Oven-Dried Pears for Roasted Meats, Game, and Poultry
Preparation info
Difficulty
Easy
Makes
8
pear halves
Appears in
Whenever a recipe calls for fruit to accompany meat, game, and poultry (like duck with pears), this is the best way I know to bring out the flavors of the fruit, giving a commercial product a whole new lease on life as if it were ripe fruit fresh from a farm in Oregon or Long Island. The process is oven drying, slowly evaporating all that Colorado River irrigation water from the fruit without cooking it.
Ingredients
4 1 tablespoon 1 cup
Method
Preheat the oven to 300°F.
Slice the pears in half lengthwise. Rub each half with
Put parchment paper on a tray just large enough to hold the pears and pour the sugar on the paper. There should be a
As soon as the pears are cool enough to handle, remove the cores and stems, and proceed with any recipe that calls for the fruit as a garnish.
Variation
Oven-Dried Fruit
Do the same thing with halved apples, peeled pineapple, quinces, plums, apricots (especially, since they tend to be the most ruined by growers), peaches, and figs.
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