What to do with pears........?

Started by tricia, October 24, 2010, 18:01:26

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tricia

I've bottled several jars of my pear harvest but have now run out of jars. Has anyone frozen them successfully?

Tricia

tricia


pg

Have pureed mine and added them to chutney as an alternative sweetner to raisins.

Does add good background sweetness but low pectin level could leave chutney sloppy.

qahtan

#2
 Pears are just great frozen, I always do them,,,,, I just poach them
with a hint of ascorbic acid (Vit C)  in the thin syrup to hold the colour, then cool them and pack and freeze, I like to do them in bite size pieces.
                 I don't add much sugar as I find pears are very sweet anyway...
qahtan

manicscousers

we poach them with wine or cider then freeze with some of the syrup, lovely in a trifle  :)

picman

We found a nice pear jam receipt on the www.

cambourne7

I have been making baby purees with them and there so nice we have also been using the mixes to make flavoured yogurts :)

This is what we have been up to :-

Fresh Pear and apple with a few dried apricots and no more than 2 prunes (steamed in a bowl and the dried fruit swell with the juices from the fresh) when all soft wizz till smooth and pour into a ice cube tray freeze overnight and then pop into a zip bag and into freezer and just take out when needed. Good for 3 months in the freezer but does not last that long as were on our 3rd batch in a month now!

We have done the above with some fresh plums (skin on) and its also really yum.

Or make some individual cubes (plum, mango, pear, apple, papaya etc) and mix up your own flavour

tricia

Thank you everyone for your suggestions. I shall poach and freeze the remainder tomorrow.

Tricia

qahtan

#7
pears also make a lovely pie, make like apple pie, put a couple spoonfulls of lemon curd in with the pears, or make a lemon sauce to go over it, I made pear and blackberry for first time this years as we had so many of each.....also nice.

            qahtan
 
Wow it's many many years since I have been to Paignton,,,, happy memory's though.                        

tricia

Haven't been to Ontario, but lived for three years in Calgary from 1997 till 2000. My sister still lives there.

Tricia

qahtan

 Getting back to pears, I just made a pear upside down cake,, diced the pears, made caramel added glace cherry's then cheated, used a lemom cake mix added lemon pudding to it.... it's stll in the oven but smells good, ;-))) I am a scratch baker 99% of the time but thought I would try this lemon mix..... it's a Duncan Hines,,,,,,,,,,,,, qahtan

artichoke

Useful ideas here. I have been making dried apple rings in a fan oven turned down very low, and I have read that the same can be done with pears, so I will try it today.

In case it helps, I have stopped putting expensive lemon juice into the water where the rings lie while I finish preparing them (to stop them going brown) and simply add a little salt instead. Cheaper and just as effective, though they never remain the snowy white of commercial dried apples and pears.

tricia

Good idea Artichoke - I still have the largest pear from my harvest to process and since I have a dehydrator why didn't I think of that? Getting old   ::).

Tricia

qahtan

I find pears go a bit hard when dried in the dehydrator, I don't think salt
will hold your colour and really lemon doesn't do a wonderful job to my mind, but try a vitamin c tablet, that's ascorbic acid and does a wonderfull job,
if you dissolve that in water  it will bring the colour white back on fruit that has sat on the counter waiting to be processed and is beginning to go a little brown.
I buy ascorbic powder from the drug store. 1/2 teaspoon ascorbic acid to about 1 1/2  to 2  litres water, try it, I have been using it for about 20 years,

artichoke

Thanks, I'll try that. Vitamin C tablets.

artichoke

qatan: I have a huge bag of citric acid - do you think that would do instead of buying Vitamin C tablets?

qahtan

#15
 Google say's this. The fact is, there is citric acid and ascorbic acid in lemon juice, but they are not the same thing, and it is the ascorbic acid that keeps the fruits and vegetables from turning brown. Indeed, ascorbic acid is the more versatile and essential of the two acids. So I don't think your citric acid will do it. sorry. qahtan.
I buy my ascorbic acid by the 500 gram drum and it lasts me years, in fact I just got a new one about a month ago.. the old one was $35 and this new one $42,    see what a nice colour these are  .    

qahtan

Have you tried making pear leather, leathers always come out good.
                             
                         qahtan

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