Pear preserves or ?!?

[Rusty Hills Farm]

This is the first year our Keefer pear tree produced much of anything and I decided to try my hand at pear preserves. Now, mind you, I have never even tasted pear preserves but they sounded so good that I gave them a try. First I looked over the various recipes that I found online and then came up with this:

24 cups sliced pears
12 cups (that's 2 full 5# bags) sugar
3 cups water
2 fresh lemons thinly sliced (and minus the seeds)
1Tablespoon vanilla extract (the real stuff, not the artificial)

I soaked the pears in the sugar over night (don't put them in the frig or they will not make any juice). I added the 3 cups of water just to get them started--they looked so dry. I think if I'd been more patient I wouldn't have needed any extra water--the pears made plenty of juice all on their own.

Today I added the lemon and vanilla and cooked them for about 2 hours, stirring quite often, until the pears were translucent. They cooked down to about half the quantity I started with and I canned them in a boiling water-bath canner for 5 minutes. Made 10 pints.

I don't know what consistency I am supposed to have but, boy, they are heavenly tasting! They are still way hot and should probably sit for a few weeks. Maybe all I have is syrup and not preserves, but either way they are gonna make some satisfying toppings.

Anybody else made actual pear preserves? How thick are they supposed to be and how long does it take to tell just by looking how thick they actually got?


Rusty

 

[peeplessinNC]

I've made pear butter, just like apple butter, but with pears. Peel and core the pears, slice or chunk, cook until soft and falling apart in a little water or pear nectar (canned). Puree with a stick blender or put through a food mill. Then add light brown sugar, spices and a dash of salt and cook for a couple of hours until very thick. It's "butter" when you spoon a little on a cold saucer and very little (to none) of the butter separates into a liquidy clear ring around the thick butter. Pour while hot into hot, sterilized jars (put them through the dish washer), put on a hot flat canning lid, then the hot ring, tighten and put in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes to seal the jars.

Talk about yummy on hot biscuits!

 

[Carolyn]

I am southern and have seen lots of pear preserves and made them a few times. It sounds like you did it right. They are not like other preserves (figs preserves are most similar). You have large chunks of fruit in a sweet syrup. They are not supposed to scoup up in a spoon and spread on toast.

I'm bringing the biscuits and can get some butter if you like, what time??? (or if you'd rather I have some whole wheat sourdough bread)