Pear tart (recipe)

History

This recipe is originally from The English Huswife, Gervase Markham.

Ingredients

• 3 lbs small pears
• 3 cups white wine (I used chardonay, but a riesling would be good, too)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp cloves

Method

1. Peel, core, and quarter pears and place in cooking pot.
2. Mix sugar and wine, pour over pears.
3. Cook pears in wine/sugar until mixture turns syrupy (about 30 minutes).
4. Remove pears from liquid and cool.
5. Heat over to 425F.
6. Place pears in pie shell, sprinkle on cinnamon and cloves.
7. Cover, making a hole in the middle of the cover.
8. Back 35 minutes.
9. Remove from oven, pour wine syrup in through the hole in the crust, shake gently to distributed syrup.
10. Return to over for remaining 45 minutes. Serve warm.

Note that the original cooking pears would have been Black Worcester which has a very good flavour but requires approx 120 minutes cooking. Queen Elizabeth I was so fond of these that Worcester's coat of arms was changed.