I’ve had a lot on my plate these past few weeks- I had 2 of these in 2 nights in nyc:
Then I had 8 of these in 4 days in Miami:
In between I rounded up a big raucous bunch of allium recipes and after all that, and in a bit of a haze there was the last minute planning of a much needed vacation to California. What all this means is:
1) I’m still alive.
2) I had to get jammin’ with my can jam at the very beginning of April in NYC without even a thought of getting up to the Berkshires to experience the glorious springtime weather & check out the bounty.
3) My biggest challenge this month was getting all that stuff off my plate and some other stuff into jars.
Some of you may remember my first attempt at butter; though good, it was a tad too sweet. I want a fruit butter that tastes like the fruit it is with just enough sweetness to be on the side of applesauce, and since I have plenty of experience enhancing jams with herbs, I wanted to see how they work with butters.
So that was the plan, and a more immediate one during my 10 minute Whole Food frenzy was finding the most potent smelling herbs I could find, and this was it:
I had a few flavor pairings in mind, and once the sage was settled on, the pear was the pairing for sure. Luckily, but not locally unfortunately, the pear section at Whole Foods was overflowing with fruit and so…
Saged Pear Butter
juice of one lemon
1/8 cup champagne vinegar (or white wine)
2/3 to 1 cup sugar (I used raw)
1/4 teaspoon finely ground white pepper
1 large sprig fresh sage (approximately 15-18 leaves)
Half pint mason jars
Directions
1) Peel pears, slice in half, core, and drop in a bowl of ice cold water with the lemon juice. This will keep them from discoloring.
2) Chop pears coarsely and place in preserving pot; add vinegar and 1/8 cup of water. Bring to a boil, then simmer until pears are just soft.
3) Sauce the pears. You have choices: you can run them through a food mill, blend in a blender, or do as I did and use an immersion blender right in the pot.
4) Add pear sauce back to the pot if you’ve taken the pears out to sauce. Put the heat on low and add sugar. Stir until sugar melts.
5) Add the ground white pepper and whole sage sprig. Turn heat up and bring to a boil.
6) Boil, stirring frequently when it begins to thicken. It will take about 35-45 minutes to reach a spreadable thickness. You will know it’s done when you can glide your stirring spoon across the bottom of the pot and see the bottom for a second or two before the butter melts back over itself.
Just when you begin to cook the sauce down you can prepare you canning pot and sterilize your jars.
7) Once desired thickness is reached, remove the sage sprig. You will have a lot of butter sticking to the sprig. Make sure to shake it off over the pan so as not to lose any of that buttery goodness.
8) Fill jars and process in a hot water bath for 5 minutes. Store in a cool, dry place for up to one year.
Note: this is a very small batch, so please double or even triple it if you’d like.