Tag Archives: sand pear recipe

Sep19

Nana Clement’s Sand Pear Conserve

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Nana Clement’s Sand Pear Conserve

It is always special when something is passed from generation to generation. Some pass down fine china, antique furniture, jewelry, or books; some pass down treasured recipes for others to enjoy.

I was honored to be given a special family recipe for a conserve. For those not familiar with conserves, they are a thick fruit spread similar to a jam also containing dried fruit and nuts.

 

The original recipe reads as follows:

Pear Conserve from Nana Clement

Cut up 5 lbs. pears. Cover with 5 lbs. of sugar, stand overnight. Next morning add juice AND rind of 3 oranges and juice of 2 lemons. 1 lb. raisins. Boil slowly 2 hours or until thick. Just before taking off heat add 1/2 lb. walnut meats. Pour in hot, sterilized jars, add lids and cover with towels to let cool slowly.

I made some alterations to account for current canning safety guidelines and personal taste.

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Here’s what I used: 10 cups diced sand pears, 4 cups sugar, 1 cup golden raisins, 1 cup chopped walnuts, 1 lemon, 3 oranges,  5 tablespoons bottled lemon juice

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Start by mixing your diced pears, sugar, and bottled lemon juice. Cover and let stand overnight in the refrigerator.

Thinly slice the entire lemon and  whole oranges into thin rounds, removing seeds as you go.

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I roughly quartered my slices, but you can leave them larger or chop them smaller, depending on what you prefer to see on your toast.

Add pears with juice, lemon, oranges, and raisins to a large stockpot.

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Cook over medium high heat for 2 hours, being sure to stir regularly and to watch for scorching.

The chewy raisins will get nice and plump.

I didn’t even bother checking for the gel point, as I could tell already that it was pretty thick.

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I toasted the walnuts at 400 degrees for about 5 minutes, turning after about 3 minutes.

My reason for toasting the walnuts was twofold: flavor and texture. Toasting brings out the flavor of the nuts, and I was also hoping to preserve as much of the crunchy texture as possible.

Stir the walnuts in just before ladling the hot conserve into hot jars for canning.

Process half pints in boiling water bath for 15 minutes.

My yield was approximately 8 half pints.

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This conserve is delicious on a hearty bagel. I really like the addition of the walnuts to a fruit spread. Now I’m thinking about adding nuts to other jams; how does an apple pie jam with walnuts sound? Or maybe carrot cake jam with pecans?

Sand Pear Conserve

Have you ever eaten conserve before? How do you like to eat it? On a English muffin? Maybe with cheese and crackers?

Family recipes are wonderful! Do you have a top-secret family recipe?

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Aug24

Sand Pear Recipe: Florida Pear Preserves with Pineapple

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Wondering what to do with a huge harvest of sand pears? I have really enjoyed working my way through my laundry basket of pears. My most recent project has been these preserves. Sand pear, juicy pineapple, and tart lemon combine in a spread that is delicious and makes good use of a windfall of sand pears.

When I first started looking for sand pear recipes, I found a recipe on Oysters and Pearls that sounded intriguing. It called for the addition of pineapple and lemon. It is an old recipe, using paraffin wax for sealing(no longer recommended!), but the flavor combination inspired me to create a preserve with those flavors.

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Ingredients: 8 cups peeled diced sand pears, 22 oz can crushed pineapple in juice, 3 cups sugar, finely chopped flesh of one lemon, approx 3 tablespoons of bottled lemon juice for canning.

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Combine all ingredients except bottled lemon juice in large stockpot, and simmer until it passes the gel test. For more information on how to test for gelling, click here.

I ended up with approximately 5 half pints of preserves. Canning guidelines for sand pears call for the addition of 1 tablespoon of bottled lemon juice per pint. I like to round up for safety!

Process in boiling water canner for 10 minutes.

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Enjoy! If you are fortunate enough to have access to sand pears, I highly recommend this recipe. The grittiness of the pears is not the focus, and the pineapple adds a nice accent flavor.

So far I’ve made Spiced Pear Butter and these Florida Pear Preserves.

Next post on the sand pears will be… Nana Clement’s Pear Conserve! I have been entrusted me with a family recipe that I am so eager to try. It has walnuts in it, which means that I may just eat it out of the jar with a spoon, or pour it over ice cream. How do you like to eat a yummy conserve?

Look for that sand pear recipe soon!

Aug20

Sand Pear Recipe: Spiced Pear Butter

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Sand Pear Recipe: Spiced Pear Butter

Wondering what to do with a bounty of sand pears? If you have never had a sand pear, I would have to describe them to you as a fruit with the crisp crunchiness of an apple, the flavor of a Bartlett pear, and textured with the tiny bits of grittiness that give them their name.

I have had a laundry basket of them setting on my kitchen table, slowly but steadily ripening.

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First plan: Spiced Pear Butter. This is a great way to use up the pears that need to be preserved right away. It takes a large amount of pears and turns them into a delicious product thanks to some easy cooking done in the Crock-Pot.

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Ingredients: 14 cups peeled sliced sand pears, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, 1 cup sugar, lemon juice for canning

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Place pears in Crock-Pot and cook on low overnight or for 12 hours.

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In the morning, puree the pears until smooth. Add the cinnamon, nutmeg, and sugar, then cook on low for another 4 hours with the lid cracked so the excess moisture can evaporate. At the end of four hours, taste the butter to see how sweet it is after all the cooking down time. I only needed 1 cup of sugar. You may want to add more, based upon your personal taste, or the relative sweetness of your pears. At this point, the butter was not quite as thick as I’d like, I so I let it cook on low for another hour with the lid cracked.

Sand pears are also known as Asian pears, and do not contain enough natural acidity to be canned alone. The National Center for Home Food Preservation recommends that lemon juice be added to Asian pears before canning, at the rate of 1 tablespoon per pint.

To be sure that it would be acidic enough, I measured the amount of the final product (5 cups), then added the appropriate amount of bottled lemon juice (2.5 tablespoons).  You may have more or less, depending on how juicy your pears were, how thick you wanted your pear butter, etc.

spiced sand pear butter recipe

Spiced Sand Pear Butter Recipe

If you decide to can your butter, process in hot water bath for 10 minutes.

Won’t this be delicious on hot biscuits? Or on some roasted pork chops?

Next: Florida Pear Preserves!

These preserves are made with sand pears, juicy pineapple, and a bit of lemon. Really tasty. Look for that recipe soon!