Drying pears - natures best candy!

Fruit in the Kitchen
#21

Depending on the moisture level but I had extras I’ve kept out for months with no problems.

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#22

J.D,
This recipe is similar to ours http://www.mommyskitchen.net/2008/10/homemade-pear-honey.html?m=1.

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#23

Can any food dehydrator be used for drying fruit? Do you have to do anything to the fruit before drying?

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#24

Sure any dehydrator will work. If you don’t want the fruit to brown as much add lemon juice, or vitamin c to some water and dig the pear slices in the water before drying them.

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#25

I’ve seen a few people discuss pear honey on various forums over the years. It seems like it must have southern origins? It sure does sound tasty. I’d think warmed up and poured over vanilla ice cream may prove to be dangerous.

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#26

murky, your dried pears are very good, I finished the small quantity of dried Asian pears and still have half of the Boscs.

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#27

Thanks for the link Clark. I had never heard of pear honey before, definitely going try making some this year.

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#28

I’ll be happy when I finally get fruit from my pear trees…can’t even imagine at this point having them to dry…that would be great.

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#29

How do most people process these, by hand? Pears seem too soft to process other than hand slicing. The reason I dry so many apples is because they are easy to do with the peeler, slicer. Slide the apple on and turn the handle. As fast as I can put them on and off, my daughter can get them on the trays.

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#30

I’ve not been a huge fan of dried pears, but I’m open-minded and willing to try them again. My wife loves them, so there’s reason to dry them either way. I’m curious how you all dry them though, do you prefer them to be really dry/crunchy or still have some moisture and a bit of tug when you’re done drying them?

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#31

I slice mine by hand but it’s faster than an apple peeler for me and I use a corer. Typically I don’t peel them anymore.

#32

It depends on the pear and they all dry differently. The final result is up to you depending on how many hours they are dried. I dry them at 135 degrees Fahrenheit for 14 hours. Mine wind up a little chewy typically and I’m not looking to make them hard. They have an excellent taste! Left a bag on the table this winter and there was no spoilage until the time we ate them several months later.

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#33

I’ve use honey on mine to make them a bit sweeter… but normally they turn out a bit rubbery. I use the same temp as you but time depends on the time of year and humidity.

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#34

I agree with that Bob 100% and ofcourse some pears are really juicy and take longer. Rubbery to you may be chewy to me I’m not sure. Cut mine fairly thin and that makes a difference on the result.

#35

Cant wait to dry pears again this year!

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#36

I need to get a dehydrator. The pears dried sound very good.

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#37

I put some pears in a tortilla press and smashed them,
Catching the juice in a baking pan, drank that.
Then on parment paper and into the dryer,
They were really ripe and I just did not have time to slice/ core
Was really easy, and they dried well
The Core is still in there, so I kind of eat around that.
Really good !
They took up less space in the dryer than sliced pears
And dried fast for the volume due to the cells being smashed.

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#38

@quill sorry for the late reply i just saw that i did not fully answer this this but anymore we dont even freeze most pears. Ayers is one i do always freeze because it stays chewy unlike most other pears.

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#39

I need to plan a trip to Lebanon, OR this time of year to pick a bunch. That’s where the Bosc trees reside. This year I just got a handful, not enough to dry. But I think I prefer them dried to fresh.

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#40

You might want to experiment making pear Jam with some of the extras.

Our pear tree is not yet producing anything yet, because of the root-stock the nursery used, I knew nothing about pear root-stocks back then, yet when we have surplus between that tree and the other varieties that I will graft on to my root-stocks then I will invent my own pear Jam both European pear jam and Asian pear jam, when I was visiting my family in Malta this year I bought some pear jam made with European type pears. I have not tried it yet although I am looking forward to it.