Preserving Pears

New Zealand Listener, Volume 2, Issue 48, 24 May 1940, Page 45

Preserving Pears

Dear Aunt Daisy, I would be much obliged if you could give me a recipe for preserving pears. I preserved some last year, and they have gone very acid; otherwise they are all right. I might say the pears were just beginning to ripen, and were a little seedy in the centre. Would you kindly answer this in The Listener in your column, which I always read with interest. Is there a recipe for preserving pears without a syrup? — "Rachel" (Oamaru). Perhaps your pears were not properly tripe when you put them down last year. All fruit should be just at its best for preserving — not over-ripe, or bruised, and not under-ripe, either. Preserving the fruit will not ripen it, but only cook it; and unripe fruit is not very nice cooked, for of course it has not the full flavour which comes with maturity. To make the syrup for preserving your pears, allow one cup of sugar to two cups of water; boil for ten minutes and then cool it. Peel the pears and cut into quarters, putting the pieces into water containing a little salt or vinegar as you do them, to prevent their turn-

ing brown before you have finished them all. Then pack the fruit into clean, hot bottles, pour the syrup over until three parts full, put the lid on loosely and stand them near the _ bottom of the oven, which has been heated on Regulo 1 for five minutes. Leave it at that number and cook until the fruit is tender-about half an hour approximately. Then take the jars out one by one, adjust the new rubber rings (which have been lying in hot water), and overflow the bottles with boiling water before screwing down tightly. Invert the bottles for some hours, before putting away to make sure they do not leak. If using an electric oven, heat it to 300 degrees; and then turn the top switch off and the bottom to "low." If you are sterilising the fruit in a copper, or a boiler of some kind, you can screw the jars down tightly, over the new rubbers, before putting them into the ~ vessel, which must contain enough cold water to cover the bottles completely; there must also be a lid to keep the steam in and prevent the water from boiling away. Bring the water to the boil, and let it boil for 20 minutes. Then leave the jars in the water until 7. quite cold (like cooking a ham)! Take the jars out and turn them upside down for some hours, but do not touch the lids at all. When sterilising fruit in water like this, you may use either cold syrup, or just cold water. Another way is to fill the jars with fruit, adding either water or syrup, and put them in the oven without any lids on, and cook until the fruit is done. Then overflow each one with boiling water, adjust the rubber ring, and screw down immediately. The rubber rings may be put on the jars before they are put in the oven-it will not hurt them. Be sure to screw down immediately the jar is overflowing with water. In this way the air is excluded; and as the liquid cools and contracts, a vacuum is created at the top of the jar. There is also the Hot Pack method of fruit bottling. This is an old-fashioned way. Make a syrup first in the preserving pan with 4 to 6oz. of sugar to each pint of water. Put in the prepared fruit and simmer very gently till cooked. Be careful that the fruit does not break. When nearly cooked, fill up the sterilised jars to overflowing with the boiling fruit and syrup. Adjust the rubber rings and screw down. Invert for a few hours to make sure that the jars do not leak. The jars and lids should always be sterilised by putting them into a large vessel of cold water and bringing it gradually to boiling point. Leave them in the vessel, and take them out one by one as needed. If it is more convenient, you can sterilise the jars and lids in the oven-bring it from quite cold up to hot. Apples may be preserved in exactly the same way as pears.