Belgian Pears

I know its not the season for picking pears... but just sharing a recipe i found online that i tried and the pears went down a treat over Christmas... very rich, and lovely with whipped cream, or mascarpone... really heavenly!!! Make a really gorgeous gift too, in a big chunky jar!!
I suppose they can be made any time with shop bought...

For some of the batches i ended up using much more white wine vinegar and sugar than mentioned because my pears didn't seem to produce as much juice as the ones the person who wrote this recipe did, and the syrup was coming out very thick and viscous and not enough to cover the pears. (I doubled both, and then increased the vinegar a bit more on a different batch... flavour was still amazing)
The tree i used pears from usually produces quite tart, dry and grainy pears and i struggle to find uses for them... not any more... next year, they'll ALL become Belgian Pears!!! It really is a wonder recipe.

Yes, the cooking times seem crazy... but it really does improve the flavour to cook a long time, and they literally melt in the mouth. Trick is, to have it extremely low. You might end up reducing the cook time with the lid off by a little, like i did, if your pears are quite dry and they've hit that perfect consistency.

Belgian Pears recipe

Ingredients:

2 kilos of pears
500g of white granulated sugar
150 ml of white wine vinegar
Method:

Wash and peel the pears. Leaving the stalk on.
Melt the sugar in the vinegar and any pear juice in a large heavy bottomed saucepan.
Add the pears and simmer gently with a lid tight fitting lid for three hours.
Remove the lid and simmer for a further three hours with the lid off.
Pot into sterilised jars and seal in a Bain Marie.
Test the seals when cold before labelling and storing.
N.B. You need 2 kilos of pears. 1 kilo doesn’t make enough juice if you are going to bottle them.

Enjoy!