Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Mark Bittman

Vanilla-poached pears

Preparation info
  • Makes

    4

    servings
    • Difficulty

      Easy

    • Ready in

      15 min

Appears in
top 1000Simple to Spectacular
Simple to Spectacular

By Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Mark Bittman

Published 2000

  • About

These easy poached pears have great flavor as long as you use fresh vanilla beans. Make them just before dinner and they’ll be ready to serve at dessert time.

Ingredients

  • 4 pears (about 6 ounces each), preferably Anjou
  • 2½ cups sugar</

Method

  1. Peel and core the pears. Combine the sugar and 5 cups water in a saucepan large enough to hold the pears. Split the vanilla beans the long way and scrape out the seeds; add both seeds and pods to the water. Turn the heat to medium-high and bring to a boil.
  2. Add the pears and adjust the heat so that the mixture bubbles, but not too vigorously. Cook for 8 minutes,