I used to have this recipe printed out from a website years go, can’t find the site anymore though…
The original recipe called for 8 cups of peeled, fine chopped pear. My notes say this is about 6 lbs of pear. If you don’t chop it all so fine you’ll get little lumpy bits (which I love) and makes it more jam-like.
4 cups sugar
1 Teaspoon ground cinnamon (can be quite strong if you’re under the 6# pears)
1/4 teaspoon ground clove
Add it all together and cook on the stovetop to a boil, then let simmer approximately 2 hours until it thickens. You could get it to gelatinize earlier by adding pectin but why mess with a good thing, and it makes the house smell AWESOME.
When it’s thick, scrape the foam off (not quite sure why) and add to sanitized jars leaving 1/4" headspace. Cap with sanitized lids, then place the jars in boiling water for 10 minutes. Careful they’ll be damn hot!
I had one jar that I’d forgotten about in the back of my fridge survive for nearly a year and still be excellent. I’d comment on how long these’ll last given good sanitary practice but it never lasts very long around here.
*changed “pectic enzyme” to “pectin”, have beer brewing on the brain and can’t get enzymes out of my head.
I’ll definitely try this when next I’m inundated with pears.
I’m literally at the tail end of a massive crock of apple butter (ran out of canning jars and will finish that tonight).
It was my first solo preserving attempt and I think it came out really well… so now I’m hooked on the process! hehe
Thanks for yet another thing to try in my pursuit to not eat processed foods!
Next time you do it, check out the little $10 kit from Ball. The special tongs were incredibly easy to use (vs. the time I was being taught and we didn’t have them). The other little doo-dads were fun to use also. hehe
If anyone thinks they would like to try to Apple Butter recipe, I’ll be glad to post it. =D
If it’s a good apple butter recipe please post it! I was just going to pick one at random off the internet to try. Have 2 apple trees on Arry’s property was going to make sauce and butter this year, maybe some pie filling if there’s enough apples.
If anyone is interested I have a fantastic rhubarb chutney recipe I was going to dig out and post.
Glad you liked it! If my pear tree made anything good this year I’d have made some too. Instead I’ll probably check out the farmers market downtown just to get some made!