The all time most popular post on the Blind Pig & The Acorn blog is Granny’s Pear Preserves. I first posted about pear preserves back when I first started the blog in 2008. Then in 2011, I grabbed the pear post from the Blind Pig Archives and re-posted it.
Both pear posts show up in the top ten most viewed posts for the Blind Pig & The Acorn blog. Who knew there were so many people wanting to know how to make old timey pear preserves.
Since my sink has recently been full of pears-I thought it was a great time to republish one of my old posts: Granny’s Pear Preserves.
Granny’s Pear Preserves recipe has been handed down through her family for over 4 generations. I like it-because the preserves are tasty-and so easy to make.
Peel, core, and quarter your pears. Slice the quarters into slivers.
As you can see from the photo-you don’t want to cut your slivers too thin. If you do the pears will more or less cook into mush-they’ll still taste good-they’ll just be more like pear jelly or jam instead of preserves.
Place slivers in bowl, pour sugar over, stir, cover, and let sit overnight in the frig (use 1 1/2 cups sugar for every 2 quarts of pears-you can use more or less sugar to taste).
After sitting over night-cook pears slowly on medium heat until the juice has thickened. While sitting over night-the pears will have made a little juice (the amount depends on how ripe your pears are) you may need to add additional water to the pears prior to cooking to keep them from sticking/scorching.
At this point-have your jars sterilized and hot. Ladle hot pears into hot jars and adjust 2 piece canning lids. As the jars cool they seal. This is called the open kettle method of canning.
ALL canning references will tell you NOT to do it this way-that it is dangerous. We feel comfortable doing it the old time way-because its always worked for us. But I totally get it if you’re not o.k. with it. If you’d rather-ladle hot pears into sterilized jars, add lids, and process at least 15 minutes in a boiling water canner.
Pear preserves are great over biscuits, warmed up and served as a side-dish, or straight out of the jar-that’s how Chitter and Chatter like them. It makes me happy to know I’m at least the 4th generation of my family using this pear preserves recipe. It also makes me happy to open a jar on a cold winter day and eat them.
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Even though this post was originally published in 2008, every once in a while someone will stumble onto it and send me a question about it. A few weeks ago a lady sent me an email about the preserves. She was hunting a pear preserves recipe that tasted like her Mother-n-Law’s-who was no longer living. A few weeks after I answered her question I got another message from her. This quote came from the 2nd email:
“He almost got tears in his eyes when he tasted the preserves and said, ” Them taste like my Momma’s.” It made me so happy, and thankful!”
Yep that email made me pretty happy too. And I guess his heartfelt reaction to the taste of the pear preserves is the reason the post ranks number one in the history of the Blind Pig & the Acorn.
Tipper
This open kettle of canning is the way I can beets, this is the way my Mama showed me. Later all the canning I saw about beets was you had to process them in a hot water bath. I begin to worry that maybe I missed a step when she showed me how to do it even though the beets always tasted good.
There’s several home places around here that has pear trees and no one seems to harvest them, I might just asked if I can pick some of their pears and try this recipe. I love pear preserves, especially if they tastes like my Grandma’s
Thank you for the recipe
Pears are very sweet. I love the chopped ones.
Tipper,
I was at Ingles the other day and
saw their nice lookin’ pears, so I got 3 just to peel and eat. They’re still in my frig, but I thought of your posts of fixin’ pears then.
I think these are Bartlett Pears
and they’ll go down good pretty
soon. When they get ripe, I like to just peel, slice, and eat ’em like an apple…Ken
Tipper,
Carrying on Family Tradition is a
worthy cause. It’s nice to know
how to do those things like some of us was taught here in the Mountains. It’s a way of life!
Your mom sure knows how to fix
things, I can see why you’re so
proud. A few years back, I use to
call my Aunt Toots (before I ruined something) and she’d
always straighten me out. My pear
tree got bit this year by the
frost, like all the other fruit
trees, but I had lots of them
Blackberries and they got froze
in my freezer…Ken
hmmm. as a non-canner, buy-at-the-grocery-store kind of reader, this recipe looks to me like it might be done with fewer pears for a smaller batch in the crockpot, and them kept in the refrigerator! maybe i’ll try it when pears come in to publix…
What most people fail to realize is that sugar is a preservative. The quantity of sugar you put in the mixture added to that already in the pears probably is enough bring the boiling point well above that of water which is the equivalent of pressure cooking it. Putting it in a hot water bath at that point would only bring the temperature down. That only applies if you jar it right off the stove. The lid needs the heat in order to seal properly. But even without the seal your preserves probably have enough sugar to prevent incipient bacterial colonization. Now! how do you like them apples..uh..pears!!
I don’t know how I missed the original post. It was during that time I had two pear trees loaded with truckloads of fruit. This year only one has a bushel or less. That’s still enough to make a few quarts of these easy and yummy looking preserves.
Thanks for re-posting Pear Preserves! This is the recipe used by my grandmother, mother and aunts–and then I used it–in Choesote, Union County. We had what we called “sugar pear” trees in our orchard that made wonderful pear preserves. Good memories; good “putting-up” recipe; good eating! Thank you!
Ah! The wonderful taste of pears when they aren’t in season. Great repeat!
Tipper–I’ll go out on a bit of a limb and make a slightly educated guess that a number of your top ten posts, in terms of how many viewers they attract,will involve food. Unlike many of your other subjects, among them those I personally find the most appealing, foodstuffs and recipes have an appeal which far transcends our beloved mountains.
I’ve experienced that on a personal level, which is one reason for my conjecture. I’ve been involved in dozens of books as the author or editor. In terms of sales, when it comes to my personal efforts cookbooks rank far in front of anything else. Of course my wife, if she read this, might suggest that the explanation for this focuses on the fact that she was co-author!!
Jim Casada
http://www.jimcasadaoutdoors.com