Canning Pears
I actually had a very successful first time canning pears. Beginner’s luck I guess. My first time doing peaches last year worked out better than this year so hopefully that pattern won’t repeat! This post is really going to be for my benefit, to document what I did so I can refer back to it next year. If any of my loyal readers have heard enough about canning feel free to skip this. I won’t be offended. If it helps anyone other than me, that’s great too.
I bought about 48 pounds of Bartlett pears for about $38 ($.80/lb) at a u-pick orchard on Monday, September 15. I was able to get them pre-picked. I laid them out on in a single layer on the counter and as the week went by put the ones that looked ripe in the fridge in a single layer on the shelves. I was lucky to be able to make room! I started with 142 pears. (I laid them out in rows of 10 so they were easy to count.) I used around 100 for canning and we have 20 left over, so we must have eaten about 20 during the week. I haven’t had to throw any out for going bad. If I calculated right, that means I used about $27 worth of pears for 32 pint jars. I’m not going to try to figure out the cost of jars (reusable), lids (not reusable), sugar, natural gas, etc. so I’ll just assume about $1 a jar.
On Friday, September 19, I processed 2 batches of 8 pint jars each, for a total of 16 jars, 20 minutes in a boiling water bath. I like doing batches of 8 jars because it’s an even number. Doing 7 quarts is annoying because the jars come in boxes of 12. With 8 jars you have 3 batches with 2 boxes. I did pints because I already had a lot of pint jars, it’s nice to be able to do 8 jars instead of 7, and I just like that size. On Saturday, September 20, I did 16 more jars in 2 batches.
As for the pear preparation, I used a vegetable peeler to peel the pears with no blanching. The pears were a perfect amount of ripeness for the most part. A few were a little bit harder and maybe not quite ripe, but not very many. On Saturday they were definitely a little softer, but still not too mushy. Friday was probably the perfect day to do it and I would have done them all on Friday if I didn’t have places I had to go. The vegetable peeler worked great. I tried one with a knife, but didn’t like that as well. For the anti-darkening solution I found that 6 500 mg vitamin C tablets ground up in the blender and mixed with a gallon of water worked much better than 3/4 cup of lemon juice mixed with a gallon of water. Looking at my jars I can tell which ones I did in the lemon juice because they are darker. I cut the pears into quarters and carved out the stem and core with a sharp knife. I couldn’t figure out an easy way to get the stem and core out when leaving them in halves.
I found 26 pears to be the perfect amount for 8 pint jars. I peeled, quartered, and cored 13 pears, putting them in the vitamin C water as I went. Then I put all of those in my hot syrup. For the syrup I used 3 cups of sugar to 9 cups of water, although probably 2 cups of sugar and 6 cups of water would have been enough. I timed them in the hot syrup for 5 minutes, then packed them into 4 jars using a slotted spoon and then ladling the hot syrup over the pears up to 1/2 inch from the top, using the plastic handle of the lid wand to run around the jar and make sure there are no air bubbles. I put my heated lids and the rings on and put them in the canner with the water not up to boiling yet. Then I did the same thing for the next 4 jars. Then I put them in the hot water, turned the temperature to high, and once it was boiling timed it for 20 minutes. As for the jars, I just make sure they’re clean. I don’t sterilize them since they boil for over 10 minutes during processing. I don’t even keep them particularly hot and so far no broken jars. If I could time it right I’d have them hot from the dishwasher, but I can never seem to time that just right.
As for time, it took me several hours including the preparation and cleaning for one batch of 8 jars. Doing a second batch right after adds on about an additional hour. I’m hoping I get faster at it. It’s definitely more time efficient to do all the batches in a row instead of dividing them between two days. I just need to try to arrange a completely free day. (Yeah, right.) And here’s the finished product:
Those look yummy! Good job, sissy.
sounds like you did everything just opposite of what your mom told you with perfect end results. So much for the old adage “mother knows best”.
Everytime I read your blog I am impressed again with what you can do and what you do do. Does that make any sense? Anyway, I’m coming shopping at your kitchen….it all looks way better than what you find in stores.
Aw Mom, you make me feel like a rebel! If you were here to help me and show me I’m sure I could have figured it out better. I was just awkward with the knife and I’m just too slow to do it without using the anti-darkening stuff. I know you always did them in halves, but I couldn’t figure out how to core it very well that way. I can’t remember if you did hot pack or cold pack. I did hot because it seemed like that was what I saw recommended the most in my reading. But I still subscribe to “mothers know best” and your pears were always delicious! When you said pears were harder than peaches, I realized later that the reason that wasn’t the case for me this time was that the pears were just the right amount of ripeness and my peaches were too ripe so they were bruised and harder to work with.
