Preserved Pears

Autumn and its wonders

I have always been a child of autumn. It started with the fact that my birthday lands on the 13th of October and I have therefore swore autumn to be the best month of the year, except Christmas of course. As I grew older I started appreciate the mere aesthetics of autumn and how beautiful it looks when the leaves change color and dance around in the wind.

When my interest for food started arising- I realised how amazing autumn is- giving us the fruit from their trees and the berries from their bushes. An amazing time for foraging and gathering food which is becoming oh- so important in our time of day. A way to say- you know what? we need to take a step back and look at what we are doing to our world. A way to be kind to it and not abuse it like we are doing- and have been doing for years. Foraging and gathering our own food is a way of saying ‘I care’ about mother earth.

Wow, that got deep!

Preserved Pears

This weeks recipe is an incredibly easy recipe using freshly picked autumn pears. Perfect for a simple dessert or to be used baked goods. The wonderful thing about preserving fruit is that it keeps for months- even years in a dark room!

Warming spices such as cinnamon, cloves, and star anise are flavors that compliments the pears and pairs incredibly well in a recipe like this. You could also consider vanilla and nutmeg.

All you need to do is put a bunch of pears in a clean sanitized jar, pour over sugar water and spices and boil for some minutes in a saucepan! Easy!

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Preserved Pears

Ingredients

2 liter water

500 g sugar

1 tsp cloves, whole

2 star anise

2 cinnamon sticks

8 pears

2 one-liter jars

Instructions

1. Start by sanitizing the jars and lid.
2. Bring water and sugar to a boil.
3. Add the spices and let boil for 10 minutes. Let cool slightly.
4. Peel the pears and add them to the jars.
5. Pour over the sugar water.
6. Add the lid and transfer to a deep saucepan with water.
7. Boil the jars for 20 minutes to create a vacume.
8. Remove from the water and let cool upside down (lid facing down).
9. Store in a cool and dark place (cuppboard) for years.

Notes

This is a base recipe for any preserved fruits- so if you have a whole bunch of different kinds you want to preserve- go for it!

You can sanitize a jar two ways; either boil them for a couple of minutes or put them in the oven on 100 degrees celcius for 10 minutes. I prefer the latter because you can sanitize many at a time and avoid burning issues.