Pears

YORKSHIRELASS

Great ideas, we have just used up the last of some freebie apples in a crumble tonight so will move on to the pears next. Dont know why but I have never thought of using pears in crumbles, eves pudding etc. Anyway, a soup and pudding night always goes down well in our house and its a mega cheap dinner so that will be going on the meal planner for next week. The pears are still rock hard so should keep OK, if not I will make puddings and freeze them.

YORKSHIRELASS

Mmm, have just followed the thread for pear chutney and that sounds lovely, could give a couple of jars to the kindly neighbour who gave me the pears from his garden. Whats preserved ginger though?

Karrie2129

Hi all,

I snagged a bag of organic pears for 25p and I was looking to do something a bit different. Can anyone help?

Many thanks

Pink.

Hi Karrie,

There's an earlier thread with lots of ideas that should help so I've added your post to it to keep the suggestions together.

Pink

Karrie2129

Thank you so much! I am new to the site and am determined to clear my debts this year....have learned so much already but now have a freezer full of reduced chicken and a fridge full of reduced frit and veg!

Karrie2129

Just FYI, just asked my mum a question about whether you could use pancake mix as sponge mix (don't laugh!) and told her about my pears and she told me about dowdy (sp?) pears baked im pancake mix! Decided to kill two birds with one stone and give it a go! Also got some leftover chocs from Christmas that I am going to melt to pour over.... yummy.

Perfect to follow my whoopsied chicken and potatoes!:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

pink_numbers

We were very fortunate to be asked by friends of ours to pick their pear tree yesterday. We picked as many as we could to save them the hassle of having to pick them off the ground, and in return, they've given us half of the pears, which turned out to be at least 15kg!! We would like to preserve all of them if possible, and give some back to the pear family

I can jam, so I will be making a batch of pear & ginger jam, and pear and lemon jelly.

We thought about drying them in the oven but were horrified thinking of the gas bill when we found out that they need to be in the oven for 12-18 hours.

We have a few kilner jars with the red rings (ravens-something style?) so we were thinking of making spiced pickled pears a-la WI preserving book. However, they do not mention 'canning', just pour hot fruit and syrup into sterilised jars, is this method safe?

I'm a bit unsure about canning. A bit scared by it all!

Freezer is jam packed, but I think we can find SOME space.

can't make cider as we don't drink and the family the pears came from hate cider!

We do however have glass bottles for bottling...

I would be very grateful if you could suggest what we could do with them all to preserve them for the winter. Thank you for your time in advance.

liney

Stew some fruit in portions ready to turn into crumble or pies and freeze in bags, so you can squeeze them into the freezer?

Seakay

old WI recipes more likely to talk about bottling then canning as canning American.
Sterilised jam jars are almost as good as specialist jars, especially if they have pop top lids.
Pickled pears may well not need specialist jars (although they will need to be quite large) depending on the ingredients - vinegar and sugar are preserving ingredients - a vacuum seal would be an additional safety measure but not really necessary for preserving.
Pear chutney would be a possibility? Lots of recipes on the Internet

chika

Make pear butter - it is divine. Tastes great with sweet of savoury things.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=pear+butter&hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=nXh&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&source=lnt&tbs=ctr:countryUK|countryGB&cr=countryUK|countryGB&sa=X&ei=G1B6TMmdEcuNjAeFmNDJBg&ved=0CA8QpwU

That is a search for uk ideas x