Our abundance of quince led to a first time branching out into quince jelly. Lovely in color, and ever true to its quinceness, fragrant and unique in flavor: a keeper.
Then a trifecta of inspiration led to a very new flavor, Chipped Pears. Given a set of old recipe cards– we are guessing 1940’s– a few in particular caught my eye. Like Tomato Butter. And who could resist something called Chipped Pears? Pears, lemons, ginger, sugar, and a long, gentle simmer.
When chef Ben Gable of the fantastic benGABLEsavories in Chatham gave me a piece of Blue Star Farm ginger that looked like a beautiful sea sculpture, I said hmm, Chipped Pears. Amazing ginger now being grown right here in Columbia County, NY.
And then the beautiful abundant local pears, here the delicious NY 13046 variety (guess the folks at Cornell were fresh out of imagination that day…) from Samascott in Kinderhook: writing was on the wall for Chipped Pears.
The lemons give a hint of marmalade aspect, so this is like a presemalade, or a marmaserve. Whatever– it is damn good. Addictive really, and chock full of goodness essentials as we head into that season of brrr.
Keep it warm and eat your Chipped Pears xo