You might try cooking a couple to see if they soften up when heat is applied, but I had a friend give me some similar kinds of pears and they ended up compost.

I suppose even really hard pears could be ground and used in relish but I wasn't willing to extend that far and risk other ingredients.

Carol

Agree with Carol that they aren't worth any effort or time. Another example of "garbage in - garbage out".

But if you really want to expend the effort there are some 70 discussions here on things to do with pears.

Dave

My aunt sends hers thru the mehu liisa juicer and then makes pear jelly.

"My aunt sends hers thru the mehu liisa juicer and then makes pear jelly."

I did something like that one year, only we made wine.

Something else: Helen Witty has a recipe for pear honey that uses grated pears. I used it one year with very hard pears and it worked well. I'm not saying yours will soften, but you might try. I used a food processor to grate them, a cinch. If you're interested in the recipe, I'll gladly post it.

Deborah

One more thing. If you're experienced using a pressure cooker, you might grate a single pear, and pressure cook it. You'd use a minimal amount of time and energy to determine if it'll soften.

Deborah

I have a juicer, it's very noisy and hard to clean, don't know if I want to try it. Plus I'm not looking so much for something for ME to do with these pears, the neighbor gave me some to "experiment" with, but she wanted to know what SHE could do with them. I don't know if she has a juicer.

I didn't want to read through lots of pear threads finding recipes for ripe pears, was hoping someone had suggestions for what to go with these. I did search "hard pears" and found some suggestions for chilling and ripening. These have actually been in a plastic bag in my truck since Sat and haven't softened up. But I'll stick them in the fridge for a couple of days, pull them out this weekend and put in paper box in basement - maybe next week they'll be softer?

The pear honey does sound good, I would like that recipe. Thanks I don't have a pressure cooker.

Pear Honey, Helen Witty, Fancy Pantry

4 pounds pears, ripe but not soft.

Water as needed

3 Tablespoons strained fresh lemon juice

Grated zest (no white pith) of 1 lemon

6 cups sugar

1. Pare, quarter and core pears, dropping them into a bowl of cold water as they are finished.

2. Combine 6 cups of fresh water with the lemon juice in a preserving pan. shred or grate the pear sections medium-course; add the shreds to acidified water.

3. Combine the grated lemon zest with about a quart of water in a saucepan and bring to a boil; simmer 5 minutes; drain the zest and add it to the pear mixture.

4. Bring pear mixture to a boil over medium-high heat. Gradually stir in the sugar; return the mixture to a boil. Adjust the heat and simmer the mixture, uncovered, stirring it from time to time, until the shreds of fruit are clear and the syrup has thickened, about 1 hour; toward the end of cooking, watch the mixture carefully and stir it often to prevent burning. The pear honey is thick enough when a small spoonful placed on a chilled saucer thickens to the consistancy of a soft preserve- not a stiff jam- when it's refrigerated for a few minutes; to prevent overcooking, set the pan off the heat while testing.

5. Ladle into hot, clean pint or half-pint jars leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Seal. Process 15 minutes for either size jar.

As I say, my pears were quite hard. Nevertheless, yours might not soften. I just hate throwning food away if it can be saved.

I do hope this works for you.

Deborah

Thanks - she just hates to keep throwing them out. I don't know what happens to the ones she leaves on the trees - I assume they fall off when still hard (or so it seems) then eventually rot. The tree was loaded, apparently the squirrels don't even bother it.

I thought a "honey" recipe would be like a syrup, this seems to be a butter-type end result?

How do you core a pear (esp. a very small hard one)? And the ingredients say "water as needed" but directions say 6C of water - are the pears drained before cooking?

For coring a pear, a melon baller works pretty good, just cut the pear in half and scoop out the seed area. You may or may not choose to run a knife along the "strings".
For a very hard pear, perhaps a "clawed" strawberry huller, would work even better.

Thanks - I may have to treat these like quinces LOL!

