Pear Jelly
Pear jelly may be successfully made by using the richer varieties of pears not fully ripe, with the usual proportion of sugar and juice: pound for pint (see other fruit jellies), and flavoured as for apple.
This is a shorthand entry that assumes you have already read the apple and general jelly recipes earlier in the section. Here is what it leaves unsaid.
- The hinge: use underripe fruitPears are low in both pectin and acid, and a fully ripe pear will give a syrup that never sets. The instruction to use fruit "not fully ripe" is the whole basis of the recipe, and firm, barely-yellow fruit is what makes it work.
- Add acid anywayEven underripe pears sit at the weak end of the acid range that pectin needs to gel. Modern practice is to add lemon juice, on the order of a tablespoon or two per pint of pear juice.
- "Pound for pint"One pound of sugar to each pint of strained juice: about 2 1/4 cups of granulated sugar to 2 cups of juice. The proportion is by weight for the sugar and volume for the liquid, which is normal in period jelly work.
- "The richer varieties"This probably means dense, perfumed dessert pears rather than watery cooking sorts. Bosc, Seckel, Anjou and Bartlett all answer; Bartlett softens fastest, so catch it early.
- Getting the juiceQuarter the pears with skins and cores left in, since both carry what pectin there is, barely cover with water, simmer until collapsed, and drip through a jelly bag for several hours. Squeezing the bag pushes pulp through and gives a cloudy jelly.
- "Flavoured as for apple"In books of this kind that usually means lemon peel, a piece of bruised ginger, or a few cloves added to the boiling juice and lifted out before potting.
- Knowing when it is doneBoil hard, skim, and test at 220F (8F above the boiling point of water at your altitude), or watch for the syrup to sheet from a cold spoon in two joined drops rather than falling separately. Overcooking pear jelly turns it dark and caramel-flavoured quickly.
- Filling and keepingPeriod practice would have been wax-sealed tumblers stored in a cool cellar. Use hot sterilised jars and a current tested boiling-water process, generally 10 minutes for half-pints, or simply refrigerate and eat within a month.
Pear jelly is the poor relation in the preserving books, and this brisk cross-reference shows why: apple and quince set readily on their own pectin, so they got the full treatment, while the pear needed apology and a workaround. The advice to catch the fruit before full ripeness is old and sound, since pectin in pears converts as the flesh softens. A pear batch could also be cooked down into butters and cheeses instead, where a firm set was not required. Pears also have a long association with spice and lemon in English cookery, which is what lies behind the instruction to flavour them "as for apple" rather than leave them plain.