Fruit butter · Green cardamom · No. 08
Pear cardamom butter for the breakfast bowl, not the dessert plate.
Bosc pears cooked down smooth with crushed green cardamom pods and very little sugar. It is the jar that goes on oatmeal at seven in the morning, not the one you save for a cheese board. From $11 per 8 oz jar, made by three of us in Austin.
Pears, sugar, lemon, cardamom. Cooked past the point where it looks like fruit.
Pear is a quiet fruit. It has less acid than a plum and less aroma than a peach, and if you cook it with a lot of sugar you get something that tastes like a sweet nothing. So we go the other way: less sugar, longer cook, and one strong aromatic to give it a spine. Green cardamom does that better than cinnamon, which fights with pear instead of sitting behind it.
The pods are crushed and steeped in the fruit while it cooks, then strained out before jarring. You get the resin and the citrus edge of the cardamom without grit or shell in the jar. About four pods per pound of pear. Enough that you notice it. Not so much that the jar tastes like a spice blend.
We cook it for about three hours in a wide pan until the pieces are gone and the texture is closer to a thick apple sauce than a jam. That is what a fruit butter is: fully broken down fruit, cooked long enough that it will not separate in the jar. If you want fruit pieces, this is the wrong one. Try the peach preserves for that.
The sugar ratio here is roughly one part sugar to five parts pear by weight, the lowest of anything we cook apart from the reduced-sugar batches. Some sweetness comes from the fruit caramelising in the pan, which is why it tastes fuller than the number suggests.
- Fruit
- Bosc pears, peeled, cored and cooked down smooth
- Spice
- Green cardamom pods, crushed and steeped, strained out
- Sugar to fruit
- About 1 : 5 by weight, the lowest in the range
- Set
- Smooth and thick. Pours slowly, spreads easily
- Texture
- No fruit pieces. Closer to a thick sauce than a jam
- Sizes
- 8 oz jar, 16 oz jar, 2 lb tub, 5 lb pail
- Price basis
- From $11 per 8 oz jar. Larger sizes by inquiry
- Handover
- Pickup in Austin, or Austin delivery at a flat $8 per order
An estimate, not a quote. We confirm the price by phone or email before anything is made.
Where a low-sugar fruit butter earns its keep.
Anything sweetened heavily at breakfast stops tasting like breakfast by the second spoon. This one does not.
Oatmeal and porridge
Stir it in off the heat so the cardamom stays bright. A heaped tablespoon per bowl is enough, and it sweetens the oats without turning them into dessert.
Pancakes and waffles
Better than syrup and less sugar than syrup. Warm it for thirty seconds so it pours, then spoon it over a stack and skip the butter.
Yogurt and cottage cheese
Two spoons over plain Greek yogurt, a few toasted walnuts on top. Less sugar than any flavoured yogurt cup on the shelf, which is mostly what we made it for.
Pork and roast chicken
Pear and cardamom go with anything you would put apple sauce on. Brush it over a pork loin near the end of the roast, or serve it cold beside a chicken thigh.
Pear bars and tarts
Because it is smooth, it pipes into a tart shell cleanly. It also folds into whipped cream without breaking, which most jams do not.
Cheese, if the cheese is soft
On a plate with brie, ricotta or a soft goat, it works. Against a hard aged cheese it disappears. The quince paste is the better board partner.
Three hours in a wide pan, and a sieve at the end.
-
01
Peel and core by hand
About 50 minutes per batchBosc skin is tough and slightly gritty. We peel every pear fully and cut out each core and seed pocket before cooking. Skin left in a pear butter turns into brown flecks.
-
02
Steep the cardamom
Through the whole cookPods are crushed with the flat of a knife and tied in a square of muslin. They go into the pan with the fruit at the start and come out before jarring, so the flavour is steeped rather than ground in.
-
03
Reduce until the pieces are gone
About 3 hours on the flameLow and slow, scraped from the bottom. Pear catches faster than plum because there is so little acid in the pan. The finish test is the same cold plate we use for every jar: a dab that holds its ridge.
-
04
Sieve, jar, seal
Same dayA pass through a coarse sieve pulls the pod husks and any stray fibre. Then hot butter into hot jars, lids on, upside down on the rack. Nothing leaves that has not sealed.
One of the lowest-priced jars on the shelf, in four sizes.
Bands are per unit before quantity breaks. Six units or more take 8% off, 24 or more 14%, 72 or more 20%. A reduced-sugar 1:6 batch is possible on orders we cook specially at $1 per 8 oz equivalent more, because the pan stays on longer.
The cardamom questions come up most.
How much cardamom is in it?
Green cardamom pods, crushed and steeped in the fruit, then strained out before jarring. About four pods per pound of pear. You taste it clearly. It does not read as a spiced chai blend, and there is no cinnamon in the jar.
Why is it a butter and not a jam?
A fruit butter is cooked long enough that the fruit breaks down completely and the texture goes smooth. A jam keeps pieces of fruit. Ours has no pieces left in it, and it will not separate in the jar.
Is it sweet?
Less sweet than almost anything else on our shelf. Roughly one part sugar to five parts pear by weight, and some of the sweetness comes from the fruit caramelising in a wide pan over three hours.
Will it work on a cheese board?
With soft cheese, yes. Against an aged cheddar or a manchego it fades, because there is not enough sugar or acid to cut the salt. For a board, order the quince paste instead and keep this one for breakfast.
Can I get it with less sugar again?
We can cook a 1:6 batch on request for orders of six jars or more. It costs $1 per 8 oz equivalent extra because it takes longer in the pan, and the set is a little softer. Ask for it in the inquiry and we will confirm.
Ask for pear cardamom by the jar or the pail.
Tell us the size, the count and the week you want it. One of the three of us answers with what is in the pantry and when to collect. No cart and no card on this site.
68 Oak Lane, Office 12Austin, Texas 86853