Take large fine juicy pears that are all perfectly ripe, and pare them
smoothly and thin; leaving on the stems, but cutting out the black top
at the blossom end of the fruit. As you pare them, lay them in a pan
of cold water. Make a thin syrup, allowing a quart of water to a pound
of loaf-sugar. Simmer the pears in it for about half an hour. Then put
them into a tureen, and let them lie in the syrup for two days. There
must be syrup enough to cover them well. After two days, drain the
syrup from the pears, and add to it more sugar, in the proportion of
a pound to each pint of the thin syrup. Stir in a very little beaten
white of egg, (not more than one white to three or four pounds of
sugar,) add some fresh lemon-peel pared thin, and set the syrup over
a brisk fire. Boil it for ten minutes, and skim it well. Then add
sufficient lemon-juice to flavour it; and put in the pears. Simmer them
in the strong syrup till they are quite transparent. Then take them
out, spread them to cool, and stick a clove in the blossom end of each.
Put them into glass jars; and having kept the syrup warm over the fire
while the pears were cooling, pour it over them.
If you wish to have them red, add a little powdered cochineal to the
strong syrup when you put in your pears.
BAKED PEARS.--The best for baking are the large late ones, commonly
called pound pears. Pare them, cut them in half, and take out the
cores. Lay them in a deep white dish, with a thin slip of fresh
lemon-peel in the place from which each core was taken. Sprinkle them
with sugar, and strew some whole cloves or some powdered cinnamon among
them. Pour into the dish some port wine. To a dozen large pears you
may allow one pound of sugar, and a pint of wine. Cover the dish with a
large sheet of brown paper tied on; set it in a moderate oven, and let
them bake till tender all through, which you may ascertain by sticking
a broom twig through them. They will be done in about an hour, or they
may probably require more time; but you must not let them remain long
enough in the oven to break or fall to pieces. When cool, put them up
in a stone jar. In cold weather they will keep a week.
To bake smaller pears, pare them, but leave on the stems, and do not
core them. Put them into a deep dish with fresh lemon or orange-peel;
throw on them some brown sugar or molasses; pour in at the bottom a
little water to keep them from burning; and bake them till tender
throughout.