At the Columbia City Farmers Market in Seattle I met a man selling Japanese cucumbers. Now, I have a friend in Montreal who asked me to grow him Japanese cucumbers once because they’re impossible to find there. So when I saw them at the market, I was intrigued. They’re less watery than North American or Lebanese cucumbers. I didn’t need any cucumbers that day, though, so I kept browsing.
He was also selling Japanese pears.
Three kinds – kosui, ichiban, and yakumo
The kosui were supposed to taste like butterscotch, so of course I bought some. If a pear tastes like butterscotch, a lactose intolerant person will buy it no questions asked.
Unfortunately, it did not taste like butterscotch. Another type was supposed to taste a bit like bourbon. Apparently some taste more like butterscotch or bourbon than others, but after my first one of each I wasn’t going to potentially waste the rest and be continually disappointed. So I did what any self-respecting experimenter in the Modernist Cuisine Cooking lab would do – I dunked them in a hot, sweet-and-sour syrup of bourbon and maple syrup to hedge my bets.
Kockridge Orchards and Cidery
Here’s the recipe:
Bourbon and Maple Syrup-Soaked Japanese Pears
6 Japanese pears or a mix of pears and peaches
3/4 cup champagne vinegar, white wine vinegar, or pear vinegar
1 cup water
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 tbsp salt
2 tbsp bourbon
A few sprigs lemon verbena (optional)
Core and slice pears (and peaches, if desired. the peaches won’t stay as firm). Bring remaining ingredients except bourbon and lemon verbena to a boil. Taste and adjust sweet-sour ratio. When happy, pour brine over pears and lemon verbena in a glass mason jar. Add the bourbon. (You can also boil off the bourbon if you don’t actually want it to have an alcoholic effect and you’re not processing in a water bath.) Put lid on jar (or actually can it by sterilizing the jar and then processing in a hot water bath for 10 minutes) and pop it in the fridge for at last 3 days to allow the brine to infuse. Sure, you could eat it that night and it would be delicious, but it’d even better when the syrup soaks into the fruit. Serve over ice cream, or on its own. 
The end result.
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