Home › The Apple › To Dry and Pack Pears
To Dry and Pack Pears
Where winter pears (or those which may be laid by to mellow as late as spring) are not to be had in quantity, pears may be dried in the sun or a slow oven with the same success as are apples. This is a common practice in parts of Europe where pear tarts, stewed pears, and other dishes are concocted from the dried fruit and thoroughly relished. In packing pears place between layers of elder blossoms to add flavour.
A method rather than a formula: the original assumes you know what dried fruit should look and feel like. The two things it leaves out are temperature and a test for doneness.
- "A slow oven" means as low as it goesFor drying, that is 135-150F, well below the 250-300F a slow oven generally means for baking. Prop the door open with a wooden spoon so moisture escapes; a convection setting or a dehydrator does the job better.
- Sun drying needs the right weatherThe traditional practice wants several consecutive days of dry heat above 85F with low humidity, the trays covered with netting and brought in at night. In a damp climate the fruit moulds before it dries.
- Choose firm, not soft, pearsBosc and other winter pears hold their shape well; very ripe Bartlett and Comice go soft, though firm-ripe Bartletts dry perfectly well and are the usual commercial drying pear. Peel, core, and cut into rings or halves no more than 1/4 inch thick so they dry evenly.
- Prevent browningA dip in water acidulated with lemon juice, about 1/4 cup to a quart, keeps the slices pale. Period recipes often skip the step, and untreated fruit darkens as it dries.
- Test for donenessProperly dried pears are leathery and pliable, with no bead of moisture when a cool piece is torn or squeezed. Slices take 8-12 hours in a low oven; halves considerably longer.
- Condition before packingPack the cooled fruit loosely in a sealed jar for a week, shaking daily. If condensation appears inside the glass, the fruit needs more drying time; this step evens out residual moisture and is what prevents mould in storage.
- Elder blossomsUse the flower heads only, stripped from the green stems, and dry them thoroughly first. Elder stems, leaves and unripe berries contain cyanogenic compounds; the flowers do not. They give a light muscat scent that suits pears well.
- YieldRoughly 6 to 8 lb of fresh pears gives about 1 lb dried. Kept airtight in a cool dark place, they hold their quality for six months to a year.
Dried pears were a staple of the German and Alpine winter long before they were a curiosity in English-language cookbooks: Kletzen or Hutzeln, the dark dried pears of Swabia and Austria, went into fruit breads, compotes and the sweet-sour sauces served with smoked meat, and the same habit runs through Switzerland and eastern France. That is the practice this entry is gesturing at when it speaks of "parts of Europe". In an American fruit book of this period, drying was so thoroughly an apple technique that pears were often handled as a footnote to it, the writer's point being simply that the method transfers. The elder blossom layered between the fruit belongs to an older tradition of scenting stored goods, the same instinct that puts a vanilla pod in the sugar jar or a bay leaf in the flour bin.