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Ginger Pears
10 lbs. pears. 1 lb. crystallized ginger 7 lbs. sugar 4 lemons 6 oranges Peel the pears, cut them into small pieces, put them into an earthenware pan with the sugar, and simmer for one hour. Add the strained orange and lemon juice and the ginger cut into small pieces, and allow to simmer for two and a half hours.
Divide into glasses and cover. 5 lbs. grapes 5 lbs. sugar 1 lb. raisins
The text as printed is imperfect: the weight of pears is missing from the ingredient list, and the last line ("5 lbs. grapes 5 lbs. sugar 1 lb. raisins") belongs to the grape conserve that followed on the page. Read it as a pear and ginger preserve and ignore those three items.
- The missing quantityNo weight of pears is given. Preserves of this period were generally built pound for pound, so 7 lb of prepared pears to 7 lb of sugar is the likely intent — but this is inference, not what the book says.
- "Earthenware pan"A glazed earthenware bowl or crock, in which the fruit is simmered gently. A heavy stainless or enamelled pan does the same job and is far less likely to crack or scorch.
- Crystallized gingerStem ginger preserved in sugar syrup and then rolled in sugar, sold today in bags in the baking aisle. A pound is a great deal by modern taste; 4 to 6 oz gives a clearly gingered preserve without swamping the pears.
- Pears to useFirm, slightly underripe pears hold their shape through three and a half hours of simmering. Fully ripe fruit collapses into a purée, which is not what the small pieces are for.
- The timing, and why it is so longThree and a half hours of simmering is a long sugar reduction. Watch the pan rather than the clock in the last hour: draw it off when a spoonful sets on a chilled plate, or when it reaches 220F, whichever comes first.
- Add the citrus late, as directedThe orange and lemon juice goes in after the first hour, and the acid helps the set. Note that it then simmers a further two and a half hours, so little fresh citrus character will survive.
- "Divide into glasses and cover"Glasses are jelly jars; covering at this date meant a paper or waxed-paper cover, or paraffin wax poured over the surface. Use current canning practice instead: hot jars, two-piece lids, a boiling-water bath, or simply refrigerate and eat within a few weeks.
- YieldOn the inferred 7 lb of pears with 7 lb of sugar this is a very large batch; the number of half-pint jars will depend on how far it is reduced.
Ginger pears belong to the long tradition of preserving hard autumn fruit that will not eat well raw — the coarse, gritty pears of an old garden tree, saved by sugar, citrus and spice. Crystallized ginger came into British and American kitchens through the China trade. The method is one of patience. With no packaged pectin to rely on, the set came entirely from long reduction and the acid of the four lemons and six oranges.