This section is from the book "Fruits And Their Cookery", by Harriet S. Nelson. Also available from Amazon: Fruits and Their Cookery.
4 pounds pears 2 pounds granulated sugar.
1/8 pound of Canton preserved ginger.
2 lemons.
Weigh the pears after peeling and coring, cut them into eighths, sprinkle the sugar over them and stand over night, then add the ginger cut in small pieces and the lemon sliced thin. Cook very slowly for two hours, put in sterilized jars and seal.
1/2 peck of pears 2 pounds brown sugar.
1 ounce stick cinnamon cloves if liked.
2 cupfuls vinegar.
Boil the vinegar, sugar and cinnamon together for fifteen minutes. Wash, pare, quarter, and core the pears. Stick two whole cloves into each quarter. Cook a few pears at a time in the syrup until tender. Pack in sterilized jars and seal.
Take as many winter pears as you wish to use and put them into an agate baking dish, cover with equal parts of water and molasses and bake until tender.
5 pounds pears 3 pounds sugar.
2 oranges.
3 lemons.
1/2 pound raisins 1 pound English walnuts small jar preserved ginger with syrup.
Peel pears and cut in small pieces. Put sugar on and stand over night. In the morning bring to a boil, take out the pears and cook the juice until a good syrup, then add raisins, grated rind and juice of oranges and lemons and cook fifteen minutes. Chop the nuts and ginger, add them to syrup, also the pears, and cook half an hour. Put in jelly glasses.
8 pounds pared and cored pears.
2 pounds sugar.
Juice one lemon.
4 quarts grape juice.
Cover the pears with the sugar, grape juice and lemon juice; simmer for two hours. Then put them in a slow oven over night or in a fireless cooker. Put in jelly glasses and cover with paraffin and paper.
Soak dried California pears in water over night, arrange them around a mound of boiled rice. To the water in which the pears were soaked add enough sugar to make it very sweet, and boil it down to a syrup, then add a teaspoonful of lemon juice. Pour the hot syrup over the fruit. Serve cold.
Slice and stew five or six pears in a syrup made with a pint each of sugar and water, flavored with the juice of a lemon. In a baking dish arrange a thin layer of sponge cake, then a layer of the pears, topped with a second layer of sponge cake, then another of pears, finishing with a third layer of sponge cake. Over the whole pour the yolks of two eggs whipped with two-thirds of a cupful of sugar. Bake till lightly browned, then add to the top a meringue of the whites of the eggs; replace in the oven till well browned, and serve very cold.
Pare four Bartlett pears, cut in quarters, lengthwise, and saute in butter until browned. Arrange in serving dish and pour over the following sauce. Chill thoroughly before serving. For the sauce put two ounces sweet chocolate, one tablespoonful sugar, and one and one-fourth cupfuls cold milk in double boiler, and let cook five minutes, then add one teaspoonful arrowroot mixed with one-fourth cupful thin cream and a few grains salt, and cook ten minutes, stirring constantly. Melt one and one-half tablespoonfuls butter, add one-fourth cupful powdered sugar, and cook until well caramelized, stirring constantly. Add to first mixture and flavor with one-half teaspoonful vanilla.
Choose nice large ripe but firm pears for this purpose. Peel, and halve. Make a thick syrup with granulated sugar and water, using a cupful of water to each pound of sugar. Place the pears in this and bring to a boil. Simmer for about five minutes; then remove from fire, and let stand over night in the syrup. Place over the fire again, and allow the pears to simmer another five minutes. Skim carefully out on to platters, and place in the sun or in a slow oven until dry. Again bring the syrup to a boil, add the pears and simmer to the crystal state, then remove the pears on to platters again, and let dry as before. Before they are quite dry, sprinkle with chopped almonds. When completely dry, pack in boxes lined with paraffin paper, and place a sheet of paper between each layer.
Slice the lemons thin and remove the seeds. Allow three pints of water to each pound of the fruit, and allow to stand over night in this, then in the morning boil until tender. To each pint of this boiled fruit add one pint of sliced pears and one pound of granulated sugar. Boil until the pears are tender, and the syrup begins to jelly and the fruit is transparent, then fill into jars and seal.
 
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