Lots and lots of them. It seems to have been a bumper year for fruit. How can I use the pears and not feel like I’ve wasted the opportunity? Making booze is out.

Black pudding goes well with pears. Had a gastro pub variation of bangers and mash few years back sausage, pear an black pudding. Pear and black pudding pie is another thing I’ve seen.

Steam ’em.

Peal and core them then bottle ’em in a light spiced syrup, keep for ages in sterilised jars for perfect out of season crumbles.
Spiced Pear Chutney, great with cold cuts and cheese.

I don’t like sharp fruit so apple crumble is out unless it’s sugared to death.

But pear crumble, or pear and apple to tone it down….

nom nom nom

Making booze is out.

Give them to someone for whom this isn’t the case.

Poached pears, slowly and when ripe, in wine…:)

Lumps of black pudding, chunks of pear or apple, some chopped onion, maybe sliced mushrooms, fried in butter, splosh of calvados (or whisky or brandy) swirl of double cream, served with chips.

There not mine to give away but I can have as many as I can use.
Crumbles etc are great and will be made but what about long term. Apple’s are being stewed but I’m not sure about pears.

They stew much better than apples, as pears are more fibrous, and don’t collapse into mush.
Cook them for 5 minutes, drain then freeze for winter crumbles.

Esme thanks I guess these ones will,nice and sweet but crunchy hard.

Pear cake. Yummy! I believe there are several types.

Pear tart tatin

Our pear tree had a year last year giving us seven buckets of pears.

Top tips include:

Pickled pears – amazing to go with cold meat, cheese or to zing up a salad.
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/pickled-pears

Pear and walnut chutney. Somehow miles better than apple and walnut.
https://www.allotment-garden.org/recipe/1892/pear-walnut-chutney-recipe/

Freezing pears is a bit of a faff but give you instant fruit for crumbles or just eating later. You need to peel, core, blanch in syrup for 2 minutes then pack in the cooled syrup before freezing. Although a faff this is easier than bottling and less chance of getting it wrong and poisoning yourself due to an improperly sealed or sterilised jar.

@slowol what’s in the syrup? Thanks

I’m a big fan of a lovely pear

Just checked Good Housekeeping (inherited copy from my Gran).

‘Peel, quarter, remove core and dip in lemon juice immediately (this is to stop browning and we usually don’t bother or plonk in a big bowl of water with some lemon juice in it if you have some). Poach in syrup 450g (1 lb) sugar to 1 litre (1 3/4 pints) water for 1 1/2 min. Drain, cool and pack in the cold syrup’.

Thanks for that.