Pears, Stewed
INGREDIENTS for dish for 6 persons.-8 large pears, 5 oz. of loaf sugar, 6 cloves, 6 whole allspice, 1/2 pint of water, 1/2 pint of port wine, a few drops of prepared cochineal or carmine. AVERAGE Cost, 1s. 8d.
Pare the pears, quarter them, remove the cores, and leave the stalks on; put them into a lined saucepan with the above ingredients, and let them simmer very gently until tender, which will be in from 3 to 4 hours, according to the quality of the pears.
They should be watched, and, STEWED PEARS. when done, carefully lifted out on to a glass dish without breaking them. Boil up the syrup quickly for 2 or 3 minutes; allow it to cool a little, pour it over the pears, and let them get perfectly cold. To improve the colour of the fruit, a few drops of prepared cochineal may be added, which rather enhances the beauty of this dish.
The fruit must not be boiled fast, but only simmered, and watched that it be not too much done.
TIME.-3 to 4 hours.
SEASONABLE from September to January.
A wine-poached pear, written for the hard cooking pears of a Victorian autumn. The long simmer is the point of contention: it is calibrated to fruit almost nothing sold today resembles.
- The hinge: match the time to the pearThree to four hours assumes a dense stewing pear that never softens raw. Firm-ripe Bosc or Conference quarters are tender in 25-40 minutes, and Bartlett/Williams in 15-20. Test with a skewer early and often rather than trusting the clock.
- Imperial pintsHalf an Imperial pint is 10 fl oz, so about 1 1/4 US cups each of water and port. That is not much liquid for eight quartered pears; add a little more water if the pan is wide or the fruit is not close to covered.
- Loaf sugarLoaf or lump sugar was refined cane, broken from a cone. Ordinary granulated sugar is the direct substitute: 5 oz is roughly 3/4 cup.
- Lined saucepanThe instruction usually points to a tin-lined copper pan, the lining keeping the acid and wine off bare copper. Any non-reactive pan does the job now: stainless steel, enamelled cast iron or a well-glazed ceramic braiser.
- Whole spiceSix cloves and six allspice berries in this quantity of liquid is assertive. Tie them in muslin or fish them out before the syrup is reduced, or the finished dish tastes of a spice tin.
- Cochineal and carmineBoth are the same red from the cochineal insect, still legal and still sold as carmine or E120. Entirely optional here, since port and long cooking give the fruit a good garnet colour on their own. Skip it for vegan guests, and note that carmine is a recognised allergen for a small number of people.
- Reducing the syrupTwo or three minutes at a hard boil is enough after a short modern simmer only if the poaching liquid has already thickened. If it is still thin, reduce it until it coats a spoon, then cool before pouring, or the pears will keep cooking in it.
- ServingSix portions, served cold as the book intends. Whipped cream, creme fraiche or a thin custard all suit; the syrup is sweet enough that no further sugar is wanted.
Stewed pears belong to a long English tradition of cooking fruit that cannot be eaten raw. The old orchard varieties grown for the pot, such as the warden pear, were baked or simmered for hours in wine and spice, and the practice runs from medieval wardens in syrup straight through to Mrs Beeton's port and cloves. Port here does double duty as flavour and dye, the deep red staining the pale flesh; the optional cochineal is simply insurance for the look of the dish on a glass stand, at a time when a dessert was expected to be decorative as much as good. The seasonal note, September to January, reflects the keeping habits of hard pears, which were stored in lofts and drawn on through the winter long after soft dessert pears had gone.