pear preserves, home canned pears, stewed pears with hot biscuits (all by my grandmother).
Tuck a few little pieces of pie pastry here and there amongst the pears in the pie. They will soak up the excess fruit juice and become wonderful pear dumplings within the pie.
Cold stewed pears on lettuce with a little mayo and grated cheese (by my mom).
And yes, the best fruit butter in the world. I never used any sugar. A little spice is good - or not - as you prefer.
No other pear makes such delightfully crunchy pies and preserves and wonderful, sweet, dark butter like our large southern pears. I never knew what they were called. Thanks.
I'll bet you could make a bang up salsa with them.
And don't forget how delicious they are raw if you just let them ripen thoroughly - they will become as sweet and soft as most other pears after awhile.
And what good keepers they are. Store them still green and hard, separated, in a cool, dry, dark place and they'll ripen very slowly and keep a long time. My grandmother overwintered them in the deep sand that was the "floor" of the old wood fired tobacco barn, along with apples, potatoes, turnips, and the like. Wonderful memories of going with Grandmother down to the 'baccer barn, elbow deep in the sand, fishing around for enough pears to make a pie in December.
Oh, and they are great to feed to Doberman Pinschers. My Dobie would beat me to all the low hanging fruit every year. She would mostly wait for them to get large, but not ripe. After she got the lowest, she would leap for those at the intermediate height. Beautiful to behold, those leaps of hers. Then she would prance around the yard showing me how she had snatched another one before she settled down, holding the pear betweeen her paws, daintily and slowly munching all around it till it was devoured. And never any ill effects that I noticed.
That pear tree my great grandmother planted about 1910 finally died about ten years ago - I have a photo of her two daughters in their teens sitting in front of it when it was a youngster. It had been hollow for ages but still bore masses of fruit every year till it finally succumbed. I still grieve for it.
Wat
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