Spiced Pears
| Pears (medium), | Eight |
| Sugar, | 1 cup |
| Vinegar, | ½ cup |
| Water, | ½ cup |
| Cinnamon (stick), | small piece |
| Cloves (whole), | 1 teaspoon |
| Mixed spices (ground), | 1 teaspoon |
Mother said she found that when she put up "spiced pears" the year before that it took fifteen pears of medium size to fill a quart jar, so she told Adelaide to prepare eight pears. Adelaide washed, wiped, pared, quartered and removed the core from each pear.
The cup of sugar, half cup each of water and vinegar, cinnamon stick and whole cloves were put into the saucepan and placed over the fire, then the teaspoon of mixed ground spices was also added; the latter were tied in a small piece of muslin.
These Adelaide let boil for five minutes, after which she skimmed the syrup and added the pears. It was necessary to boil the pears very gently for thirty-five minutes, stirring them frequently with the wooden spoon, but carefully so as not to break the fruit. When they were done Adelaide lifted the pears out carefully with a silver fork into the sterilized pint jar, and poured in the syrup to overflowing.
With a silver knife, which she inserted between the fruit and jar, she let all air bubbles rise to the top and break, then fitted on a new rubber smoothly, sealed the jar quickly and stood it upside down out of the way of any draft. In the morning, after examining the jar carefully to see that it did not leak, Adelaide wiped off all stickiness with a damp cloth, pasted on the label and stored the jar away in the preserve closet.