I didn't want to read through lots of pear threads finding recipes for ripe pears,

The point was you asked for ways to use them and any recipe that calls for pears can be used with these. Only the quality will be affected and given their poor quality it is most likely a waste of time.

And there are many pear recipes as well as tips on how to ripen them already posted that can be printed out and passed on to your friend. That includes the Pear Honey recipe which is in 3 different previous threads - rather than cannond having to take the time to re-type it yet again.

There is a real wealth of information already here on many topics if folks would just take a bit of time to read it for themselves.

Dave

The "honey" recipe is more like a soft preserve, the consistency of bee honey.

The pears are cooked in the 6 cups of lemon-water. When Helen Witty says "water as needed" I believe she's referring to the water used to cook the lemon zest. It's a quart, more or less.

That quart-ish of water will be drained, then the zest will be added to the pear/6 cups of water mixture.

Essentially youâÂÂre cooking shredded pears in six cups of water to which the cooked zest is added. Then you will add the sugar after the mixture has come to a boil.

Coring hard pears is a bit of a pain. I cut them in half length-wise and use a grapefruit spoon to carve out the core. Or you could just peel them, quarter them, then cut out the seed/core center on each quarter.

My pears never seem to really soften. They do ripen yellow, and are quite good when ripe, just not all that soft! I have canned them, juiced them, and cooked them down into pear sauce and butter.

So - just because they are hard does not mean they will not be good. I'd be curious to see how they are after they ripen.

Last year my sister brought me some pears from Arkansas that were really good keepers (great taste but very hard/crisp!) Although they were a bear to cut up, I made some great Pear Cardamom Preserves (from Ashley English's Canning and Preserving). They cooked down, but retained some texture that worked very well.

I also received a bag of very small hard pears. I made this jam, and it is absolutely great! If I had more pears, I'd make some pear/apple sauce :)

Pear Apple Jam
6 cups pears, peeled and finely chopped
2 cups apples, peeled and finely chopped
4 Tbsp lemon juice
1 package (1.75 oz) powdered pectin
1 tsp ground cinnamon
6 cups granulated sugar

In a large pot, combine the pears, apples, and lemon juice. Cook over medium heat until softened. Run the fruit through your food processor, and then return it to the pot. Whisk in the cinnamon and pectin until dissolved. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring frequently. Add in the sugar all at once and return to a full rolling boil for one minute. Remove from the heat and skim the foam off the top. Ladle hot jam into jars, leaving 1/4�� headspace. Wipe rim and center lids on jars, and then screw down bands just until resistance is met. Place jars in canner, ensuring they are covered with water, and boil for 10 minutes (adjust for altitude). Makes 6 eight-ounce jars.

Here is a link that might be useful: Pear Apple Jam

I wonder if you couldn't treat them like crabapples and do some of the same things with them. Pickled whole pears if they're that small. Things like that where you wouldn't have to cut them up that much.

It may also just be the type of pear, thinning and going through the ripening process might not help.

At the farm we have small hard pears that Grandpa just called "winter pears". They were smaller than a tennis ball, hard as a rock and never got soft no matter if they were wrapped in newspaper and stored in the root cellar until March, they would stay hard. They were also "gritty" but had a nice sweet flavor. Grandma canned them anyway, made "pink pears", which were just a canned pear with a bag of cinnamon red hots thrown into the syrup along with a couple of cinnamon sticks and a few whole cloves.

I'd try pear sauce, jelly or butter from them, probably, or perhaps pear mincemeat, something that entails some cooking.

As for the search function, it's abysmal. Good luck.

Annie

If you are going to try to ripen them up toss them into a fridge for two weeks, rather than just 3-4 days.

How about infusing alcohol with them?

