Abarbarian
Acruncher
- Joined
- Sep 30, 2005
- Messages
- 11,023
- Reaction score
- 1,223
So I finnally got it right . Spent 5 years learning how to prune a pear tree at me mums . Every year since I started the pears have got a little bigger and more fruit on the tree . This year was the best , big juicy fruit and bucket loads of them .
So now what . You can only eat so many pears at once even if they are one of the best fruit to eat for yourr health .
I know what I have some old Kilner jars in the shed I'll preserve some pears in alcohol . Easy to do , just a five minute job .They should be just about ready for christmas .Yummy winter treats perfect for log fires and good movies on a dark cold night . Ideal for christmas presents and cheap too , don't forget I'm a tyke .
How wrong can you be .
Spent two days looking for recipies on the net . American canning methods , pah ! How can you can stuff in jars ? An they think we are strange . So as me Kilner jars are 6" tall and me biggest pan is only 5 3/4" tall I ain't going to be covering me jars with 2" of water and simmering for 30 mins and me Ban Marie ( apparently everyone in America has one of these handy little items ) is in for repair . So It's going to be a good old traditional british method then , except I couldn't find any mention of how to anywhere . Apart from the aforementioned drown and boil em method .
So I rang me mum , easy peasy she said and gave instructions which I'll get to eventually . No recipie though , well at least not for pears . Every other fruit on the planet but not pears .
Finally found a deecnt sounding recipie on the net . Only problem was , yes you guessed it , it was american . So I can live with the wieredness of "cups" as a measuring device , makes kind of sense , well at least from a mans point of view . Think about it . Cups for solids like sugar and stuff !!! I gave up on the following someone elses instructions and decided that I had enough information to go it alone .
Shopping time , armed with me trusty credit card I headed of to town . Still reeling from the shock of the price of tin lids (they wern't Kilner lids but thankfully they were the same size) for the jars , 50p ! 50p each and no sterilising tablets . I headed to the HomeBrew shop which had closed several months ago . No the specialist Baking and cooking shop couldn't help either . Try Boots they said . In Boots they shook their heads until one bright angle of mercy suggested Miltons baby fluid , well if its good enough for babies its good enough for me . On to the ingredients , had cardonoms and nutmeg at home . Vannila pods I found at Holland and Barrats but I had to sit down when they told me the price . £3 for three , what looked to me like dried worms , but I only want one . Sorry we only sell packets of three , I grudgingly paid up . I could have bought one for £1.45 at Morrisons I found out later now that would have upset me even more . Real cinnamon sticks wer quite reasonable 75p for for three short sticks . The lemon and oranges very reasonable , saved a whole 7p by buying three oranges and not just the two I needed , how did that happen ?
Market traders are really magicians practising mind manipulation and sleight of hand . How often have you walked through a market and found yourself going home with bagfulls of bargins , enough fruit and veg to feed the five thousand for the next decade and so cheap . Thats another story , so back to the pears .
Unprocessed Demerera cane sugar from Fiartrade was only a few pence more than the alternative so it went in the bag as I walked down the isle to the onl outstanding bargin of the trip . Half price , thats £3.99 not £7.98 for a bottle of Kumala Zenith -Merlot Cabernet Sauvigno Shiraz it was the name along with the "red cherry and berry fruit flavours , with a hint of fruitcake spice" description that persuaded me to buy two bottles . well one didn't want to run short at a critcal stage and leftovers could be disposed of with no problems .
Arriving home I dived straight into the shed . Ye gods but the jars and screw tops were in a manky state . Still it wouldn't take long to clean them up . Ha ha ha , two hours later , phew , the jars gleamed in their sterilised state on the draining board and , hmm well the screw tops look at least usable . On to the pears . That was a big bucket of pears , still it only took just over an hour to peel , quarter and core them and they did look good resting in the lemon water . Shouldn't take much longer . Last leg and feet up sipping the remains of the scrummy wine .
How wrong you can be .
So the recipe .
