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1:37 pm
Expert
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Fri 9-Sep-11
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Have just bought a basket of pears at a local farm shop - not too sure what type they are but they are quite hard - might be Williams.
I have enough to make chutney and jam (which I haven't tried before) so looked at Fiona's Pear & lemon jam recipe which sounds delicious but there were a helluva lot of comments from people having problems with getting it to set. The recipe uses a lot of water and some people were saying they boiled for anything between 1 to 2 hours to achieve a set. This sounds all wrong to me as I would be worried it would ruin the flavour.
Has anyone tried this recipe please or any pear jam recipe, and if so any thoughts or tips would be much appreciated. The pears I have are quite hard (they aren't Conference) but I'm assuming they may ripen up a bit if I can be patient enough!
Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.
5:07 pm
Improver
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Tue 3-Jul-12
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Hi Maura, I have made a few batches of pear jam- it is as tricky to set as strawberry! It may help to add some Bramleys I'd say. Anyway, I made medlar chutney recipe by Hugh F-W which was divine, he says use pears if no medlars are around!
8:36 am
Supreme Being
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Tue 22-Sep-09
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I've made pear and vanilla cheese, but not a jam, I have a divine recipe for pear, orange and ginger chutney, it tastes and smells so Christmassy, presumably down to the spices, ground allspice, ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg...it think, but I'd have to check.
9:23 am
Expert
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Fri 9-Sep-11
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Thanks ladies - I did wonder if it would be tricky but Fiona had a lot of success with her recipe whereas a lot of people who tried it struggled to get a set. It really must come down to type of pear I think.
I'm happy to use them for chutney rather than get myself in a mess (literally) with another pan of gloopy bubbling, spitting, molten lava like jam but the flavour of pear & lemon really appealed to me. The pears are rock hard at the minute - I'll phone the farm shop tomorrow and ask what variety they are.
Jan - the chutney you mention sounds lovely if you have the recipe for it to hand I wouldn't mind it please as it would make good Christmas gifts.
I also found one for Apple, Fig & Pear chutney with cardamom from the lavender & lovage website (well worth ploughing through- her recipes are wonderful).
http://www.lavenderandlovage.com/
Not been feeling the best over the last few weeks and now the Doc has me on tablets which I hate. I suppose I shouldn't grumble as first time in my 60+ years I have had to take pills but they are making me really woozy. I'm hoping I might be able to do without them eventually. Good job hubby is on hand now to help me with veggie prep for chutney 
Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.
11:23 pm
Supreme Being
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Tue 22-Sep-09
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I'll try and remember to dig out the recipe tomorrow for you Maura, I'm going out for lunch, but if I can remember I'll do it before I go....not promising though, my memory is terrible nowadays. By the way I didn't make pear and vanilla cheese, no idea why I said I did, it was pear and vanilla butter.
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