We had pears in our backyard this year. Actually, our neighbors had them in their backyard. But branches from their bush flopped over our shared fence like bangs on an emo teenager. You could find me out there each day for a week or so, tugging gently at the little pears to see which ones came off easily.
They looked like your average run of the mill ... pear, but there are so many pear variants as there are children, each with its own identity, that we decided to just call the fruit mockpear.
And I wanted to turn them into jam.
I've never made pear jam before - fig, blackberry, and strawberry jam yes - but not pear jam. So I turned to the smattering of preserving books that I own. What better way to compare them than to read each one's approach to my simple goal?
The first up was Jam It, Pickle It, Cure It by Karen Solomon. The recipes are clearly laid out, written in a friendly tone, and obviously developed by someone who lives in a snug home without a lot of extra space for kitchen gear.
But it doesn't contain a recipe for pear jam. This omission became a theme. When I showed the book to a friend, he was surprised that he couldn't find information about cornichons. Last week, I tried to find advice on making traditional cucumber pickles, the kind that sit in a salt-only brine for 2 weeks and require a daily skimming from the cook. No luck, though she does offer a technique for kimchee. (I should note that the book does include a strawberry jam, but I didn't know if the exact same proportions would work.)
I suspect Solomon simply didn't have space for all these items. You might guess from the title that the book is just about preserving, but Solomon tackles the entire pantry. Alongside recipes for jam, cured meat, and pickles, there are recipes for crackers, chocolate candies, infused spirits, homemade pasta, and other foods that at first seem out of place. Such a slim book does not allow for much depth. The recipes may inspire cooks to try new things, but they may not provide answers for cooks already inspired to try one specific thing.
At any rate the pears went bad and no pear jam was ever attempted this summer! Next year I will go back to making Fig jam! At least I know where the recipe is for that!