Canning Pears

Posted by LivingProvident on Sep 19th, 2009 | one comment home title

How to Make Homemade Canned Pears! It’s easy!

(Your pears will last 12 to 18 months).

Ingredients and Equipment:

Pears
Jar grabber (to pick up the hot jars)
Lid lifter
Jar funnel
Jars with new lids and rings
At least 1 large pot
Large spoons and ladles
Sugar
1 Water Bath Canner

Note: You CAN use a large pot instead, however make sure that the water covers the jars by at least an inch.

Canning Pears

Recipes and Directions:

Selecting the pear: This is often one of the funnest parts. We luckily live in a community where just about every fruit is grown. We have a pear orchard across the street from us and our neighbor allows us to glean beneath the trees. We are lucky to be able to get all the pears we can possibly use. If you do not have access to glean pears try your local farmers market, fruit stands in the area or your local grocery store. Your pears should be ripe and sweet. Remember there are different types of pears and you want to make sure you have pears that are best for canning. The Bartlett Pears are some of the best. One thing to realize is that Pears are picked unripe – they don’t ripen well on the tree. So be prepared to let them ripen at home or purchase them already ripe. Make sure that your pears are not overripe, because they will be mushy.
You will need about 17½ pound’s of pears per canner load of 7 quarts; an average of 11 pounds is needed per canner load of 9 pints. If you are purchasing a bushel you should know that it weighs 50 pounds and yields 16 to 25 quarts. You can anticipate that it takes an average of 2½ pounds per quart.
Now is a good time to wash your jars and rings. I do this by running them through a sterilization cycle in the dishwasher. If you do not have a dishwasher put the jars in boiling water for 10 minutes.
Prepare your syrup (or other sweetener) solution. Pears must be packed in a solution of water and sugar or fruit juice. It’s up to you which to use. Sugar is added to improve flavor, help stabilize color, and retain the shape of the fruit. It is not added as a preservative. Sugar solution is much less expensive (unless you have a supply of cheap grape juice), so I usually use a light solution to keep sugar (and the added calories) to a minimum.

Syrup Recipes:
Light Syrup: 2 cups Sugar, 6 cups Water and 1/4 cup Lemon Juice for a total yield of 7 cups
Medium Syrup: 3 cups Sugar, 6 cups Water and 1/4 cup Lemon Juice for a total yield of 6 1/2 cups
Heavy Syrup: 4 cups Sugar, 6 cups Water and 1/4 cup Lemon Juice for a total yield of 7 cups

*The lemon juice is to keep the fruit form darkening and is optional. See below.

NOTE: You can ALSO use fruit juice (if you want a natural alternative; white grape juice or apple juice are ideal) or water or artificial sweetener (Splenda, but NOT Nutrasweet)!

To prepare syrup, while heating water, add sugar slowly, stirring constantly to dissolve. Bring to a gentle boil. Fill jars while syrup is still boiling hot.

It is now time to prepare your fruit. Let’s start by washing the pears in luke-warm to cold water. Next, peel the pears with a potato or apple peeler and then cut them lengthwise in halves and remove the core. Be sure to cut off any brown spots and mushy areas. Proceed to cutting the pears in half, quarters or slices, as you prefer!
Do you want to keep your fruit from darkening? Prevent the fruit from darkening either by adding 1/4 cup Lemon Juice to the syrup or sprinkle 1/4 cup Fruit-Fresh over the fruit and stir to coat thoroughly before you place them in the jars.
There are two methods for canning pears. The first is raw pack method and the second is hot pack method. This post uses the raw pack method. To raw pack simply prepare your pears and put the hot syrup over them in the jars and then water-bath them. Hot packing pears is also very common. By using the hot pack method the Pears are less likely to float. This method is easy, to use it all you have to do is put the cut pears into the boiling syrup solution for 5 minutes and then pack them into your jars.
Fill the jars -Pack the pears into sterilized jars (leaving 1/2 inch space at the top) and cover with boiling sugar syrup. Tap the jar or gently stir it with a kitchen knife to release the trapped air bubbles from around the pears, the fruit should be covered completely. Wipe rim and screw threads with a clean damp cloth. Add lid, screw band and tighten firmly and evenly. Do not over tighten as we will tighten the rings when we are done.
Now it is time to process the jars in the water bath. Put the filled jars in the canner and cover with at least 1 inch of water and bring them to a boil. Once the water is boiling start your timer and boil them for at least 20 minutes (and no more than 30 min).
When your 20 minutes is up remove the jars from the canner and set them on dry towels to cool on the counter. Do not let the jars touch each other. The jars should set on the counter for 24 hours to allow them time to seal. Once the jars are cool, you can check that they are sealed verifying that the lid has been sucked down. Just press in the center, gently, with your finger. If it pops up and down (often making a popping sound), it is not sealed. If you put the jar in the refrigerator right away, you can still use it. I do not recommend re-processing the jars, although some people do.

I hope your Pears turn out perfectly and that your family enjoys them all year round.

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One Response home title

Ira Mann says:

October 13, 2009 at 8:31 am

I have found your page to be very helpful. I have just started canning and can use all the help I can get. Thanks so much for the recipe and step by step instruction.

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