Excellent winter soul food that pairs well with brats or chops. This meal is mildly sweet and sour, smells amazing, and just makes you feel happy. If at all possible, leftovers are much better and keep well. A few coriander seeds go a long way and add the perfect enigmatic accent. But for diversity, any of the herb seeds—mustard, dill, and celery are all good—or blends of them are fantastic. Don’t fuss with your chopping; everything, including the bacon, should be in good-sized bits that are around the same size because this is a rustic dish.
| Prep Time: | 10 mins |
| Cook Time: | 2 hrs 35 mins |
| Total Time: | 2 hrs 45 mins |
| Servings: | 4 |
| Yield: | 4 servings |
Ingredients
- 4 large firm pears – peeled, cored, and quartered
- ½ cup white sugar
- peel of 1 orange
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1 (750 milliliter) bottle red wine
Instructions
- Place pears in a saucepan. Add sugar, orange peel, and cinnamon stick. Pour in red wine to cover pears completely. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer gently until pears are soft and deep red in color, about 2 1/2 hours.
- Transfer pears to a serving plate using a slotted spoon. Serve the pears warm or cold.
- Pear varieties: In the Netherlands, the Gieser Wildeman pear variety is a good choice for this recipe, and they can sometimes be found in the UK. For a local choice, simply choose the firmest pears you can find. The Williams variety can be a great choice.
- You can leave pears whole, with the stems on, for a more festive preparation.
- Nutrition data for this recipe includes the full amount of red wine. The actual amount of red wine consumed will vary.
Reviews
I LOVE pears. Poaching them in red wine is so delicious. I did not have to poach mine as long (I did about 1/2 hours) but did leave them in the liquid for quite a while. I did take out the pears and reduce the liquid also.
delicious
Very similar to my Dutch mother’s recipe! I added 1 tsp ginger and 1 tsp cloves. I used unripe Bosc pears. Simmering time would need to be reduced with ripe pears (my mother only simmers for 20 min).