(bell dinging) - Today we're making a pair of pears, two pear recipes, one old and one new.

The older one might elicit some good or bad memories and the second one is super bougie because we're poaching them in champagne.

(upbeat rock music) So the first recipe we're doing is the older version that I'm sure you've had at church picnics or at your grandmother's house that's usually swimming around in a soup of cottage cheese or mayonnaise.

And, you know, the classic to me is, I've always been a fan.

So we're referencing an old cookbook here that has the party pear recipes in it, and, you know, nothing says party pear like a dollop of mayonnaise and some maraschino cherries.

So let's copy this recipe and see how it compares to our newer, bougier version.

To start with, we're gonna use canned pears and you're gonna use canned pear halves.

And I have retained the juice on my pears because I'm gonna add just a little bit of that to our mayonnaise and cottage cheese.

Now, some of the older recipes call for cream cheese, but I prefer cottage cheese or mayonnaise just simply because it's not as hard on the pears and it has a really good texture.

So, first, the classic iceberg lettuce.

We're gonna take our lettuce and I've kind of cut it into these little lettuce boats and that's gonna be the vessel that our party pears are gonna float around in.

Layer those in your bowl just like so.

And I really prefer to have like a combination of like the iceberg that has a little white in it and the green also.

I don't even know if anyone actually eats the lettuce, but, you know, you're just supposed to pick it up and tote it around at your party.

Now, this is probably what your grandmothers or your great aunts or whomever used to make this pear salad probably didn't do and they didn't pat their pears dry.

And what that does is it just causes all of that filling to fall off into the bottom of the bowl and they're just basically swimming in it.

And layer that just directly on the salad.

So I have reserved a little bit of our juice here and I'm gonna pour that into our cottage cheese and our mayonnaise.

Now, I'm not gonna put a lot, but I just want a little bit of that pear flavor into our topping.

This also makes the mayonnaise have a really nice shine and it also makes it easier to put directly onto your pears.

It's a really simple, easy recipe.

I guess that's why it was so popular.

No cooking involved and, of course, created in the height of the congealed salad era.

It's always funny when you're looking at older cookbooks too because sometimes the party pear salads are found in the appetizers and then sometimes they are found in the actual salad portion.

So I'm gonna do half and half, just one little spoonful.

I just like to use a teaspoon here.

And the teaspoon seems to be the perfect amount to go directly onto our pears there.

I'm gonna do the other two in mayonnaise.

And if you're a mayonnaise hater, this is not the recipe for you.

Nothing screams South like a dollop of mayonnaise on something.

Now comes the cheddar cheese.

You can't forget the cheddar cheese.

That's just like the iconic staple of the pear salad.

You don't need much.

And I will say that if you're ever going to use any kind of grated cheese, you need to grate it yourself.

And if you are gonna grate it, you need to grate it on the large portion so you have, like, the large shreds.

The reason you don't wanna use the pre-packaged is it because it has all that cellulose on it and it just doesn't look as appealing on our beautiful pear salad.

It's not ready to party like the home grated.

And now the piece de resistance, a maraschino cherry, which does make them absolutely beautiful and so classic and '50s and '60s.

I remember my parents and grandparents would get together and always play rook and someone always brought these.

I still can't play rook, but I can eat pear salad.

(bright music) And there you have it.

Good old classic, simple, old-timey party pear salad.

Now, what I like to do after I make this is I like to pop them into the fridge just allow everything to kind of get nice and chilled and that way it all holds together nicely.

If you're gonna serve this at a party, just be sure and keep it out of the direct sun or out of any kind of heat.

Like I said, we don't want it swimming around in soup.

But, I mean, look how cute that is.

(bright music) (graphics popping) So now let's move on to recipe number two, just a little more elevated and a little more modern.

So this recipe serves four.

Super easy to double.

I'm gonna use about half a bottle of champagne.

Of course, you can use a whole bottle too if you want.

And I'm gonna put that directly in a little sauce pan.

You're gonna wanna fill this to about halfway up the pan 'cause this is gonna definitely reduce and make a really good syrup for our poached pears.

I'm gonna put in some lemon zest just to give it a little brightness.

Half a cup of sugar.

Nice little magic trick too.

And just go ahead and give that a stir just to distribute that sugar around in the pan.

I'm also gonna put a whole cinnamon stick in there.

And the cinnamon just really adds that nice seasonal flavor that just pairs so perfectly with pears.

And now to the pears themselves.

There are so many different types of pear varieties out there, and I love the red pears.

And the thing about when you're shopping for red pears, especially if you're gonna poach them or if you want to cook them and keep them whole, is purchase pears that are a little bit firmer than what you would buy just to eat.

The reason you want to do that is because when we are peeling it and cutting it and then poaching it, if it's already mushy, it's just gonna bruise and turn into literal mush.

So the firmer the better in this instance.

I like to use a good vegetable peeler to remove the skin off of the pear so it doesn't really dive off into that really good flesh.

