Story of unripe pears from a fallen branch to a fridge full of pear sauce

 

What I collected while son was sawing up the huge limb that twisted off the lone pear tree

        Loathe to let even unripe fruit go to waste, I filled two metal dishpans full; son filled the large flower pot full as or after he'd picked up the others, tossed them in his pickup for possible deer food at his property.

        Needing to find a recipe, I Googled "upripe pears--how to use." I found a crockpot method, but failed to save or print it. I have a crockpot, although it is a 1960s wedding gift version without the third prong. I'd take a chance on it still working. And I have Mom's ricer to move the soft fruit into sauce. Covering the fruit (I finally began counting: 24 would fit in the pot) with a sweet poaching solution of maple syrup, Karo syrup, brown sugar, plus a small bottle of White Zin, a cinnamon stick, whole cloves, I determined it was sweet enough, plugged the pot in and turned it to high. When the liquid looked lower, I poured in some cranberry juice.

The materials needed are a large bowl to put the cooked pears into and move to the work space; tongs, obvious use; another large bowl to set the ricer in and hold the ricing, a wide rubber scraper and a narrow one, plus a saucer or other plate to rest the on. Lastly, you'll need a container for the detritus left after ricing.

                To work up each batch of 24, I put 8 at a time in the ricer, run the round wooden paddle around 20 times, take the paddle out so the ricer won’t be so heavy, then with a rubber spatula, scrape down the sides of the ricer into a glass bowl. Empty that into a container and set aside.

                Bring the paddle back to the ricer, scrape it down, scrape all fruit down into the bottom and repeat twice more. The first “harvest” of sauce is juicier; the second, not so much, and the third squeezes out the very last of the pulp which is thicker and browner. Then, with clean hands, I remove what has riced through, and add to the container. Stir all three ricings into a smooth sauce.

Repeat till all fruit is now sauce or bird food.

With only one more batch of pears to process, it's time to get out the pear butter recipe I found in an old book, gift of a brother.  It’s “The Lily Wallace New American Cook Book, 931 pages, copyright by Books, Inc. 1941, 1943. 

c 2021, PL dba lovepat press, Benton AR USA