I’ve been racking my brain trying to come up with something to do with these wonderful Bartlett Pears that I got while dumpster diving! I think there were around 10 lbs with about half gone bad!!!
After much deliberation I threw together a Pear & Cranberry Sauce. I put in all the things I love so I figured I couldn’t go wrong!
After washing and coring out any soft/bad spots I added them to my large stock pot. I cooked the pears in 1-2 cups of water, adding 1 C washed organic cranberries, 1 Tbsp whole cloves, 5 Whole Cardamom, 2 Tbsp Dried Organic Orange Peel and about 2″ Organic Fresh Sliced Ginger. After it cooked down to mush I used my Mom’s old hand food mill to process out the skin, seeds, whole spices, etc. adding them to my compost.
A couple pieces of fresh ginger.
18 pints of sauce
After tasting I decided to add the desired amount of local raw honey to suit our taste. I added it while the sauce was still warm and stirred well.
Since I’m lazy I poured the sauce into clean 1/2 pint & 1 pint jars that will go in the freezer. Our still at home grown kids don’t eat sauce….it’s a texture thing! And Honey and I don’t usually want much with our meal, so storing in small containers allows for less waste and less science experiments gathering in the frig.
This was absolutely delicious and we had it with our weekly Dark Days Challenge Meal. I’m not a purest…..sorry. Since this is now stocked in my pantry and can be used for The Dark Days Challenge, I’m going to. We had a locally raised roasted chicken from Jehovah Jireh Farms, home grown lima’s and corn, and my exception ingredients to make stuffing that I stuffed into the chicken.
Season the chicken with ample salt & cayenne and bake at 350* for 2-2.5 hrs until the breast temp reaches 180*.
This was one of the best meals we’ve had….well, since the last one! Talk about stuffed!!!
This post will also be part of the Food Renegade Fight Back Friday and The Dark Days Challenge! Click under the Resources in the far right sidebar to see other food bloggers.
My, you just never know what you’ll find dumpster diving!! The sauce sounds delicious Diane.
[...] made a pear and cranberry sauce with pears she found while dumpster diving! They enjoyed it with a roast roast chicken with [...]
I’m always excited to see other people making creative & exciting things from the fruits of dumpster diving! Well done on your pear & cranberry sauce!
My stand-by when I score a big stack of overripe fruit is usually something like sorbet, because you can put just about anything in it & it’ll be delicious (and last ages).
Thanks for stopping by glittertrash! Great name! Can’t wait to visit your blog for some trashy news!