Sep 8

Sep 8 Asian Pear Butter

Breakfast & Brunch, Side dishes, Dessert

Fruity, gently spiced fruit butter that goes well with all of your favorite breakfast treats.

Asian Pear Butter

Makes about 24 oz

I’ve always wanted to learn how to can and preserve food. I can remember researching the price of buying canning jars and equipment to teach myself only to have my mom tell me no. Not because the cost was exorbitant which it was but because it was not something she was familiar with and she didn’t want me to make a crazy mess and/or make us all sick. Putting up food was not something my grandmother ever did so my mom wasn’t fully confident in me trying no matter how many books I read about it. As such, I’ve learned to be more of a refrigerator preserve person, never really getting around to learning to actually can and process food.

Case in point today’s offering of Asian Pear Butter. I had a few extra Asian pears in my fridge and wanted to use them before they went bad. I knew that to make fruit butter, you basically cooked fruit down with sugar for a few hours. I had the time on hand the fruit in the fridge. I looked up ratios of fruit to sugar and added spices and flavorings that I had on hand. I didn’t add a lot of spices as the mixture would be cooking down for a long time and I knew the flavor would concentrate immensely. Additionally, I kept the spices to a minimum as I wanted as much of the pear flavor to come through as possible.

“Recipe Tips:

1. If desired, you can process the completed butter for canning.”

Ingredients

Base

1362g (3 lbs) ripe Asian pear, peeled, cored and cut into 1 in pieces

150ml (0.75 c) water

72 ml (6 T) lemon juice

10g (2 t) ginger, grated

2 T maesil

1 t whole fennel seeds

Finishing

300g (1.25 c) sugar

0.25 t ground cardamom

0.25 t kosher salt

0.25 t vanilla extract

1/8 t ground cinnamon

1/8 t ground nutmeg

1/16 t ground allspice

1/16 t 5 spice powder

1/16 t ground sancho or Sichuan pepper

Recipe Know-how

1. In a medium pot, place the base ingredients.

Bring to a boil covered.
Reduce to a strong simmer and cook covered for 30 minutes stirring occasionally.

Test that the fruit is very soft using a knife.
If not yet completely soft, continue to cook.

Using a potato masher, mash the fruit well, until no large chunks remain.

Optionally you can also use an immersion blender to make a smoother puree.

Add the finishing ingredients mixing well.
Return to a boil and then reduce the heat to low.
Simmer stirring frequently for 3 – 4 hours or until very thick and reduced by 75%.

More important than the listed time is the consistency (it can take up to 7 hours for the butter to reach the proper consistency).
The finished butter should be very thick and hold a line when wiped through the bottom of the pot.
It is important to stir every 15 minutes or so because as the sugars caramelize, they will stick to the bottom and scorch. Stirring prevents this and allows the caramelized sugars to mix into the butter and color it beautifully.