flipPear compote in spiced wine
Pear compote in spiced wine
Why this dish? In Lorraine — Nancy, Lunéville, where Graffigny spent her youth at the court of King Stanislas — orchards yielded pears in abundance. Preserving them in wine and spices allowed them to keep for several days: a pantry sweet for a woman who watched her expenses.
Pears slowly poached in sweet red wine, perfumed with cinnamon, cloves and a strip of zest, until tender and glossy, almost candied.
In Lorraine, we never lacked pears in autumn, and my mother taught me to keep them this way. You let them go very gently in red wine with sugar, a stick of cinnamon and two cloves, until they take on that beautiful garnet color. Thus prepared, they keep several days in their syrup, and you always have something on hand to close a meal or treat an unexpected visitor. It is the sweet of prudent people.
- •Firm pears — half a dozen (fruit)
- •Red wine — a pint (poaching bath)
- •Sugar — to discretion (sweetness and preservation)
- •Cinnamon — one stick (spice)
- •Cloves — two (spice)
- •Lemon zest — a strip (flavoring)
Pear compote in spiced wine
Pears slowly poached in sweet red wine, perfumed with cinnamon, cloves and a strip of zest, until tender and glossy, almost candied.
Why this dish? In Lorraine — Nancy, Lunéville, where Graffigny spent her youth at the court of King Stanislas — orchards yielded pears in abundance. Preserving them in wine and spices allowed them to keep for several days: a pantry sweet for a woman who watched her expenses.
In Lorraine, we never lacked pears in autumn, and my mother taught me to keep them this way. You let them go very gently in red wine with sugar, a stick of cinnamon and two cloves, until they take on that beautiful garnet color. Thus prepared, they keep several days in their syrup, and you always have something on hand to close a meal or treat an unexpected visitor. It is the sweet of prudent people.
Ingredients (period version)
- Firm pears — half a dozen (fruit)
- Red wine — a pint (poaching bath)
- Sugar — to discretion (sweetness and preservation)
- Cinnamon — one stick (spice)
- Cloves — two (spice)
- Lemon zest — a strip (flavoring)
Ingredients
- Firm pears (Conference, Williams) — 6 (fruit)
- Full-bodied red wine — 500 ml (poaching bath)
- Sugar — 120 g (sweetness and preservation)
- Cinnamon stick — 1 (spice)
- Cloves — 2 (spice)
- Lemon zest — 1 strip (flavoring)
Method
- Peel the pears, keeping the stems intact.
- Bring the wine, sugar and spices to a simmer.
- Submerge the pears, cover and poach over low heat for 25 to 35 minutes depending on firmness.
- Remove the pears, reduce the syrup by half until it coats a spoon.
- Return the pears to the syrup and let cool: they color and absorb flavor.
- Keep refrigerated in their syrup for several days.
How it was made : Poaching fruit in sweetened spiced wine is a medieval technique that continued into the 18th century, both for taste and preservation: sugar and alcohol slow spoilage. Lorraine under Stanislas Leszczynski was renowned for its fruits and sweets (it is said that baba was born there).
The contemporary twist : Served warm with a quenelle of whipped cream, drizzled with the syrup reduced to a mirror glaze.
Sources : Menon, La Cuisinière bourgeoise, 1746
Françoise de Graffigny · Charactorium