Grandma Nutt, you’re too nice but thank you. I’m just taking baby steps here. I’ve still got a long way to go! But come on over anytime and I’ll feed you.
And Heather, thanks! Maybe I’ll have to send you some pears too sometime.
Great job once again! My mom did lots of canning, but so far- not me.
Use a metal measuring spoon for removing the core. It works great!
Thanks Janice! I’m wondering too about the stem and the stringy line that leads from the stem to the core. Do I just take the stem off and leave the line there?
what you need is a pear corer.
http://www.fantes.com/corers.html#pear
http://www.biggestlittlekitchenstore.com/merch/profile.shtml?index=1012875236_29416&cat=canning_supplies&loc=&listpage=1
They work wonders. … Sorry to just barge into your blog. It came up in my own search for pear corers.
Thanks for letting me know about those Karen. I had never heard of that. Those are really inexpensive and look like they would do the job just right!
i hate to say it mom, but i think the way kathy did it was pretty much on the money. i do mine the same exact way. one thing i would tell her personally is to make sure in the future and sterilize those jars! whilst i have never personally had a bad jar canning, i can say i saw someone else continue without making sure they were sterile. they neglected to take that one little step, opened a jar of peaches,ate them, and within 48 hours they were laying in a hospital bed. remember, all it takes is 1 single germ. doesnt even have to be from your household. it could come floating in thru a window, be on a shopping bag you brought in, or someones clothing. heck, you could check the mail and go back to canning and introduce any number of nasty bugs. also, unless you wash your hands with something antibacterial, well, you get the idea. generally i like to pack my pears in heavy syrup. i cant remeber right off without looking at my book, but i think its somewere in the 4 cup sugar range and 6 cups water. ill give you another tip also. alot of people like that real “peary” flavored syrup, as i do. what i will do on occasion, depending on how sweet the pears are is buy a couple of bottles of “pear nectar”. i think there like 20 or 24oz bottles, and ill mix about 1 1/2 cups with my syrup. gives the pears an extra boost in flavor, and the kids love it. one other thing. instead of screwing around with lemon juice,vitamin c,etc just get yourself a bottle of fruit fresh. when you have your jars set and ready to pack, put about 1/4-1/2 teaspoon in each jar. pack your jars,pour in your juice, and then waterbath as usual. youll find that youll like the fruit fresh much better. no mixing anything, and it dissolves right away when the hot pears and syrup are packed and poured.
a couple more things.
if you have pears that are still hard off of the tree, get yourself a paper bag and a bannana. put the pears ( single later) in the bottom, put a ripe bananna in the bag and close it up. in a day your pears will be ripe and ready to can.
if you have pears that arent quite ripe, double your cooking time on the stove. and make the heavy syrup. they will not be as soft as really ripe ones when caned, but they will be just as good.personally, i like mine a little firmer.
i found this this morning by accident really. last night i stuck two jars of my pears in the fridge to chill overnight, and got up this morning, and was sitting here eating them, and just did a search on pear canning.
Wow John, lots of ideas. In defense of not sterilizing, every reference I referred to said that as long as it’s being processed for more than 10 minutes then that will sterilize them, so it’s not necessary to sterilize the jars before that. They just need to be clean and hot. I think the hot part of that is so that when you put the hot syrup in and put the jars in the hot water they won’t break from the temperature change. Mine weren’t very hot but luckily didn’t break. Fruit Fresh is great, but I will say that vitamin C is much cheaper, I had it on hand and it worked well. Thanks for the comment!
I always use powdered vitamin c. I never buy Fruit Fresh. Why pay more for the same thing?
Your pears look nice; you got a great price on them. I do mine a little differently; I put powdered vitamin C in the jars, among other things.
Thanks Brandy. By the way, checked out your website and it’s awesome! So much good information. I’m glad you commented.
My mother always kept the jars in the oven at the lowest temp=200 for applesauce, peaches and pears
I will try the vitamin c tablet as I have them in the house. I am fortunate enough to know people who have pear trees which bore a heavy load this year and I am welcome to them FREE in exchange for a few jars of canned pears.
Putting them in the oven is a good idea, Linda. I’ll have to do that. Good luck with your canning!
Just had to let you know I found your site when doing a google search “can pears the healthy way” in my effort to avoid using refined sugar in making the syrup. I enjoyed your pictures and thoughts and all the comments. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks Melissa! Here’s a good official reference with some of the details and safe canning times, etc. http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/how/can_02/pear_halved.html I’ve read that up to half the sugar can be replaced with honey, and according to this reference, you could also use water, apple juice, or white grape juice instead. And a little more detail here on canning without sugar. http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/how/can_01/special_diets.html