Granny’s Pear Preserves recipe has been handed down through her family for several generations. Like a lot of old recipes, its tasty and easy to make.
Peel pears and slice into slivers as big or as small as you like. You’ll need 1 and 1/2 cups sugar for every 2 quarts of pears. You can adjust the amount of sugar according to your taste.
Place sliced pears in bowl, pour sugar over, stir, cover, and let sit overnight in the frig.
The pears will make a little juice while sitting overnight. The amount of juice will depend on how ripe your pears are. If the pears don’t produce much juice after sitting overnight you can add water.
After allowing pears to sit, cook in large pot for 30 minutes.
Ladle hot pears into sterilized jars and seal. Process 10 min in a boiling-water canner.
The pear preserves are great over biscuits, warmed up and served as a side-dish, or straight out of the jar—that’s how the girls eat them.
Thinking about women from past generations of my family making pear preserves gives me great pleasure…almost as much pleasure as I get from eating them 🙂
Tipper
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It’s almost pear season here in AZ. (Yes this little girl from the hills of eastern KY is a long way from home.) I can’t wait to make a few batches of this recipe to put away. Hard times are coming & I want to ensure my family eats well.
Sandy, I am also going to try them.
I have also made my mom’s homemade. Preserve recipe where she cooks them until they are practically candied.
No water bathing, but pour them into sterile jars. I also cover them with paraffin wax, and seal.
They’re so sweet, they do not spoil.
They go so fast!
I don’t have a pretty recipe I just know the process.
We eat them with scrambled eggs and grits.
A fond memory of my mama along with scuppernong preserves and cherry preserves.
I am making sweet cherry preserves this week.
Found an interesting recipe online.
Try making your favorite apple pie recipe only use pears instead of apples.
My mom from way south South Georgia made these. Then they would go into fried turnovers (pocket pies to some) and dusted with sugar.
We had a pear tree in the yard when we were first married. They were cooking pears and I made pear preserves and gave them for Christmas presents. Then we lost the tree during a winter storm.
My mother in law Maudie would put up pear preserves and your recipe sounds the same. Maudie’s were so good on fresh hot biscuits. My how we miss that goodness
Has anyone ever made Pear Honey? It’s really good!
Does anyone have a recipe for tomato preserves? My mother used to make them and every once in a while I wish I had a jar of them now.
I’m going to try my hand at making some of these pears. They look so yummy!
Brenda-here’s one I posted a few years back: https://blindpigandtheacorn.com/yellow-tomato-preserves/
My aunt made wonderful pear preserves! My pear tree is so tall, I can’t get any of the pears. I need to plant a tree!
Mother always put a few cloves in her pear preserves. She liked what she called hard pears. They never would get soft like Bosc or D’Anjou.
Judy we called these sand pears in Florida. I have since learned they are a kind of Asian pear. The could grow in the Deep South because they didn’t need the chill hours a regular Bartlett and those do. I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s what many of these folks are talking about, because they absolutely make the best preserves!
The pears sound delicious! Mmy poor tree got hit hard by fire blight this year so I doubt we will have pears at all. So sad.
Those look so good. And a easy recipe to that.
Tipper, This has nothing to do with pear preserves but is something I meant to tell you but forgot. I sent your post about pizza dough to our daughter. She was a bit skeptical as she had tried home made before and was did not like how it turned out. But the timing was right and she tried it. To quote her “it turned out great!” I told her I would let you know.
I do my diligence to help her keep ties to her Appalachian roots. It grieves me know our grandson probably won’t have any.
I never realized I loved pears until I let one overripen in a window. I once was able to observe some men picking pears from a huge pear tree in a rural area. It was loaded, and I remembered thinking, I bet that old pear had furnished a lot of pears in its time. Wished I had had time to stop and help. I had never seen a pear tree that big.
Tipper,
I had a jar or two of the canned pears that you or your Mama Canned that you and Matt brought over. They were Delicious! I ate them straight out of the Jar, like Chitter and Chatter, without any bread. I had some whole kernel corn and made Chili and other stuff with the green beans that youn’ze brought. Friends like Pap’s Family are hard to come by, and I can still hear him say, “Go home with Me!” …Ken
Does Granny use Kiefer pears to make the preserves? If not, do you know the type pear tree(s) she has? Momma always said Kiefer pears are the best for canning/preserving.
Nan-Granny used whatever pears she could get her hands on, most of the time ones someone gave her. My uncle Henry had a tree, but I don’t know what kind it was. Also one of Miss Cindy’s friends used to give me pears from his trees one of which was an Asian pear. Like Granny I use whatever I can get.
It reminded me of my favorite uncle. He would make 50 pints of pear preserves every year and give most away. He always gave us several pints. But if he wasn’t fond of someone, he would only give them half pints. I miss his preserves and him more than ever.
We used to have pear preserves with chewy pear pieces. They were so good. I make them but mine are never chewy.
I don’t think I have ever tried pear preserves. They look good though! Since it’s Granny’s recipe I know they’ve got to be good.
Looking at your pear preserves and I can see my Mother’s pear and fig preserves all sitting in rows on shelves. They tasted so good slathered on a hot biscuit with butter. She had beautiful jars of peaches too. When you have a pear tree or peach tree, what a treasure to use them by canning.
That recipe sounds easy and yummy. Both of my pear trees were loaded until we got the hard freeze around Mother’s Day. It doesn’t look like I will have any fruit to can this year.
You remind me to look at the farm market to see if they have pear preserves. I think pears must need cold weather even more than apples. I have never seen many pear trees. My Grandma had one and made preserves but that was long ago now.
Those pear preserves look and sound divinely delicious! I actually think I could make these without a lot of fuss. My mouth is watering thinking about a nice, hot, buttery fresh biscuit in the middle of FEBRUARY smothered in a heaping helping of pear preserves made by loving mama hands!!!! Is there anything better I must ask??? Yum!
I haven’t had peach preserves in many years. Mom nor my Mother-In-Law made them. I think the last time I ate any would have been at my Mamaw Lewis’ 30 or longer years ago.
My Mother-In-Law used to have a really good pear tree. Don’t remember what kind it was but it was sweet and didn’t have the big stone cells in it. Fire blight killed it.
Tip, You cannot buy any jam or preserves in a grocery store as good as the home made ones. Those pear preserves are so beautiful in the jar and I can almost taste them now. I love that there is only two ingredients, pears and sugar, and not a list of additives on the label that I can’t even read!