Edna Lewis’s Spiced Pears Recipe (2024)

FAQs

How do you intensify pear flavor? ›

Add about 1 1/2 inches of a liquid that adds and enhances flavor–wine or fruit juice, for instance. Add your choice of seasonings such as sugar, spices or lemon slices.

Leaving the skin on the pears is not an issue and usually comes down to personal preference. With the skins on, the canned pears can become a bit tough and turn an off-color in the jar, so I prefer to remove them.

Seckels (pronounced SEK-el) are tiny pears, with a chubby, round body, small neck, and short stem. Their skin is usually olive green, but frequently exhibits a dark maroon blush that sometimes covers the entire surface of the pear.

For a more intense flavor, you can poach your pears in a simple syrup flavored with warming winter spices such as clove, cinnamon, star anise, vanilla and nutmeg. Once softened, the pears can go straight into a blender and whizzed into a Poached Pear & Ginger Daiquiri.

Pear: Pairs well with almond, apple, caramel, chestnut, chocolate, cinnamon, citrus, clove, ginger, hazelnut, nutmeg, pecan, raspberry, rosemary, vanilla, and walnut.

When purified procyanidins were treated at 95 °C at three different pH values (2.7, 3.3, and 4.0), procyanidin concentrations decreased after treatment, the more so as the pH was lower, and a pinkish color also appeared, attributed to tannin-anthocyanidin pigment. The pink color was bound to cell walls.

“We hear it all the time, 'Fresh is best,' but canned fruits can be just as nutritious,” says Chelsea LeBlanc, RDN, owner of Chelsea LeBlanc Nutrition in Nashville, Tennessee. Canned fruits provide carbohydrates for energy, fiber for digestion and vitamins and minerals to keep us healthy.

Just make sure you don't hot-pack ripe pears, which are too soft to withstand the simmer, and will begin to break apart. A good rule of thumb is that if the pear is soft enough to eat raw, it's too soft to hot-pack.

Comice Pear: Not as grainy as classic pears, this variety has a great clean and bright pear flavor that's surprisingly sweet. It's soft and juicy, and arguably the best choice to eat raw.

To keep the inevitable discoloration at bay, mix a light solution of water and lemon juice (strain the lemon juice before adding to the water). A little goes a long way: For several pears, a ¼ cup of water and three tablespoons of lemon juice is plenty.

What are royal Riviera pears? ›

Royal Riviera Pears are a special type of Comice (pronounced ko-MEESE) pear that was first propagated in France in 1856. These exquisite pears became known for their succulent, buttery, and exceptionally sweet characteristics.

Fruit-based liquid + sugar + heat = reduction or syrup. Reductions take natural flavors and intensify them. Most of the time, flavors from fruit or fruit-based products get cooked-out or baked-out of recipes, or are literally too thin to pour or drizzle onto the finished product. Reducing them is my way to go.

Sprinkle salt and sugar

But here's the sugar and salt trick: A dash of salt and a scattering of sugar can work wonders in boosting the flavor of your fruit. Consider the humble watermelon. On its own, watermelon is refreshing, sweet, and juicy.

Here is the method for actually preserving them: Peel and core the pears, then cut in half lengthways. Place rings on clean preserving jars. Choose and make the selected preserving syrup (see below), adding 1 teaspoon citric acid to every 8 cups of preserving liquid.

Bartlett pears (also called Williams) have what most people would consider the true “pear flavor.” Both red and green Bartletts are bell-shaped. You can find them in stores from September through the early months of winter. Since pears are harvested unripe, allow them to ripen at room temperature.