Hannah Glasse's Stewed Pears

History

Hannah Glasse's stewed pears appeared in her landmark 1747 cookbook, *The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy*, which became one of the eighteenth century's most influential English culinary texts. Stewed pears were a common dessert among the middling and upper classes, reflecting the period's fondness for sweetened fruit preparations. Glasse's recipe typically involved cooking pears in wine or syrup with spices such as cinnamon and cloves. Such dishes showcased refined sugar's availability and the Georgian taste for elegant yet relatively simple desserts. Stewed pears remain popular today, though modern versions often use less sugar and omit the heavy spicing favoured in the eighteenth century.

Sources

• Hannah Glasse, *The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy*, 1747
• Jennifer Stead, 'Quizzing Glasse: Or Hannah Scrutinized', *Petits Propos Culinaires*, 1983
• C. Anne Wilson, *Food and Drink in Britain*, 1973
• Gilly Lehmann, *The British Housewife: Cookery Books, Cooking and Society in Eighteenth-Century Britain*, 2003