A big bucket full of pears
2 bottles good red wine
1.5 kg Demerera sugar
Vannila pod
Cardonom seeds
Cinammon stick
Whole lemon sliced
Whole orange sliced
2 liters of water
1 oz fresh sliced ginger
1/2 nutmeg nut freshly shaved
Put the Kilner jars in the oven on gas mark two to warm up .
Pears prepare as above and stand aside .
Bung everything else into the biggest pan you have heat up and keep stirring till all the sugar disolves , don't burn the sugar on the bottom of the pan as its a sod to clean and you don't want to waste that luverly wine . Turn down the heat when the sugar is disolved .
Take two jars out of the oven and loosely fill with pear quarters , ladel in wine, use a tea strainer to catch the spices, to within 1/2" of jar top covering pears . ( distance not critical but too little and the top pear will discolour , too much and you'll spill it and burn your self)
Put jars back in oven , repeat till all jars filled . I reckoned on ten and filled nine and a half . Hmm can't have half a jar . I'll fill it up with these spare apples they'll do just fine .
How wrong you can be .
Leave jars in oven for 30 mins .
Take out jars one at a time , place on a plate , fill to overflowing with freshly heated wine mixture . Put on sealing lid and screw down cap stand to one side on old tea towel (to catch the drips). Repeat till all done .Wipe down jars with warm damp cloth and dry with fresh tea towel . Job done .
How wrong you can be .
The pears didn't float , they stayed submerged drowned in the spiced red wine . The apples , the little sods , soaked up some of the liquid and then floated to the top , of course there wasn't enough space for them all to float so half of the soggy sods jumped ship and died miserably as they burnt and stuck to the hot oven . It was lucky they did jump ship as I neede the juice to top up the other jars .At least I hope they died in agony as it was agony cleaning up the mess . It took forever to clean up the cooker top and the work tops and the drips on the floor oh and the drips on the cupboard doors . Hey but whats an odd hour or so after what I'd been through .
So finaly I did get to put my feet up and have a drink of wine . I did mention that I just had enough wine liquid to fill the jars not a drop to spare .
So how did I get a glass of wine .
Ha ha not to be denied my glass of wine . I squeezed the lemon and orange slices and ended up with a small glass of very tasty hot punch .
If you ever have a glut of fruit and fancy some preserved fruit in alcohol don't make the same mistake I did . Just go to your local deli and buy some .
So now what . You can only eat so many pears at once even if they are one of the best fruit to eat for yourr health .
I know what I have some old Kilner jars in the shed I'll preserve some pears in alcohol . Easy to do , just a five minute job .They should be just about ready for christmas .Yummy winter treats perfect for log fires and good movies on a dark cold night . Ideal for christmas presents and cheap too , don't forget I'm a tyke .
How wrong can you be .
Spent two days looking for recipies on the net . American canning methods , pah ! How can you can stuff in jars ? An they think we are strange . So as me Kilner jars are 6" tall and me biggest pan is only 5 3/4" tall I ain't going to be covering me jars with 2" of water and simmering for 30 mins and me Ban Marie ( apparently everyone in America has one of these handy little items ) is in for repair . So It's going to be a good old traditional british method then , except I couldn't find any mention of how to anywhere . Apart from the aforementioned drown and boil em method .
So I rang me mum , easy peasy she said and gave instructions which I'll get to eventually . No recipie though , well at least not for pears . Every other fruit on the planet but not pears .
Finally found a deecnt sounding recipie on the net . Only problem was , yes you guessed it , it was american . So I can live with the wieredness of "cups" as a measuring device , makes kind of sense , well at least from a mans point of view . Think about it . Cups for solids like sugar and stuff !!! I gave up on the following someone elses instructions and decided that I had enough information to go it alone .
Shopping time , armed with me trusty credit card I headed of to town . Still reeling from the shock of the price of tin lids (they wern't Kilner lids but thankfully they were the same size) for the jars , 50p ! 50p each and no sterilising tablets . I headed to the HomeBrew shop which had closed several months ago . No the specialist Baking and cooking shop couldn't help either . Try Boots they said . In Boots they shook their heads until one bright angle of mercy suggested Miltons baby fluid , well if its good enough for babies its good enough for me . On to the ingredients , had cardonoms and nutmeg at home . Vannila pods I found at Holland and Barrats but I had to sit down when they told me the price . £3 for three , what looked to me like dried worms , but I only want one . Sorry we only sell packets of three , I grudgingly paid up . I could have bought one for £1.45 at Morrisons I found out later now that would have upset me even more . Real cinnamon sticks wer quite reasonable 75p for for three short sticks . The lemon and oranges very reasonable , saved a whole 7p by buying three oranges and not just the two I needed , how did that happen ?
