Poached Pears Question

Epicurean Exploits - Food and Recipes
1

Always do a Xmas Day breakfast/brunch blowout (for us, anyway) and have decided to do poached pears. The recipe I’m planning to use calls for 1 750ml of wine, and I want to use a semi-sweet Jurancon to give it some distinction, but I need to do 6 pears instead of 3-4. Which choice is better for getting enough poaching liquid without diluting the character of the base wine, which will be reduced down as a syrup:

  1. Add some basic Riesling Kabinett

2)Add a sugar and water mix as you would use for a non-alcoholic poached pear (which I’m doing two of anyway)

I understand the best answer is 3) Suck it up and buy 2 bottles of the Jurancon
but I’ve already gone a little nuts on the omelette ingredients.

Side note: is stuffing the cored pear with chevre overkill?

TIA

2

I’d go with #2. I wouldn’t add a riesling to the mix, as you’ll screw with the Jurancon flavors. Just monitor the sweetness during cooking and I’d probably just start with a bit of extra water (no sugar added) and add the sugar later to account for the sugars that escape the pears during the poaching process.

3

you could do the pears in two batches, in the same liquid.

4

Also, just noticed your question. Not overkill. Hell, I might go with a milder bleu in this case as bleu and Jurancon go well together!

5

The difficulty here, I think, is absorption. You’re going to need to add another liquid no matter what: water/simple syrup/other wine.

6

You don’t lose much liquid in my experience. I like this option but if needed would go with a simple syrup.

7

I use Cassis.

8

Agreed on simple syrup (I think we a lower sugar content than usual, upped if necessary).

9

I have poached pears in Sauternes before, they came out well.

10

Any crisp white or light red will work. I am not a big sugar fan so if the pears are ripe we don’t add any or use wine with any. We have a few pear trees so we have tried many combos with tasting room left overs over the years.

I like using bubbles as well as the acid offsets the sugar from the pears and if its brunch well be drinking some anyway.

Stuffing with cheese definitely adds another layer. I would rather stuff cheese in an apple but chevre or mascarpone sounds yummy as well.