I leave the stems on.

The stem will stay on one half and the other half will be void of it, but it's just really pretty when you're plating them to have the stems on.

And just take a little paring knife and cut that pear in two.

And like I said, I just cut just to the side of the stem.

It's gonna even up into a perfect pear.

Get your knife through it.

And pears don't really have a hard core like an apple, but we do wanna core that too.

Plus, it's gonna make us have a little perfect little indentation there that's perfect for our filling.

I like to use a grapefruit spoon whenever I'm coring apples, jalapenos, pears, anything like that, because it has a really sharp end and the whole thing itself is kind of sharp, so you're able to just hollow that out perfectly.

So do that on either side.

And then I'll just take my knife and I'll just cut off the butt end there.

I don't know if that's what you call it, but I don't know what the term would be.

And now what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna place my pears face down in our skillet there, and I'm gonna bring this to a simmer over medium-high heat.

I really want it to come up to a boil and then reduce to a simmer.

Let's take her to the stove.

(bright music) You want to melt the sugar and then you want it all to just reduce down.

I'm gonna cook the pears 12 to 15 minutes just until they're tender, flipping once.

Remove the pears, and then you're gonna want to reduce the liquid for about 10 more minutes just until it's nice and thick and syrupy.

(graphics popping) And here's our pear halves out of the champagne soup that we just simmered them in and you can see how it reduced and turned into a really good sticky, thick syrup.

And I really love the color that it imparts on the pears too.

And not to mention that your house is going to smell amazing.

So instead of the traditional iceberg lettuce, I have got some radicchio here, which is, you know, the type of cabbage that you throw into a salad when you want to charge $25 for it.

(cash register dinging) I'm gonna cut the end off just similar to what we did with the iceberg lettuce.

Just pull it apart there until we get those same little boats.

And I think the color of the radicchio is just so beautiful too.

Of course, you can use endive if you have endive.

You can use Chinese cabbage.

Any kind of the fancier cabbages will be perfect.

And I just love how pretty it is on the plate too.

So I'm gonna transfer our pear halves and nestle them into their little nest here.

Instead of using cottage cheese or mayonnaise, we're really gonna fancy it up here and use creme fraiche, which I absolutely love.

I love the consistency of it.

It's just so velvety and smooth and it just looks so perfect on the pears.

(bright music) So now that we have our creme fraiche on top, I'm gonna take some toasted walnuts and just sprinkle those just liberally across the whole pear palette here.

And then I'm gonna drizzle it with a little honey.

You can also add honey to your syrup too if you are so inclined.

I'm gonna sprinkle 'em with just a little bit of cinnamon sugar just for that little finishing touch.

And last but not least, this is all that wonderful pear syrup that we reduced down and we're just gonna pour that directly on top too.

This is not a portable pear salad.

You're gonna need a fork with this one.

You can do them on individual plates or anything seasonal.

These are great for an appetizer or a dessert, either one.

(bright music) (graphics popping) My grandfather had brought up, you know, the old-timey pear salad and I thought, "Yeah, I'll make that up for us."

So we had it, was delicious.

And then I just had these beautiful pears and I thought, "Well, I've poached pears in red wine before.

Why not champagne?"

It's lighter, it's fizzier, a little sugar, all these wonderful flavors that you envision just with pears, cinnamon, vanilla, honey.

And I just poached them in champagne.

And then I've always been a creme fraiche fan too and I always love a toasted walnut.

And there's something about toasted walnuts with the texture of that pear and the creme fraiche that just really takes it to another level.

And I'm a beekeeper also.

So, you know, anything drizzled in honey is right down my alley.

So I really just want to elevate it and I wanted to serve that dish again because it's so nostalgic, but I wanted it to be delicious, beautiful, and just something that you don't see on someone's table every day and that you could really have at a simple dinner or you could have it at a special occasion if you wanted to.

(graphics popping) And there you have it, the updated version of party pear salad.

Now let's see how they taste and com-pear.

We can already see visually that there's a little bit of difference there.

Let's start with the old before we dive off into the new one here.

It's bringing back a lot of memories.

Reminds me of both my grandmothers.

I went for the cottage cheese version.

It's so good.

I think you could still turn some haters if you just update it and cook it in the right way and not make it as soupy.

Of course I gotta get the little bit of cherry too.

And now let's try our newfangled chicer version.

Who am I kidding?

Just gonna pick it up.

(bright music) It's a clear winner in my book.

I think it will be in yours too.

Little crunch from that walnut, I'm in heaven.

I just need some champagne.

Cheers.

Happy pears.

(bright music continues) (tongue clicks) Don't that just sound so appetizing?

Mush.

Sounds like trucks crashing down there on the road.

I feel like I'm a 1950s housewife.

Can you slice that in?

I might have to redo that again.

I forgot something, a very important part.

And just because it's my recipe.

I'm not gonna choose no other (rooster crows).

(bright music)