Saucy Pears

Remember all those Seckel pears we (meaning A.) picked awhile back?  They're just ripe now.  And starting to breed fruit flies.  Which means they need to be disposed of in some edible fashion that does not take a great amount of time that I do not have.

The problem with Seckel pears is that they're really small.  Like, about a quarter the size of the Bosc or Bartlett pears you might buy at the grocery store.  So peeling them is just about the most irritating and time-consuming thing in the world.  This is why I decided to make pear sauce with them.  I washed them, cut them in half, and chucked them stems, seeds, and all into a pot with some water and a couple of cinnamon sticks.  When they were soft, I ran them through the Foley food mill, with the enthusiastic assistance of Cubby.

A food mill, you see, is a tool.  And Lord knows, that boy is ALL ABOUT the tools.

The resulting pear sauce was really, really sweet.  Cubby was a fan, but the rest of us prefer a little bit of tart with our sweet when it comes to fruit sauce.

So, I asked myself, what could I add to the pears that would provide the necessary contrast of tart to the sweet?  How about that bag of cranberries that's been languishing in the freezer since, uh, last Thanksgiving? Tart is pretty much the defining characteristic of the cranberry.  And they sure weren't getting any younger.  Might not be a bad idea to use them up before this next Thanksgiving is upon us, in a mere two months.

So I dumped half the bag of cranberries into the pot with the pears, water, and cinnamon.

Now THAT is a good pear sauce.  Except now it's a pear-cranberry sauce.  But whatever.  It's good.  We like it.  I'll use the remaining half a bag to do the rest of the pears and will end up with about six quarts of pear sauce in the freezer.  Not too shabby.

Beats the hell out of peeling them, that's for sure.