Seckel Pears in Cranberry Syrup

From Preserving Memories: Growing Up In My Mother’s Kitchen.

You have the option of eating the pears, dyed bugrundy red from the syrup, on the third day, after they have cooled off, instead of canning them. They make a wonderful winter dessert when served in a shallow bowl atop a slice of pound cake with some of the ruby red syrup drizzled over them. The pears will keep, refrigerated, for a week or two. If you want to keep them longer they ned to be canned. Any extra syrup can be cooked to the jell point, and you’ll have a red jelly, transparent and quivering, to spoon over the little pears.

Rating: Easy
Special Instructions: The pears will be poached in ever-sweeter syrup over the course of three days. Fruit is apt to shrivel if plunged directly into a heavy syrup made from equal amounts of sugar and juice.
Yield: Three 16-oz jars

Ingredients:
4 cups lingonberries or cranberries
3 c water
3 c sugar
24 seckel pears
juice of 2 lemons

Day 1
1. Combine the berries with the water. Bring to a boil and simmer, uncovered, until the berries have burst and are quite soft.
2. Strain through a fine sieve, without squeezing the pulp. This should yield about 3 cups of juice. Set the pulp aside to use for fruit butter.
3. In a large, heavy saucepan, combine 1 c sugar with the juice and heat, stirring occasionally, until the sugar is dissolved.
4. Next, rinse the pears, peel the skin, but leave the little stem still attached. (It makes a prettier presentation.) As each pear is prepared, put it in a bowl of water acidulated with the juice of one lemon to keep them from turning brown.
5. When all the pears are peeled, drain and put them into the saucepan with the syrup. Simmer, uncovered, for 5 minutes. Then take the pan off the heat and allow the pears to sit in the syrup overnight.

Day 2
6. The next day, remove the pears from the syrup with a slotted spoon and set aside in a bowl. Add 1 cup sugar to the syrup and heat, stirring, until the sugar is dissolved.
7. Return the pears to the saucepan, simmer for 5 minutes, and again allow them to sit overnight.

Day 3
8. On the third day, once again repeat the process: Remove the pears from the syrup, add another cup of sugar to the syrup, heat to dissolve the sugar, and then simmer the pears for 5 minutes.
9. Pack the pears into prepared jars with their necks to the center (usually 8 small pears will fit neatly into a pint jar). Keep the pear-filled jars warm in a pan of hot water.
10. Measure the syrup. If using cranberries, add 1 T lemon juice for every 2 cups of syrup.
11. Bring the syrup to a boil and cook to the jell point. Pour over the pears to fill the jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace.
12. Process in HWB.

Cranberry-Pear Jelly
1. Measure the leftover syrup. For each cup of liquid add the juice of 1/2 lemon.
2. Bring to a boil and heat to the jell point.
3. Fill sterilized jars and process in HWB.