Looking for Recipe for Pear Preserves in Light Syrup

[jenlyn9483]

Today I scored about 10lbs of Pears, Sand pears I think and I want to make preserves but I dont want them to have a ton of sugar and be thick like the peach preserves I made last year. I would also like to make some pancake syrup from the remaining syrup.

Anybody got some really good tried and true recipes?

 

[ORChick]

I have a recipe for pear preserves with raisins (and I add nuts too), but it is very sweet - my DH loves it . I also do, which I prefer, pear halves in a vanilla syrup. If either of thise sound interesting let me know. Oh yes, also pear halves in red wine.

Congratulations on the pears. I usually get mine when the neighbour puts up a "help! please pick" sign, which hasn't happened yet. I think I need to go ask.

 

[jenlyn9483]

I saw some things with the vanilla syrup and red wine when i googled it. Im not too fond of vanilla so I would be interested in this red wine one. That sounds interesting.

 

[ORChick]

Pears in Red Wine

- This is kind of a fancy recipe for this (but good ). It's a fairly standard preparation though, so if you want something simpler just google it.

This makes about 6 quarts (I usually do it in pint jars though, as my family is small)

4 bottles (750ml each) red wine - needn't be very expensive, but should be a wine you like to drink
4 cups of sugar
12 pounds of firm-ripe pears
1 3" cinnamon stick
5 whole cloves
3 allspice berries
1 or 2 sprigs of fresh rosemary
36 prunes
1/3 cup creme de cassis (blackcurrent liqueur)

In a large non-reactive pan combine the wine and sugar; bring slowly to a boil, stirring occasionally, until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from the heat.

Peel the pears, removing the blossom end, but leaving the stems intact (this makes a pretty presentation, but you could also halve the pears, removing the stems and seeds). Drop immediately into th wine syrup to prevent discoloration.

Tie the spices and rosemary into a small cheesecloth bag (for easy removal), or just add them directly to the syrup. Also add the prunes. Bring everything slowly back to a boil, and simmer until the pears are tender, but not necessarily cooked through - about 20 minutes, depending on size and ripeness of the pears.

Discard the spices and rosemary. Spoon the pears and prunes into warm canning jars. Boil the syrup until reduced by about a quarter. Stir in the creme de cassis. Strain the syrup through cheesecloth if desired, and then ladle into the jars, leaving 1/2" headspace. Process in a hot water bath - 20 minutes for pints, 25 minutes for quarts.

This is a nice dessert just as it is - especially if the pears are whole. Also nice with icecream, or a dollop of whipped cream or creme fraiche.

If one has only a few pears, one could cut the recipe way back, and just do enough for tonight's dessert, and skip the canning altogether.

Enjoy!

 

[SKR8PN]

We canned our pears using the recipe in the Ball Canning Book. It calls for canning them in apple juice and adding a cinnamon stick to each jar. We LOVE them!!

 

[jenlyn9483]

Hey thanks! anymore recipes for plain pears?

 

[patandchickens]

Wait, are you looking for recipes for preserves i.e. a thickish lumpy-jam type thing? Or are you looking for a recipe to preserve (can) pears?

The only way I know to generate preserves as in 'strawberry preserves' as in a thickish lumpy jam-type thing, without using lots of sugar, is to use the low-methoxy pectin (but then it has a short shelf life once opened, like only a few weeks in the fridge, altho it stores ok in unopened jars)

If you just want to can pears without much sugar, either use a very low sugar syrup (if I recal correctly I use about 1 cup sugar per 3-4 c water for apples and it works fine, haven't tried pears) or use juice. If you use too little sugar it can affect the product, particularly the texture.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[jenlyn9483]

Yes I want to can them.

 

[me&thegals]

Today I scored about 10lbs of Pears, Sand pears I think and I want to make preserves but I dont want them to have a ton of sugar and be thick like the peach preserves I made last year. I would also like to make some pancake syrup from the remaining syrup.

Anybody got some really good tried and true recipes?

I don't have a recipe, but I can describe what I did. I got a huge kettle--15+ quarts--and filled it with pears. I dumped in about 2 quarts water and then cooked them until soft. The juice and water was a really nice liquid after cooking. You could cook that further down into syrup, add sugar, add pectin, whatever. I strained mine and made it into pear jelly using pectin and sugar.

Then, the cooked pears you could continue to cook and cook and cook, mashing them as you go, to make a really thick spread/preserves. Good luck!

ETA: If you just want canned chunks of pears, dump those chunks in jars and cover with boiling syrup. I used 1 part sugar to 4 parts water. Your OP makes it sound like you are going for more of a spreadable product, so see above, then dump in the jar of your size and process in boiling water or steam canner for 10-15 min.