Homemade Pear Cider.
[this post is in partnership with Harry and David. I’m creating some wonderful recipes with their royal riviera pears this season, starting with pear cider and I can’t wait for you guys to see what I’ve come up with! xoxo]
Pass the pear cider please!
I have the best best best warm and comforting drink that will keep your soul cozy this month. I might be slightly shifting my love of apples to pears (I mean, they ARE such an underrated fruit this time of year) right now in most predictable Jessica fashion, but I don’t hate it.
In fact, freaking out priorities may be shifting to pear cider over apple cider. WHAT.
I could not be more excited to develop some recipes for Harry and David this holiday season using their incredible pears. You might remember a few years ago when I went to the Harry and David headquarters and it still ranks up there as one of the best trips I’ve ever taken. To say I’m absolutely enamored with their pears would be a serious understatement.
It’s a nostalgic thing for me, of course. (um, hi, what isn’t?!) When I was a kid, my dad would usually get a box of pears or two from people he worked with as a holiday gift. And I remember the first time I had a GOOD pear. You know? Juicy, sweet, not mealy whatsoever? I fell in love. From that moment, my brothers and I basically fought over the fruit that would come each December. As the first born crazy person, I’d plot so I could get the gold wrapped one. It was all that mattered to my tween self. And that was BEFORE instagram existed.
So naturally, I knew that the first thing I had to make was pear cider because… up until making this, I had never even tasted homemade pear cider before!
OH
MY
GOSH.
New infatuation. Here I am. Hello.
First, lets talk about how AMAZING our entire house smelled the day that I made this. I love to make homemade simmering spices during the winter but this was, like, ten times better because we actually got to consume the deliciousness after it simmered on the stove all day.
Second, it was out of this world incredible. We’re talking four words: In. Cred. I. Ble. That’s necessary.
This was my first thought after tasting the cider: it tastes like winter. WINTER! Which I absolutely loved, and here is why.
I’m a seasons freak. I love the shift of spring to summer to fall to winter. I could never live somewhere that didn’t have all four seasons – all four seasons dramatically, that is. I love to eat seasonally and enjoy every moment of what each season brings. And to me, apple cider tastes like fall. It tastes like October. Like bonfires and pumpkin patches and hayrides and days that still might reach 80 degrees. It’s fantastic, but it’s all crunchy leaves and pumpkin spice-like.
The pear cider? It reminds me of those moments from Thanksgiving to Christmas. Maybe it’s the cloves or the allspice. Maybe it’s simply the pears. It’s just different enough that it screams Thanksgiving turkey turned into snow and Christmas presents and twinkling lights. It’s warming and spicy but sweet. Hot or cold, turned into syrup, thrown in a cake – it’s a familiar enough taste that you’ll feel super cozy, but has that slight hint of… “these are pears!” And booooy do I love pears.
It’s absolutely lovely AND I don’t think it would suffer from a shot of bourbon either…
Homemade Pear Cider
Ingredients
- 10 whole Royal Riviera Pears cut in half, stems and seeds removed
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 3 cinnamon sticks
- 2 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1 teaspoon whole cloves
- 1 vanilla bean pod, split open.
Instructions
- Combine the pears, sugar, cinnamon sticks, whole cloves, vanilla pod and allspice in a large stock pot and cover with water. You want the water to be about 2 inches higher than the pears. Bring the mixture to a boil, reduce it to a simmer and cook for 1 hour uncovered. After 1 hour, you can mash some of the pears (they will just fall apart). Cover the pot and simmer for another 2 hours.
- After 2 hours, let the mixture cool slightly. Strain it through a fine mesh sieve (I did so twice) to remove the solids. Some of the solids may remain. You can strain it through cheesecloth one more time before serving if desired. Serve hot with cinnamon sticks!
- Store in a sealed container or jar in the fridge.
Notes
Did you make this recipe?
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I appreciate you so much!
Give me a cup of this and turn on Love Actually and I’m SET.
