1966 WDEC - Stoofperen (Stewed Pears)

Pears stewed in red wine are attractive and not too sweet. (photo by Joachim)

Skipping back a bit in the Woman's Day Encyclopedia of Cookery to try some pears stewed in red wine. Recipe after the jump.
Stoofperen (Stewed Pears)
(to serve 8)
1cup water
1 cup dry red wine
1 cup sugar
12 pears, peeled, cored and quartered
2 cinnamon sticks
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon rind

Bring water, wine, and sugar to boil and cook, stirring, until sugar is dissolved. Add pears and simmer until almost tender. Add cinnamon and lemon rind and simmer until fruit is tender. Cool.

Cooking Notes: I wanted to reduce this to a suitable dessert portion for 2 and drop the sugar content quite a bit. Consequently I used one red pear, ripe but not at all mushy. I omitted the water entirely and stewed the pear quarters in 1/2 cup red wine (I used a Malbec) and 1/8 cup sugar. Into the mix I added 1 cinnamon stick, broken in half, and 1/2 tsp grated fresh lemon rind.


Eating Notes: The original recipe would yield 6 pear quarters for each person - rather a lot for a dessert. And the 1:2 sugar-to-liquid ratio borders, to me, on syrup. For us, this modification was perfect both in quantity and sweetness. I recommend Malbec, which was nicely balanced without too much tannin and worked well with the flavor of the pear. I also was surprisingly happy with the room temperature presentation. I thought I'd have wanted it warm, but the flavors blended really well at this intermediate temperature -- everything was represented, and nothing overpowered.