Dried Pears

This post has been in the making for just over 30 years.  How is that possible you ask? 30 years ago was before Al Gore invented the internet even, much less before blogs were in exsistence.  Valid point astute reader.  What I meant to say is that this post, and this recipe, was inspired by my childhood, and more specifically, by my Grandma G.

The longtime blog reader (my dad) may remember that I inherited Grandma G's food dehydrator.  My brothers and I spend most summer days hanging out at Grandma G's house which was just a few blocks away.  We would do crafts, play in the yard, and always watch The Price is Right.

Though I never saw Grandma G make them, she always had dried pears in her pantry.  The pears were unlike any other dried fruit she had for us.  They were more like candy and less like prunes.  They were a special treat and something we'd often try to sneak when we thought no one else would notice.

As Grandma G got older (as all grandmas eventually do) the pears eventually ran out and were never replaced. It has been at least 20 years since anyone in my family has tasted one.

When LJ and I last visited her parents her dad gave us a few Bosc pears to go along with our usual load of apples.  As soon as I saw them and heard LJ's dad rave about how they were the perfect ripeness I knew what I had to do with them.

One of the problems with recreating family favorite recipes is often grandmas didn't write down their recipes.  They had made something so many times that keeping a recipe would just be silly because it would never need to be consulted.  I quizzed my mom about what she remembered on how the pears were prepared and she in turn asked her sisters what they could recall.  None of them had actually made the pears before but from what they remembered I pieced together a recipe.

I was off to bad start in recreating the recipe already because everyone agreed that the correct variety of pear to use was a Bartlett, not a Bosc (if you did not grow up in eastern Washington and can't easily identify varieties of apples, cherries, and pears you can consult this site to see what pears I'm taking about).  The second thing my mom relayed to me was that the pears must be peeled.  She distinctly remembered a time when Grandma G attempted a batch that was unpeeled and no one liked them as much.  I had no idea how the pears should be sized so I quartered them and hoped for the best.

I knew the next step was going to be key but there was some disagreement on what needed to be done.  The pears definitely needed to be poached but it was unclear for how long, how thick the syrup should be, and how soft the pears should be allowed to go.  One story that came up a number of times was that my mom and her sisters remembered one time Grandma G ran out of dried pears so she opened up a jar of home canned pears, drained them, and put them straight on to the dehydrator.

This was a key anecdote that allowed me to continue on.  I've never canned pears before (I'm hoping to try making a few quarts this summer if I can get my hands on a box of pears) but I did some searching on how pears are processed before they are canned.  I settled on creating a syrup out of 4 cups of water and 2 cups of sugar.  I soaked the 7 pears in the warm syrup for about an hour over low heat and the pears were just barely soft.

After that I threw them on the dehydrator and let it do its work.  The drying took longer than I expected (close to 24 hours) but that is probably because I kept adjusting the temperature setting on the fancy new dehydrator that LJ got for Christmas.

The pears were just like I remembered.  Chewy, a little syrupy, a strong pear flavor, and almost like candy.  LJ was impressed with the one I let her try and could finally see what I had been obsessing over for the last few days.

I packed up the pears in plastic wrap and mailed them to my two brothers, parents, and two aunts to get their opinions.  The consensus was that they were pretty darn close to what they remembered.  Nearly everyone seemed to agree that they could tell they were Bosc instead of Bartlett, though I'm curious if they would have known if I hadn't said anything in advance.  One of my brothers thought he remembered them being larger so next time I may try to make them by just halving the pears, but I'm not sure how I will get the core out (I also think he may remember them as bigger since he was so much smaller the last time he had one).

They were so good that I had eaten all of the ones I kept for myself before I remembered to snap a photo of them.  Thanks to my little brother for getting a picture of his when they arrived in the mail.

I'm looking forward to making them again but I may be less willing to share.