Pear in a Bottle

Don,

Pretty neat project. Post a picture if you can.

I am no chemist but based on my memories of high school chemistry class how about some formaldehyde?

37% formaldehyde at Granger for $40 - Link.

Not sure if this would be the best preservative, just a thought.

You could Google the subject and probably come up with some kind of a solution.

Good Luck!

How about some cheap vodka?

How about this for a solution to a packaging problem.

If you're not going to drink it, I'd use white vinegar, or the cheapest vodka you can find.

Just a quick search indicates that something acidic is going to help prevent the pears from turning brown.

Citric acid? Vinegar?

I don't know if you can find it non colored, but this looks like your best bet. See niche applications.

Maybe a mix of denatured alcohol with a little of the green colored antifreeze?

Sugar water you will need to find what concentration of sugar to water is needed. Sugar is used as a preservative in a lot of foods, sugar cured meats, jam and canned fruits. The biggest problem you may face is if there is enough sugar in the pear to keep it from deteriorating. If possible it may be advantageous to pierce the skin so the sugar leaches into the meat of the pear more easily.

Alcohol may dehydrate the pear causing it to shrivel.

Corn oil over time will turn rancid.

My sister uses "Artificial Water" for like what you want to do, you might look here and see if this might work for you. It will seal out oxygen, so they shouldn't yellow. Good Luck. DJ

Corn oil or other oil is not a good idea. The fresh pears have enough moisture in them to prevent the oil from being an effective preservative.

Vodka would be my top choice for something that will last indefinitely, but you may get away with strong vinegar or very sweet sugar syrup, or very salt brine for that matter. In all cases, the uncooked pears will release their own juice into the preserving liquid, and you should account for that factor, to be sure the dilution is not enough to allow spoilage.

If I were you, I wouldn't use anything poisonous, even though you don't intend to eat the pears. If they last a long time, who knows, the day may come when somebody breaks that jar to eat them....

I've got to agree that it would be better to use a non-toxic preservative.

Who knows whose hands the bottle could fall into? Grandkids, baby sitter, visitor? Just because YOU don't plan to consume the pear doesn't mean everyone else wouldn't.

What about methylated spirits?

Or will it pull the water out of the pear and make it wrinkly?

For the cost of $1-2/ litre, Bi-Low White Vinegar - It is clear with a PH of about 2, it will kill any bio-organism. It has been used for years on fish and vegetable preservation, and you can drink it ....

Your best bet is 5% Formaldehyde. That is the same as the embalming fluid that is used to preserve vegetable, animal, insect, etc. samples. All those brains and other body samples that are parts of collections in various institutions are in 5% solutions. 37% Formaldehyde is much too strong and will probably cause serious problems with the sample. 37% is the strongest solution you can manufacture without going into all sorts of exotic formulations, purifications, etc. It has little or no value other than for industrial manufacturing such as the glue for plywood, particle board, and mdf.

Another reason not to use it is because you will have to suit up in a level "A" encapsulated haz mat suit with self contained breathing apparatus to work with it. It is a serious respirator and contact hazard among others.

The most readily available and possibly the least expensive preservative is 100 proof (50%) alcohol such as vodka. It will do the job you want with the least problems except for being flammable. Don't go with any exotic brands or marketing claims, you are only interested in the basic alcohol. The Gray Goose will only make your wallet unnecessarily empty!

If you decide on the alcohol don't open the bottle or drain the alcohol off and replace it once you have it within the bottle with the pears. Ethyl Alcohol hydrolyzes things (extracts water from them) which would probably cause loss in color and firmness of the pears.

Other liquids such as oils will cause extensive degradation of the pulp, skin, firmness, color, etc. Stick with the old dependables which go back hundreds of years!

Good Luck, Old Salt

Everclear alcohol.

I went with the vinegar. I had a gallon of the stuff in the pantry. I'm not sure why we had a gallon of vinegar. What can I say? I'm married.

The vinegar is crystal clear. When I get through some other stuff around here I'll send some pictures. Thanks for all of the suggestions.

My wife buys vinegar buy the gallon also, she says she uses it for cleaning windows, runs it through the coffee maker, canning spicy pickled beans, and "stuff".

Somebody has ever tasted "Williams Bürne geist" (Distilled alcohol from Williams Pear)?

If you go to Germany or France it's quite easy to find bottles of such liquor with the pear inside.

So... No methyl alcohol nor any highly toxic liquid. Think if you want to keep it for long time, somebody may taste it thinking of a nice drinking he found last time he went to France...

Use just as several times said cheap vodka or similar high degree ethyl alcohol white spirit.

Kind regards

Depending on what you want to use it for, you can use ethyl alcohol as in vodka or similar or you can use a light transparent oil like peanut or similar.

The oil ones cannot be consumed, the one with alcohol yes.

You could also boil the pear inside with water and then place alcohol on it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damson_gin

http://www.danish-schnapps-recipes.com/pear.html

The basic preservation should be the same un-macerated, or unsliced.

Note the pear one is kept in reduced light as the flesh colors. Intact, skin on, I don't think this is an issue.