Eight whole peeled pears simmered gently in red wine, water, sugar and a cinnamon stick until they are tender to the core and stained red. Around forty minutes, and better made the day before.
Keep the heat low
Medium-low, the whole way through. This is the one instruction in the recipe that is repeated, and it is repeated for a reason.
A pear brought to a rolling boil cooks from the outside in far faster than the heat can reach the core, so the outer flesh is mush by the time the middle softens. At a bare simmer the whole pear moves towards tender at roughly the same rate.
Thirty to forty minutes is the range. The test is a skewer: it should go through to the core without resistance.
Cool them in the syrup
Do not lift them out when they are done. Leave them in the pot as the liquid cools, and if you can, leave them in the fridge overnight in their liquid.
The colour is a slow business. Forty minutes of simmering stains the outer centimetre; the hours afterwards are what take it to the core. Pears eaten straight out of the pot are red on the outside and white in the middle, which is a perfectly good dessert but not the one in the photograph.
Turning them
Five hundred millilitres of wine and 800 of water is a lot of liquid, but eight pears standing in a pot take up a lot of room, and depending on the pot they may not be fully submerged.
If part of a pear is above the liquid, turn them halfway through. Otherwise you get two-tone fruit.
Thickening the syrup
Three hundred and fifty grams of sugar in 1.3 litres of liquid reduces down into a proper syrup, but not always by the time the fruit is ready.
If the pears are tender and the liquid is still watery, take the pears out and boil the syrup hard on its own until it coats the back of a spoon. Then pour it back over them and let everything cool together.
More fruit desserts
- Papaya dessert — another cooked fruit.
- Fruit salad — the uncooked version.
- Grape dessert — cold set, no cooking.
- Strawberry dessert — with condensed milk.
Poached Pears FAQ
Somewhere between 30 and 40 minutes over medium-low heat, depending on how firm the pears were to start with. They are done when a skewer goes through to the core with no resistance.
Firm ones. A pear that already gives under your thumb in the shop will fall apart in the pot. Firm fruit holds its shape through forty minutes of simmering and still comes out tender.
An aged red, a crianza, is what the recipe asks for, but any dry red works. The wine is cooked for forty minutes with 350 grams of sugar, so subtlety in the bottle does not survive the pot.
The colour. Left to cool and sit in their syrup, the red works its way in from the skin towards the core, and overnight in the fridge is what gives you pears that are stained through rather than just on the outside.
Only if you leave them alone. Turn them over halfway through, or the submerged side comes out deep red and the exposed side stays pale.
Lift the pears out and boil the liquid on its own until it thickens enough to coat a spoon. The pears are done when they are tender, and the syrup does not always get there at the same moment.
The recipe only says to peel them. Leaving the stem attached makes them easier to lift and easier to serve, and it is how they are usually presented.
📖 Recipe
Ingredients
- 8 pears (firm, peeled)
- 500 ml aged red wine (a crianza, or any dry red)
- 350 g sugar
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 800 ml water
Notas
Instructions
- Peel the pears, leaving them whole.
- Stand them in a pot, put it over medium-low heat and pour in the wine, the water and the sugar, and add the cinnamon stick.
- Once it comes to a boil, cover the pot and let it cook until the pears are tender and the syrup has thickened.
- Keep the heat medium-low the whole time. Rushing it cooks the outside to mush before the middle softens, and getting them right takes somewhere between 30 and 40 minutes. They are done when a skewer goes through to the core with no resistance.
- Let them cool in the syrup and serve.
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