Market traders are really magicians practising mind manipulation and sleight of hand . How often have you walked through a market and found yourself going home with bagfulls of bargins , enough fruit and veg to feed the five thousand for the next decade and so cheap . Thats another story , so back to the pears .
Unprocessed Demerera cane sugar from Fiartrade was only a few pence more than the alternative so it went in the bag as I walked down the isle to the onl outstanding bargin of the trip . Half price , thats £3.99 not £7.98 for a bottle of Kumala Zenith -Merlot Cabernet Sauvigno Shiraz it was the name along with the "red cherry and berry fruit flavours , with a hint of fruitcake spice" description that persuaded me to buy two bottles . well one didn't want to run short at a critcal stage and leftovers could be disposed of with no problems .
Arriving home I dived straight into the shed . Ye gods but the jars and screw tops were in a manky state . Still it wouldn't take long to clean them up . Ha ha ha , two hours later , phew , the jars gleamed in their sterilised state on the draining board and , hmm well the screw tops look at least usable . On to the pears . That was a big bucket of pears , still it only took just over an hour to peel , quarter and core them and they did look good resting in the lemon water . Shouldn't take much longer . Last leg and feet up sipping the remains of the scrummy wine .
How wrong you can be .
So the recipe .
A big bucket full of pears
2 bottles good red wine
1.5 kg Demerera sugar
Vannila pod
Cardonom seeds
Cinammon stick
Whole lemon sliced
Whole orange sliced
2 liters of water
1 oz fresh sliced ginger
1/2 nutmeg nut freshly shaved
Put the Kilner jars in the oven on gas mark two to warm up .
Pears prepare as above and stand aside .
Bung everything else into the biggest pan you have heat up and keep stirring till all the sugar disolves , don't burn the sugar on the bottom of the pan as its a sod to clean and you don't want to waste that luverly wine . Turn down the heat when the sugar is disolved .
Take two jars out of the oven and loosely fill with pear quarters , ladel in wine, use a tea strainer to catch the spices, to within 1/2" of jar top covering pears . ( distance not critical but too little and the top pear will discolour , too much and you'll spill it and burn your self)
Put jars back in oven , repeat till all jars filled . I reckoned on ten and filled nine and a half . Hmm can't have half a jar . I'll fill it up with these spare apples they'll do just fine .
How wrong you can be .
Leave jars in oven for 30 mins .
Take out jars one at a time , place on a plate , fill to overflowing with freshly heated wine mixture . Put on sealing lid and screw down cap stand to one side on old tea towel (to catch the drips). Repeat till all done .Wipe down jars with warm damp cloth and dry with fresh tea towel . Job done .
How wrong you can be .
The pears didn't float , they stayed submerged drowned in the spiced red wine . The apples , the little sods , soaked up some of the liquid and then floated to the top , of course there wasn't enough space for them all to float so half of the soggy sods jumped ship and died miserably as they burnt and stuck to the hot oven . It was lucky they did jump ship as I neede the juice to top up the other jars .At least I hope they died in agony as it was agony cleaning up the mess . It took forever to clean up the cooker top and the work tops and the drips on the floor oh and the drips on the cupboard doors . Hey but whats an odd hour or so after what I'd been through .
So finaly I did get to put my feet up and have a drink of wine . I did mention that I just had enough wine liquid to fill the jars not a drop to spare .
So how did I get a glass of wine .
Ha ha not to be denied my glass of wine . I squeezed the lemon and orange slices and ended up with a small glass of very tasty hot punch .
If you ever have a glut of fruit and fancy some preserved fruit in alcohol don't make the same mistake I did . Just go to your local deli and buy some .
