Stewed Pears

Historical Food Fortnightly Challenge # 6: Juicy Fruits

The challenge: It’s fruits! Do something with fruits. It doesn’t get more simple than that. Bonus points for use of heritage crops and ingredients!


I've know for a while that I wanted to make stewed/poached pears in red wine.  I've seen them forever in various cookbooks and never made them (after all, there's no chocolate).  This challenge was just the way to push myself. 

The Recipe
   

I chose Stewed Pears from The New England Cookery by Lucy Emerson. (1808, Montpelier, Vermont) 





How I Made It

The ingredients were very straight forward.  Pears are a fall/winter fruit.  I chose Bosc pears, which are a firm pear, well suited to cooking.

6 Bosc pears, peeled, quartered, and cored
1/2 lb of white sugar (modern pears do tend to be large, so I used the ingredients for larger pears)
10 cloves
3 pieces of lemon peel
1 c of dry red wine (Santa Ema Barrel Select 60/40)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Peel, core, and slice the pears into quarters. Lay them in a ceramic casserole.  Scattered the cloves and lemon peel as evenly as possible across the dish.  Mix the sugar in the wine, trying to dissolve it as much as possible, then pour it over the pears.   




Cover with tin foil and place in a 350 degree oven.

 After 20 minutes I turned the pears over.  I had hoped to spoon the wine/sugar mixture over the pears, but they were too close to make it convenient.  I baked for 40 minutes.


Time to Complete

 No more than 10 minutes prep time.  Baking time, 40-50 minutes.


Cost

The pears were $3.50, the lemon 50 cents.  Sugar and cloves came from my pantry.  Obviously the most expensive item was the wine, but it was a gift and we don't know what it cost.  It tastes mighty good, though!

Were they Successful?

We both thought there were delicious. Lovely, light, fresh, and fruity - why have I never had these before?  

 Never having made or eaten pears cooked like this, I was uncertain if the wine/sugar liquid should turn syrupy or just remain a liquid.  I left it as a liquid.


How Accurate Was It?

As far as I can tell, fully accurate.

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