57 Comments on “Homemade Pear Cider.”
Wow, I love this! Absolutely perfect/ideal use of pears! I’ve heard such great things about Harry & David pears. I’ve never tried them myself, but I imagine they taste incredible and would be great in this pear cider recipe.
oh my gosh! melissa you need to try, they are so delicious. best pears i’ve ever had!
This cider sounds incredible! Love the way those big fat pears look! I need to buy some STAT!
thanks katrina! xoxo
yum! i always want to give pears some love during harvest season but have never been too comfortable with them. well…i know where i’m starting now =) thanks for another great recipe, jessica! xo
thanks jess!
Oh! This looks so easy. Definitely making this next weekend!!
i hope you try it!
Yes! Pear cider sounds sooo incredible. It’ll definitely be a delicious alternative to the classic apple cider. I can’t wait!!!
thanks andrea!
I have had many versions of apple cider, but this pear cider looks like it will take the cake! Absolutely delicious!
thank you annie! xo
This sounds heavenly. And I love how when you do a sponsored post, you mention it upfront. Most bloggers don’t do that =)
thanks sara!
Now THAT’S a cider I think I’d love! Pears are the best! What a delicious idea!
thanks rebecca!
I think this is the first time ive ever commented on a blog post. I always read your posts because your writing style and stories are always so entertaining! I hadnt even planned on pinning this recipe but the way you said it tasted like winter (and then brought up love actually!) Well i am definately going to be making this come december! Thank for all the great recipes and stories, hope you have a good day!
lilly! thank you so, so much. that really means a lot to me. thank you for commenting!!
Yum! Ooooh I can almost smell it through the screen! (I wish…;))
We always used to get Harry & David pears right around Christmas when I was growing up – such good memories! This cider looks so delicious! I’ll definitely have to make some soon :)
yes yes! they were just the best right? i’d wait all year for them. :)
THIS speaks to me! “I’m a seasons freak. I love the shift of spring to summer to fall to winter. I could never live somewhere that didn’t have all four seasons – all four seasons dramatically, that is.”
I lived in Phoenix for 2 years and am from MA. It is just NOT the same! LOVE this idea and will definitely have to make it once we receive those 1 or 2 boxes of pears as gifts at Christmas! xoxo
I’m using it now and it’s awesome! I’ve signed up for my account and have been bringing in fat paychecks. For real, my first week I made $302 and the second week I doubled it and then it kinda snowballed to $120 a day.M#1.
Just follow the course>>>>>>> http://www.CareerToday00.Tk
Pear cider sounds amazing! The pictures look great as well. Nice recipe! Can’t wait to try it!
We got my mom Harry & David’s pears for the first time two years ago and they were so juicy and delicious! I’ve also been looking for a good winter cocktail recipe for the holidays and I imagine this + a bit of liquor will give the perfect sweet buzz. On my list to give it a try!
My husband made this yesterday and it was delicious! Plus our house smells insanely good now.
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Wow!! Tasty Pear cider
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Looks delicious! Thanks for sharing! Do you have any idea if this could be frozen?
I bought Harry and David’s pears for the first time this year. One of the pears in the box was rotted so they ended up sending me two more boxes of the pears. I had more pears than I knew what to do with and I wanted to process them somehow. Well cheers to the writer for this recipe! I followed the recipe with some of my own variations. I used star anise instead of allspice and maple syrup instead of brown sugar and added a touch of whisky to the batch (the alcohol gets cooked out hehe). I also added some apple and orange juice and water for some body and volume to the cider. I found the pear nectar to be too sweet by itself. The turnout was about a gallon and ohhhhhhhh man I am now forever ruined for any other cider. Suuuuuper good.
Err aah,,, what you have here is a form of pear juice, it’s not cider.
Cider is the juice of a pear, which has been fermented, like wine, or better like champaine.
Please consider to take a trip to your; craft beer shelf, in any modern health food grocery, and pick a single “perry” selling for about 3.50. Chill it, and taste it, a true pear cider “perry'” is lovely/ wonderful.
