Stewed pears in red wine

Name: Stewed pears in red wine
Total time: 2 h 15 min
Yield: 6 people
Ingredients: 1.5 kg cooking pears; 500 ml red wine, or water with a splash of redcurrant juice; 150 g sugar or rock sugar; 1 cinnamon stick; 3 cloves; zest of ½ lemon

Updated on 9 October 2026

Makes: 6 people
Time: 15 min + 2–3 hours stewing
From: Pear

Ingredients

1.5 kg cooking pears
500 ml red wine, or water with a splash of redcurrant juice
150 g sugar or rock sugar
1 cinnamon stick
3 cloves
zest of ½ lemon

Method

Peel the pears and leave them whole with their stalks, or halve and core them.
Put them in a pan with the wine, sugar, spices and lemon zest, and top up with water until they are just covered.
Bring to the boil, then stew very gently, covered, for 2 to 3 hours until tender and deep red.
Lift out the pears and boil down the liquid to a syrupy sauce.
Pour the sauce over the pears. Lovely warm with game or a meat stew, or cold with vanilla ice cream.

Storing: A week in the fridge in their liquid, or a year in sterilised jars (20 minutes at 90 °C).