Freezing Pears?

[D. Landrum]

I have an over abundance of Pears thanks to a very generous friend. I
am trying several preserve recipes as well as pear honey. I was
wondering if there was a way to freeze them so I could use them in
cakes, pies and muffins requiring fresh pears.
Donna

[George Shirley]

You will need to treat the peeled pears with ascorbic acid to prevent
browning but, yes, you can freeze them. I use Ball Fruit Fresh and put
the peeled pears in water in plastic containers of the correct size for
pies, cakes, breads, etc. They keep quite well this way, not quite the
crispness of fresh from the tree but suitable for cooking. Just put up
several quarts of pear butter yesterday.

George

[Ian Diddams]

George Shirley wrote:
>
> D. Landrum wrote:
> >
> > I have an over abundance of Pears thanks to a very generous friend. I
> > am trying several preserve recipes as well as pear honey. I was
> > wondering if there was a way to freeze them so I could use them in
> > cakes, pies and muffins requiring fresh pears.

You could prepare them as pie fillings and freeze them that way (we do
this with lotsv of fruit...).

Alternatively, I could dig out a recipe for pears in red wine, which you
can preserve in Le Parfait/Kilner jars ("sterilise") I believe - it
effectively makes for and "instant" desert... justv open the jar, and
serve!

Another alternative that springs to mind is if you can get a whole
peeled pear into a bottle or jar, then cover it in
eau-de-vie/schnapps/alcohol of some description (not too strongly
flavoured ie not whicky) you could preserve the pear (!!) and adda
pleasant hint to the alcohol. This is quite common in Germany, albeit
the schnapps used would have been "Williams" ie pear schnapps. You
could also (depending on where you live and its legality, combined with
your skills as a chemist (!) distill your own pear schnapps...;-)

Didds.