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Created by Chef Juliette
Based on No. 2707, Poires Cardinal, from Le Guide Culinaire (1907) by Auguste Escoffier
Poires Cardinal brings cold vanilla-poached pears under a scarlet raspberry and kirsch purée, with white almond splinters for contrast. The lesson is simple and exact: chill the fruit completely before it meets the sauce.
Poires Cardinal (vanilla-poached pears with raspberry and white almonds) teaches the discipline of temperature. The pears must be tender, fragrant, and quite cold before their raw raspberry coating touches them. Dress warm fruit and the purée loosens, dulls, and slides into the bottom of the bowl.
The original entry assumed a pastry station where vanilla syrup and Pêches Cardinal (No. 2697) were already waiting in brigade quantities. At home, four pears fit into one narrow saucepan, and a parchment cartouche keeps them beneath the syrup without demanding a great copper poacher or gallons of liquid. The large batch and separate pair of hands were scaffolding, so they can go. The cold vanilla fruit, scarlet raspberry, kirsch, and white almond contrast are the dish, so they stay intact. One cook, one stove, one evening.
Done properly, the pears arrive pale beneath a brilliant red coat, with fresh almond splinters catching against the purée. The poach is gentle work, but complete chilling is the step that decides the result. Give it the time it asks for.
Poires Cardinal belongs to the Parisian classical dessert repertoire, where syrup-poached fruit was dressed with named garnishes and served cold from a timbale. It is the pear extension of Pêches Cardinal (No. 2697): the sequence passes intact from peach to pear, while poaching gives the firmer fruit the tenderness it needs. Cardinal here refers to the scarlet raspberry coating and its white almond contrast, not to red wine, a common guess wherever pears and French dessert share a sentence.
Quantity
4 (about 1½ lb / 680 g)
Quantity
3 cups (710 ml / 710 g)
Quantity
1½ cups (355 ml / 300 g)
Quantity
1
Quantity
1 four-serving preparation Pêches Cardinal (No. 2697)
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| small firm-ripe Bosc or Conference pears | 4 (about 1½ lb / 680 g) |
| water | 3 cups (710 ml / 710 g) |
| granulated sugar | 1½ cups (355 ml / 300 g) |
| vanilla bean | 1 |
| Pêches Cardinal | 1 four-serving preparation Pêches Cardinal (No. 2697) |
Combine the water and sugar in a narrow 2-quart saucepan. Split the vanilla bean lengthwise, scrape its seeds into the pan, and add the pod. Warm gently, stirring only until the sugar dissolves, then simmer for 2 minutes. The syrup is the foundation here: clear, fragrant, and sweet enough to season the fruit without turning it to confectionery.
Peel the pears neatly, leaving their stems attached, then remove each core from the base with a melon baller or narrow corer. Lower them immediately into the syrup and cover their surface with a cartouche, a round parchment lid, to keep them submerged. Hold the syrup at the faintest tremble for 20 to 30 minutes, turning the pears occasionally, until a narrow knife reaches the centre with slight resistance. Remove each pear as it becomes ready. If the syrup boils and a pear begins to split, take the pan off the heat at once and let the fruit finish under the cartouche in the cooling syrup. Ça se rattrape.
Return all the pears to the syrup and let them cool there completely, turning them once so every surface stays moist. Cover and chill for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight. Don't drain them while warm: cooling in the syrup carries the vanilla into the fruit and prevents the exposed surface from drying or darkening.
Once the pears are quite cold, lift them from the syrup and drain them on a rack for 10 minutes. Arrange them upright in a chilled timbale, a deep serving bowl. Reach for the prepared Pêches Cardinal (No. 2697) and apply its finished dressing and garnish exactly as directed, replacing only its peaches with these vanilla-poached pears, as the present entry requires. If the raspberry purée slips from the fruit, the pears are too wet or not cold enough; lift them out, blot them gently, chill for 15 minutes, and coat them again.
Chill the assembled Poires Cardinal for 20 to 30 minutes so the scarlet coating settles around the fruit while the almond splinters remain distinct and white. Bring the whole timbale to the table and spoon one pear with plenty of raspberry purée into each cold dessert bowl. À table!
1 serving (about 370g)
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