One of my New Year's resolution from 2012 was to begin learning to ferment fruits. I have done a good job of incorporating fermented dairy (like Greek yogurt) and veggies (like sauerkraut and carrot sticks), into our diet, but this was a new step. I was very happy with how this recipe turned out. Try your own variation. Go ahead and experiment, any dried fruit should work well!
This is similar to the recipe from Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon, only greatly reduced (even we can't eat 2 quarts of pear butter in two months!) and simplified.
1 cup dried pears (I used Asian pears)
1/2 teaspoon Celtic sea salt
1 tablespoon whey
1 tablespoon raw honey
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, optional
Makes 1 cup
Cook pears in water until soft. Drain water (can be saved for use in smoothies) and place softened dried pears in blender with remaining ingredients. Place in one cup mason jar. Cover tightly and leave out on the kitchen counter for two days. Transfer to refrigerator Enjoy within two months.
Eat any way you would jam. I served ours this morning with my soaked whole wheat flour crepes with homemade ricotta. Also delicious on toasted bread with peanut butter.
I'd love to make this within the next couple of days, but I only have fresh pears... Do you know if they have to be dry?
ReplyDeleteWow. So sorry I never saw this comment. The answer in short would be no. Unless you started by first making pear butter... so blend up pears into pear sauce and then boiling them down immensely until they reach a thick consistency.
DeleteCould you do this with fresh pears?
ReplyDeleteHey Denise! So sorry I never saw this comment. The answer in short would be no. Unless you started by first making pear butter... so blend up pears into pear sauce and then boiling them down immensely until they reach a thick consistency.
DeleteIf you do it with fresh pears it likely won't have the same consistency as it would with the dried. Also, you don't want to cook the pears too much because you can't ferment cooked food.
ReplyDeleteI LOVE pear butter! I have an apricot butter on my site -it's so good!
Hey Lydia,
DeleteThanks for commenting. For some reason I had never noticed the questions about whether or not you can use fresh pears. Thanks for drawing my attention to them. I would agree with you that you couldn't use fresh pears. At least not unless you cooked them down to a butter first.
I'm a little confused what you mean when you say you can't ferment cooked food. I do it all the time. (Think of Ketchup, beans, jam, potatoes, taro, traditional bread kvass... those are all cooked foods that are fermented) But maybe I'm not understanding what you mean...
I think fermenting is a great way to bring life back into canned or cooked foods and to add nutritional value to already cooked foods as well.
Would love to know your thoughts on the matter.