Poached Pears Recipe (2024)

Genuine port has a vanilla note because vanillin comes from the oak barrels it was stored in. You can make faux port by adding vanilla extract and sugar to a decent red wine -- by the time the pears have been poached and the wine reduced, you'd have to have a golden palate to tell the difference between real port and faux port.

Could you explain coring the pears? Since the photo shows them whole, do you hollow them out from the bottom?

I simmer the pairs in just wine. Put vanilla and sugar in whipped cream. serve with a side of ginger chutney form the Indian market.

I used D'Anjou pears and 2 cups apple cider instead of port. It was good, but next time I would reduce the amount of sugar at least by half.

Don't need sugar at all. The pears sweeten the wine plenty. Any variety of pear will do; worked well with Bosc, Anjou and Bartlett. Use any red wine and add vanilla, reduce till almost syrupy. Simple, easy to cook, and everybody loves them.

Mine were much prettier than the food stylist 's photo. I immersed my pears in Zinfandel and increased the sugar a little. To serve I covered half the pear with the shiny reduction and draped a little whipped cream over one shoulder.

They were probably cored from the bottom leaving a bit at the top intact.

Love to try this, but my spouse doesn't drink and doesn't want the alcohol. Would this method boil off the alcohol or would some still be left?

We loved pears poached this way. My only comment is that reducing the liquid to less than a cup takes quite a long time. Once the liquid was reduced, I halved the pears, serving each half in individual bowls with vanilla ice cream, streaming the reduction on top. It is a pretty and delicious dessert!

Just made it with porto. It was a big hit. Served it with vanilla almond ice cream. KUDOS again. Just superb. Thanks

Simple no stuff it up recipe.

My pears and sauce turned out the most startling shade of burgundy, unlike the photo, but were pear-colored inside. Gorgeous. As commentator Peter recommended, we use a red zin that no one wanted to drink, along with vanilla extract, and made wonderful sauce.My only problem was how to plate and serve them. Although perfectly done, they slide around a lot, drenched in sauce and a little vanilla ice cream.

vanilla beans are so expensive! Going to try this with just a little vanilla extract

Is it possible to make these ahead and keep in the refrigerator? My pears usually have a window of 1 hour between ripe and gone to compost! If I could make this while they are peaking,, that would be grand!

My God!!! This IS the ultimate cooking recipe for men. 4 steps; 4 ingredients - one of which is alcohol (man's best friend) and it's simple.And it's an absolute winner. I'd cut the sugar to 1 tbsp but that's me.WINNER!

The pears I bought were not ripe enough, as they came out too firm. They need to be ripe but firm to poach. Not sure how MB and SS managed to find pears of the right ripeness on the day they cooked. A little disappointed. The Almond Lemon Orange Olive oil cake is great, a repeater, and is as good served without the pears with a little whipped cream.

Lovely- use slightly hard pears so they don't get mushy when poached

I wanted to make this to use up a bottle of Spanish Malaga dulce (sweet) wine, that I knew we wouldn't drink. So I skipped the sugar, and the vanilla, simply cooked the pears in the wine. It worked fine, and the less sweet quality of it was appreciated at the end of a spicy meal (vanilla ice cream was a good addition).

We loved pears poached this way. My only comment is that reducing the liquid to less than a cup takes quite a long time. Once the liquid was reduced, I halved the pears, serving each half in individual bowls with vanilla ice cream, streaming the reduction on top. It is a pretty and delicious dessert!

Could you explain coring the pears? Since the photo shows them whole, do you hollow them out from the bottom?

Love to try this, but my spouse doesn't drink and doesn't want the alcohol. Would this method boil off the alcohol or would some still be left?

Don't need sugar at all. The pears sweeten the wine plenty. Any variety of pear will do; worked well with Bosc, Anjou and Bartlett. Use any red wine and add vanilla, reduce till almost syrupy. Simple, easy to cook, and everybody loves them.

While the photo shows — as the recipe indicates — that the pears were peeled, they do not — as the recipe indicates — appear to be cored. Any help would be appreciated.

I used white wine - about 1/2 cup - with the water, sugar and vanilla to poach the pears. I served a half pear with plain yogurt, pouring the reduced syrup over the yogurt. Though I am looking forward to eating the pears chilled, we ate them when they were still warm. It was a satisfying, light conclusion to dinner.

I peeled, but did not core, the pears. Worked beautifully. Big hit!