Well, it’s about the end of pear season in our yard -and I couldn’t be happier. Since the trees that came with our house hadn’t been cared for, for over 20 years actually getting the fruit was harder than we anticipated. We hired a young man off of Craigslist to climb our tree and help pick the rest of the pears. And when he was done, I ended up with a large storage tote of pears to process again! We did two more rounds of honey pear butter in the slow cooker, but I wanted some sliced pears to enjoy later this year once it gets cold out. And wouldn’t you know it – it’s not easy to find a straight up “canning pears” recipe. I took a whole fruit recipe and adapted it to pears – now, we have canned pears in light syrup to last all winter and longer!
Ingredients:
- 7-8 lbs Fresh Pears
- 2 cups Sugar
- 4 cups water
Directions:
- Peal and core all of your pears. Slice and place into a large bowl. Repeat until all of your pears are done.
- In a medium sauce pan, heat your sugar and water until sugar is completely dissolved.
- Place into your canning jars, and ladle the syrup over top.
- Can and process with directions below.
Please note – the instructions are for a small batch of 7-8 lbs pears. You may need more jars and supplies depending how many pears you end up with or end up purchasing.
Canning Instructions:
- Place 8 clean pint jars on a rack in your stock pot. Fill the jars and stock pot with cool water until it completely covers the top of the jars. Cover and put on medium heat. Simmer but do not boil.
- Prepare 8 lid sets, put the bands aside and put the flat lids in a small sauce pan and put on medium heat. Do not boil, but keep warm through the whole process.
- Prepare your Pears according to the directions above.
- Now, remove the jars from the warm bath. Tip them as you pull them out and pour the water back into the pan. Place them on a towel on the counter with the opening up. Do not dry them! Just put them down and put the funnel in. Put the pears in your jars and top each with hot syrup in each jar until there is about 1/2 inch of space in the top. Once all jars are full, take a plastic or wooden utensil and move it around to get extra air bubbles out.
- Take the small magnet tool and remove flat lids from their bath in the hot stock pot. Place over top of each jar. By hand screw on the collars, but not too tight! Remember some air still needs to get out of each jar.
- Place the jars back into the hot stock pot and replace the lid. Turn your temperature up to high. When it starts to do a rolling boil, start a timer for 25 minutes.
- After the jars have processed for 25 minutes, turn off the heat and remove the lid to the pan. Let cool for 5 minutes. Remove all the jars without tipping them and place them back on the towel. Remember – don’t towel them off!
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