort of meaningless, since it depends on the variety, the thickness of the fruit, the ambient temperature, and how you plan to store them. What I can tell you is that you’ll get happier results if you leave the fruit in large pieces, even if it increases the drying time to 24–36 hours. The pears were pared, cored, and cut lengthwise into four pieces; same goes for the peaches; the plums were just cut in half. In any case, I wouldn’t go any thinner than 3/8″.

Visual cues may be more helpful.

This is what the plums looked like raw:

And this is what they looked like halfway through:

(Bonus: note changing light quality in afternoon vs. morning!)

The plums are done when they look like prunes. Both the pears and the peaches should be flexible, but not moist. Pop them in jars, label them, and hide them well.