Cooking hard pears

Prudent

I have been given a carrier bag of small and extremely hard pears from someone's garden.

Usually, I would leave shop-bought pears to go ripe before eating. However, the lady said I should poach them. 

Any suggestions? 

RAS

Hmm.

There are pears that ripen before most apples and pears the aren't edible if you cook them before February. And some earlies go from hard to mush in a few days.

Based on the information these are cooking pears. Does your donor have any clue as to the name? Or can you post a photo.

Despite the hot summer my Hessle are like bullets. But I've been known to walk the basket in which they were shown in the first week in September to the bin. Other years they were too far gone to even use.

London_1

I peel and poach any  pears in a little water and soft honey until soft, a dash of white wine is nice as well

JackieO xx

bouicca21

I peel, halve and core them, then put them in a casserole dish with some manzanilla and a bit of sugar and bake them  in the oven. Delicious cold with yogourt.

 I’ll actually be doing that tomorrow when I’ll be using the oven to cook fish with Mediterranean  veg and baking a pie.

annieb64

I cook pears in red wine in the slow cooker.

Katiehound

I would poach in red wine.

Failing that in water with cinnamon stick &/or star anise

jealous!!

nosuperwoman

My pear tree has produced this year! But I know from experience that they will stay rock hard for weeks then rot overnight when I am not looking (as someone else said). I will peel and core them and put them in the slow cooker  with a little sugar and a half cup of water and freeze the results, syrup and all. They go great on porridge and as a crumble and I have a recipe I cut out of the Guardian years ago for a chocolate cake where tinned pears provide the sweetness so I may do that.
Enjoy!