I’m afraid you’re not quite right on this one! Don’t forget, there’s a difference between soft cider and hard cider. Hard is fermented drinks, soft is for the kids. Part of the difference lies in whether it’s been cooked. Straight juice, raw, unfiltered, is generally considered “juice” while the soft version of “cider” is heated, cooked down, and many times spiced. It’s also usually served heated, whereas juice is cold. Hard cider is used to denote an alcoholic fermentation process. This is very common terminology in the states and parts of Canada! That’s the terminology being used in this article/recipe.
Which! I have just completed and it is absolutely delicious cider. It’s strong, very heavy on the spices, and just the treat to get rid of the pears which have fallen right off the tree. Pick of the pile, so long as I clean out the icky bits, and everything gets a rinse and I get some delicious cider. Thank you so much!
If you live in the UK your description would be wrong. We have no concept of hard or soft cyder, a fermented drink made with pears is called perry after the perry pear but is now commonly called cider. Any apple or pear drink without alcohol is just that a drink or juice.
Thank you for this delicious recipe it has been a life saver for me. I’m severely allergic to apples, and the fall is a sad time of year for me because I can’t partake in a lot of traditional foods during this time of year due to the apples involved. I have successfully been able to substitute pear in for any apple in recipes, but I have always wanted to try a mulled cider, which has been impossible until now. Thank you – I can’t express my appreciation!
This looks fantastic!! I can’t wait to make it! Do you know about how much it makes?
I made this for a family party in January and it was a big hit, with people wanting the recipe. I didn’t serve any alcohol so I wanted special drinks, and I had this along with vegan Caesar mocktails to choose from, which were both very tasty and fun. You were right about the smell of it cooking being absolutely wonderful. And the taste is out of this world. I just got pears at the co-op, not sure what kind, but would be nice to try these Harry and David pears sometime.
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How long will this last in the fridge? Can it be canned/
Delicious. House smelled so good when it was simmering on the stove. Added several apples. I will definitely be making this again and again.
I just made this and wow is it delicious! I was worried the cloves would be too much because the smell of cloves was very strong, so I removed a couple and it was just perfect. I had Pear Cider in Prague and was absolutely obsessed with it, but it was impossible to find anywhere else, so I was desperate for more and this really hit the spot.
A couple tips from when I made it:
-After an hour, take the pears out, a few at a time, and crush them with some kind of mallet/press/etc. I had trouble breaking mine up with just my spoon but they were soft enough that I could easily break them up once I get them out. I put them back in the pot after and had smaller clumps leftover.
-I threw a bit more brown sugar in after the fact, I like my cider sweet, but that’s definitely a personal choice. Some maple syrup in this would probably be welcome.
-Vanilla pods are expensive, and I am thinking the next time I make this (probably soon!) I may exclude it and see what that changes. It probably would be better had I scraped out the pod instead of leaving it split in the pot.
Will be hopefully making this again for Christmas, absolutely lovely!
I haven’t made it yet but ,do you really need the sugar ?
I added yeast at the end and let stand for 1 week. Guilty grin…but my greatness…wow!
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Hello –
Is there a substitute pear if you don’t have Royal Riviera Pears?
Thx!
Christine
I used 5lbs of extremely ripe and bruised D’Anjou pears and added a little more sugar- they aren’t as sweet as the Royal Riviera normally. :)
How would I process this for a longer shelf life? I have a pressure canner bur am not sure how long to process this??
The National Center for Home Food Preservation has a lot of recipes and tips. https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can_02/pear_halved.html
Pears have a lot of natural acidity and can be water bathed or steam canned.
Our family really enjoys this pear cider recipe. We use fresh pears from our pear trees. Most agree that it’s much better than apple cider.
Love the sound of this Drink and here in the UK that would be what it is. A pear cider or as we would call it Perry after the Perry pear is a fermented drink. Many years ago a UK company was stopped in the courts from calling their drink Champagne Perry.
Not Cider