Howdy, Jigglers! The next recipe from Joys of Jell-O on my list to make was Mint-Glazed Pears, which is a curious pairing of flavors, but I was hoping that it would turn out somewhat similar to the Cherry-Glazed Ham that I so dearly love (to date, it’s the only JOJ recipe I’ve made twice). I like mint, and I like pears, so even though General Foods clearly threw darts at a board to choose the flavor and the fruit to use in the recipe, how bad could it be?
The method is even similar to the one employed in Cherry-Glazed Ham: you make your gelatin solution, you pour it on the pears, then you stick it all in the oven, basting frequently, only this time we’re using the broiler instead of just roasting. I only had peppermint extract (though trust me, I’ve looked for regular mint extract around here for ages—I’m just not convinced it’s still made), but otherwise I used all the ingredients as called for in the recipe, even down to a packaged gelatin mix. This was mainly because I wanted the bright coloration, and every time I use green food coloring the result is just a little odd (see Avocado Pie).
Since you can serve the Mint-Glazed Pears warm or cold, and since you don’t have to wait for any gelatin to set, the first thing that struck me about this recipe is how fast it is. I had the whole thing done in half an hour, and that’s with attending to some other chores at the same time. You do have to be mindful of the broiler, though. I basted my pears every two minutes, and I got slight charring between 6 and 8 minutes in, so I didn’t end up broiling them more than 10 minutes in total. The charring as it turned out was fine, but I didn’t want to overdo it. I also had my oven rack very close to the broiler, though, so maybe if you put it on the second or third rung from the top, you would be able to broil for longer and get more infusion of the gelatin into the pears.
That’s what really makes this recipe shine: the pears absorb a lot of the gelatin mixture, making them bright green and full of flavor. They don’t taste like they have a glaze on them, as in a physical layer of gelatin on the outside (even when chilled), but they are quite minty and sweet. Not much of the lime flavor came through, surprisingly enough, as half a teaspoon of peppermint extract is a strong flavor to have to overcome.
What the recipe doesn’t really state, however, is that the amount of gelatin you make is easily enough to glaze three one-pound cans of halved pears. I didn’t think of this at the time, so I only used one can despite having three in my larders, instead molding and setting the rest of the gelatin (diluted with a touch of water). In retrospect, I wish I would’ve just kept glazing more pears, because the pears were much tastier than the minty lime gelatin by itself. Plus, the pears are fairly light as a dessert, so one can only yielded me three servings of three pear halves each. If I had made all three cans, I could’ve eaten Mint-Glazed Pears all week!
As far as the serving suggestion of serving hot and cold goes, I tried it both ways, and I have mixed feelings on the matter. I personally preferred these pears warm, but I feel like most people would enjoy them more served cold. In terms of when or where I would serve Mint-Glazed Pears, I would only recommend serving them to your more avant-garde or culinarily adventurous friends. Mint is a divisive flavor, and these pears are strongly minty, plus the toxic waste-green color on the pears might be offputting to people. The perfect occasion for these might be Easter brunch as a light fruit salad (it is in the Two-Way Recipe chapter, after all) or as a light picnic dessert. Since they are fairly durable, they would (and did, in my case) make a nice light dessert to stick in a lunchbox for work or school for a mint lover. A lot of Jell-O dishes get weepy when you store individual servings in your lunchbox for a while, but these stayed just as good as when they were freshly made.
I must commend General Foods’ work on this recipe: it’s a creative use of Jell-O, it’s interesting as a concept, and it’s delicious, a rare trifecta for the Joys of Jell-O. Now, I know from experience that they just got lucky with this particular combination of flavors and methods, but get lucky they did in this case. I’m sticking this one in my memory banks for future backyard barbeques and such, because even if no one else in attendance enjoys mint or unnaturally colorful fruit, I will happily scarf down any leftovers.
