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Pear Pie
Remove the stems and peel eight medium, good, sound, fresh pears. Cut them in halves; remove the seeds then cut into slices and place in a bowl. Season with two ounces vanilla sugar and half teaspoon ground cinnamon; turn them well in the seasoning.
What survives here is only the filling stage — the seasoned pears — so the crust, assembly and baking are left to the cook's judgment. A few notes on the quantities and on what the original assumes.
- The recipe is incomplete as printedThere is no pastry, no dish size and no oven direction. Treat this as filling instructions to drop into a standard double-crust 9-inch pie.
- Vanilla sugarTwo ounces is a scant third of a cup. If you have none, bury a split vanilla bean in a jar of granulated sugar for a week, or whisk half a teaspoon of vanilla extract into plain sugar and let it dry.
- Pear quantityEight medium pears run 3 to 3 1/2 lb whole, giving roughly 6 cups of slices — generous for a 9-inch pie, and about right once they cook down.
- Choose the variety carefullyBartlett and Comice collapse into sauce; Bosc and Anjou hold their slices. The original asks only for fruit that is good, sound and fresh, and names no variety.
- Pears run wetter than applesRipe pears give up their juice readily -- The original adds no thickener. Toss in 2 to 3 tablespoons of flour or 1 1/2 tablespoons of cornstarch with the sugar, or drain the bowl after the fruit has macerated 20 minutes, or the bottom crust will be soaked.
- If you bake itA hot oven to set the pastry — 425F for 20 minutes — then 350F for 30 to 40 minutes until the juices bubble thickly through the vents. Cool at least two hours before cutting or the filling will run.
- YieldSix to eight slices.
The International Cook Book (1906) was assembled by Alexander Filippini, long a chef at Delmonico's in New York, and its entries are short and telegraphic — written for cooks who already knew how to line a pie plate and needed only the particulars of the filling. Vanilla sugar, kept in a covered jar with a spent bean, was a familiar pantry item in French and German kitchens. Pears were also a far more varied crop then than now, with dozens of local and market varieties in circulation, which is likely why the instruction insists on sound fruit and says nothing about which kind to buy.