Howdy all. These hard pears make the best preserves. First is to peal, slice, and cook until tender like cooking potatoes, until they slide off a fork. Drain. Now find an apple butter or apple preserve recipe for canning. I use about half, to 2/3, the sugar than the recipe call for.

the preserves are great for pies, and the pear butter I use for multiple things, especially when I cook a spiral honey ham, Use the guidelines that come with the ham, then cut it off the shank, layer in dish and cover with the pear butter.

mmmm good

Realizing of course that this thread is several years old, the way these pears were dismissed is rather odd for a forum dedicated to the harvest. I too think it would be a shame to waste the pears. They are probably some wild type of pear, perhaps related to seckel pears. Lots of pears don't soften, such as bosc and asian pears. There are lots of things you can do with them, I Googled "seckel pear" and found all kinds of recipes. A lot of the so called "hard" pears were for keeping for a long time, and soften and sweeten very much upon cooking. Bosc is a prime example. I would have a blast experimenting with those pears. I'd try a chutney, pickled, mixed in with applesauce, and as a preserve. I'd also try baking them to see if the flavor improved. And pear wine, that would be fun. It is one of the only kinds of wine I am allowed to drink, since I have to be on a low acid diet. Not sure if I'd tackle that, but since messing with produce to preserve it is my hobby, I would definitely try at least one experiment. Years ago I took some pears off of a tree my neighbor deemed "too hard" and inedible, and I made pear cardamom butter out of them. They were in fact seckel pears. The tree was a wild tree and the pears weren't very elegant looking, but tasted fine. Heirloom pears were a lot harder and smaller since folks needed fruit that would keep over the winter without refrigeration.

I agree Pinkmountain. These hard pears are also called "deer pears". We have a few in our field; and the deer often nest under them during foaling season. They taste kind of like a "tasteless" green apple. At the same time, they have a fresh and clean taste that I find rather appealing. I also like the texture...crisp and never grainy. Another plus to this wild fruit (beside it being an abundantly "free" food source) is that you will rarely, if ever, have to deal with pesky insects due to the hardness of the fruit. I'm not so sure that I would choose to purchase this type of pear, but I definitely take advantage of what nature gives to me freely. Cooked slowly, with enough sugar and cinnamon to enhance taste, these pears can be quite delicious. As one poster stated, you can use these pears in most any Pear Recipe, you just have to be willing to allow for a slower and longer cook time. I quarter the pears and simmer them until they reach the consistency of a boiled potatoe that would be used for mashed potatoes. They also make a wonderful jam; especially when add a couple of apples.

Tried malna's Caramel Spice Pear Butter recipe using half little brown pears and half large green pears totaling 5 pounds and it did turn out delicious. We still have a gazillion of these semi-wild pears so will definitely make another batch using this same recipe. A Maple Vanilla Pear recipe was on the same thread as malna's Caramel Spice but could not find any comment re its source or its safety. Anyone know? Recipe is below. thanks

Maple Vanilla Pear Butter

● 7-8 pounds pears, peeled, cored, and cut into chunks
● 1/2 cup water
● 1 cup sugar, or more to taste
● 1/2 cup maple syrup
● 1 tbsp. vanilla
● pinch salt
● 1/4 tsp vanilla bean, optional

Directions:

Add about a half cup of water to the chunked pears (just to keep them from sticking to the bottom) and cook over medium heat until the fruit is soft, about 20 minutes. Transfer to a food mill or food processor, and process until fairly smooth, but not completely liquified. Add the puree back to the pot, and add the sugars, syrup, vanilla, and salt. Cook over a low heat, stirring frequently, until thick enough to round up on a spoon. Fill sterilized jars and process for ten minutes in a water bath canner.

If you have never tried it….

I suggest making pickled pears. Different recipes are easy to find using google search.

My husband love the sweet / sour taste that was the result of last year’s pears. I found a recipe which included cider vinegar, juniper berries, cloves, sugar…. and probably a couple other spices. We enjoy them as a compliment beside a piece of meat especially wild game. If you like sweet and sour, it’s worth a try! 😜

I have a bartlet pear tree, they do not ripen unless refrigerated, mine usually 2 week and that is from rock hardness...hope this helps!