Greek honey-baked pears

Name: Greek honey-baked pears
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 40 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: Greece
Ingredients: 4 medium firm ripe pears (Conference, Bosc, or Williams), halved and cored; 4 tbsp thyme honey or other strong-flavoured honey (Greek Hymettus honey if available); 80 g walnut halves, lightly toasted and roughly broken; 1 tsp ground cinnamon; 0.25 tsp ground cloves or allspice; 2 tbsp good olive oil; 2 tbsp brandy, Metaxa, or sweet wine (optional, adds depth); 1 tsp fresh thyme leaves (to finish); Greek yoghurt or thick cream, to serve

Homer's gift of the gods: firm ripe pears baked with thyme honey, cracked walnuts, cinnamon, and a spill of good olive oil until golden and yielding: a preparation unchanged in spirit since the gardens of ancient Greece

Origin: Greece

From the journey of Pear.

Homer's Odyssey (c. 800 BCE) places pears in the enchanted garden of Alcinous alongside pomegranates, apples, and figs; 'gifts of the gods', abundant and perfumed. Theophrastus, the father of botany and a student of Aristotle, describes multiple cultivated pear varieties in his Historia Plantarum (c. 300 BCE), noting the Greek orchardist's practice of grafting wild and cultivated varieties to produce new forms. In the ancient Greek kitchen, the ripe pear was paired with the island's most prized products: thyme honey from the slopes of Mount Hymettus (considered the finest honey in the ancient world), cracked walnuts from the trees of Arcadia, and the olive oil that underpinned all Greek cooking. This combination; pear, honey, walnut, cinnamon, olive oil; is one of the most continuous culinary traditions in the world: the same preparation, with minimal variation, is still made in the farmhouses and tavernas of the Greek islands, three thousand years after Homer first described the pear's beauty.

Ingredients

Fruit

4 medium firm ripe pears (Conference, Bosc, or Williams), halved and cored

Sweetening

4 tbsp thyme honey or other strong-flavoured honey (Greek Hymettus honey if available)

Nuts

80 g walnut halves, lightly toasted and roughly broken

Spices

1 tsp ground cinnamon
0.25 tsp ground cloves or allspice

Fat

2 tbsp good olive oil

Optional

2 tbsp brandy, Metaxa, or sweet wine (optional, adds depth)

Herbs

1 tsp fresh thyme leaves (to finish)

Accompaniment

Greek yoghurt or thick cream, to serve

Method

Preheat the oven to 190°C (fan 170°C / 375°F). Place the halved, cored pears cut-side up in a baking dish just large enough to hold them snugly.
Drizzle the olive oil over the pears, then the honey. Add the brandy or sweet wine to the bottom of the dish if using. Dust with cinnamon and ground cloves.
Scatter the walnuts over and around the pears.
Bake for 25–30 minutes, basting the pears with the juices once or twice, until the pears are tender throughout and the honey has caramelised to a sticky, golden glaze.
Remove from the oven. Scatter fresh thyme leaves over the pears. Allow to cool for 5 minutes: the caramelised honey needs to settle slightly before serving.
Serve warm with a generous spoonful of thick Greek yoghurt (strained yoghurt or labneh) alongside. The contrast between the warm, spiced pear and cold yoghurt is essential.

Notes

Hymettus honey, produced by bees feeding on the wild thyme, sage, and oregano of Mount Hymettus near Athens, was the most prized honey in the ancient world, exported throughout the Mediterranean as a luxury. Plato and Sophocles both mention it; the Roman poet Ovid considered it superior to all others. It is still produced in the same location today, though urbanisation has reduced both the bee population and the honey's character. The combination of honey with fruit, olive oil, and spice in a baked preparation is present across Greek, Byzantine, and Ottoman cooking: a continuous thread running from Homer to the modern Greek kitchen.

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Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control