Way too many pears

The pear tree is bearing a heavy load and they're ripening as I type this. We know about pear and bacon risotto, pear tatin, pizza with pear/ pancetta/blue cheese, and pears in salad with cheese and nuts.

What else can I do with pears?

Give them to me.

Pear butter

Give them to me.

How many pears gets me a bottle of Ogier Cote Rotie?

I have some '92s that are dead, dead, dead. Happy to trade.

My simplest bestest pear recipe.

Cut the pear in half and remove the core (melon baller works great).

Mix some good blue cheese (I like Gorg) 50/50 with salted butter in a bowl with a few drizzles of cognac.

Fill the hollow of the pear half with cheese.butter mixture. Grind black pepper on top. Top with a few walnut halves.

This dessert/savoury dish works with the remains of your red wine or equally well with a shot of Poire William or Brandy.

Now you've made me hungry.

I like it. It'll be on the menu later this week, thanks.

I have some '92s that are dead, dead, dead. Happy to trade.

For those, you can have the pears that fell on the ground with the chicken poop. Come to think of it, it might be a classic match...

It sounds this is not your first pear harvest but I'll share my experience anyway. Before having my first tree, I was not aware that most pear varieties are actually better picked what I would call underripe and then spending some time - a month, say - in cold storage. Whether the variety you have is one that would benefit, I don't know. The flesh is smoother, less mealy, than if left to fully ripen on the tree. Sounds like it might be too late this year but if you have the room in your fridge, you can store pears indefinitely and let them ripen at room temperature when you need them, the way you would fruit from the grocery store.

Thanks, yes, I found that out the hard way after the first two vintages of mealy pears. We're starting to pick them now (and even so are probably a little too late for some).

I was sure baffled when I got my first harvest. My experience was with things like peaches and tomatoes where the longer you let them hang, the better. Picking and selling fruit green (as with supermarket peaches and tomatoes) was something I figured big agriculture did because it was easy. That you don't *want* to let a pear get fully ripe on the tree came as a complete surprise to me.

What else can I do with pears?

Pear chutney.

Stewed pears - made like stewed apples. Nice accompaniment with pork and a pinot gris wine match.

As Mark and others have said, underripe is best if you are going to cook with them.

Way back in the old FLDG days there was an event called 'Silichef' and one time the item was fresh pears. I got quite carried away with this as I have 8 pear trees in my back yard and the event coincided with the pears being ripe. Some of the items I created were ...

* Pear, cheese and tomato on toast - a snack for brunch.
* Pear, smoked salmon and cream cheese cocktails - for pre dinner drinks
* Warm chicken salad with garlic oil flavoured pear and kumara crisps- for lunch or dinner starter
* Pear and potato fritters - Versatile - for any meal
* Pear and creamy blue cheese sauce - to combine in a salad or for a main course side dish.
* Pork and Pear Roll-ups - Elegant for dinner
* Poached Pears in marsala with whipped cream and caramelised pear strips - a Decadent dessert

I'm not sure how to link back to the old FLDG but my recipes (if you can call some of them that) are still on my own website at this link - http://www.wineoftheweek.com/food/0103pears.html

I used to hate pears probably because I alway had when when they were overripe, but I absolutely love them now and look forward to pear season every year.

Cheers,
Sue

Make Perry - like cider but with pears instead of apples. Here's a link:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/scrumpy/cider/

Ship them to Howie!

How about a Hart's Pear-shaped Dessert Wine?

I'll go now ........

CM, I found myself in the same predicament once when I bought loads of pears for an autumn centerpiece. I searched a favorite cooking website and found a recipe for pear bread. It was absolutely delcious. Kind of a cross between apple cake and banana bread. Highly recommend. I'll post the recipe with RC in the subject line.

Some of the items I created were ...

* Pear, cheese and tomato on toast - a snack for brunch.
* Pear, smoked salmon and cream cheese cocktails - for pre dinner drinks
* Warm chicken salad with garlic oil flavoured pear and kumara crisps- for lunch or dinner starter
* Pear and potato fritters - Versatile - for any meal
* Pear and creamy blue cheese sauce - to combine in a salad or for a main course side dish.
* Pork and Pear Roll-ups - Elegant for dinner
* Poached Pears in marsala with whipped cream and caramelised pear strips - a Decadent dessert

Sue

thanks, some interesting ideas. We did pears poached in red wine and garam masala with vanilla whipped cream yesterday.
Christian

Rahsaan has it right: chutney.

How about using a dehydrator?

Pear cider?

Chutney - any recipes? Rahsaan?

Unfortunately, I'm too busy and disorganized to make pear hard cider this year. Good thought for the future, however...