There has been successful canning at my house! About a week ago I mentioned the pear butter I had attempted to make with the asian pears from my mom’s house. Sadly, I had made pear sauce (like apple sauce) because the cookbook I was using didn’t specify times. And who knew you need to simmer the pear sauce for multiple hours to get pear butter?
I didn’t know that, but now I do. After doing some research online, I discovered it’s possible to make life a little easier, at least when making pear butter, by enlisting the help of a slow cooker. This revolutionized my fruit butter canning. Basically, I made the pear sauce by cooking a stock pot full of peeled, cored, and halved pears in about an inch of water. With the lid on, it took about 30-45 minutes for the pears to get soft enough to be easily pierced with a fork. You roughly blend the mixture with either a food processor or immersion blender. Voila – pear sauce.
Next: enter slow cooker. The pear sauce goes in the slow cooker with whatever else you want to flavor it with. Instead of the traditional sugar, I added a couple cups of honey. I threw in nutmeg, allspice and cloves. My first batch was cooked for about 12 hours total on low. The first 8 hours were overnight, so it was left unattended, with the lid partially on. The next morning I stirred the mixture maybe once an hour, or every other hour, but just abandoned the lid altogether to cook it down faster.
I really wanted my pear butter to be thick and spreadable like, you know, butter. After several hours, it did get to the thickness my original recipe described – where you can mound it on a spoon and it doesn’t lose it’s shape. Once the outlying ring of liquid disappears when it’s resting, you know you are getting close.
When it was all an evenly thick spreadable mixture, I filled the clean jars within 1/4″ of the top, put my lids in place, screwed on the rings, then put in a hot-water bath for about 10 minutes. All my lids made that wonderful “pop” sound that lets you know you did everything right!
The second batch I made went a little faster because I set the slow cooker on high. I was around the house more to stir every hour or so, since you don’t want anything to get burned on the bottom with the higher heat. There is much less of a chance of anything burning though in the slow-cooker than directly on the stove, where you need to stir fairly frequently for a few hours.
There was a little leftover that didn’t fit into a whole jar, which we are enjoying here at home. I can see what a welcomed treat this will be come February, when you only vaguely recall those flavors of summer. It tastes like fall in a jar – rich, deeply flavorful, and comforting.
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The slow cooker is so perfect for making this kind of butter. I have a bag full of apples on my counter right now that I might just make into apple butter. But pears? Yum!
I was so glad you remarked on how long the pear-sauce takes to cook down. I ran my slow cooker on high overnight and still have some to do. I did get some scorching. I’ve been looking for receipes on line and I’m thinking of using the cardommom style since I already have apple butter. Thanks for your thoughts!
What is the cardommon syle? I have apple butter as well and would like this recipe, too. Thx!
I am up to my ears in asian pears! I would love to make this but do you need to add lemon to can it? Most asian pear recipes have lemon for added acid.
thank you!
Thank you SO MUCH for sharing–I can’t wait to try this with my bunch of CSA asian pears!
Ashlee- I have been canning Asian pears for 2 yrs now in large quantities (thanks to my father deciding to grow Asian pears, lucky!) This year was the first year I’ve used lemon juice and it was because I made preserves. Asian pear butter, sauce and slices canned in 2008 without added citric acid are still delicious when opened this year. Good luck and keep spreading the word about how fantastic Asian pears are!
Thanks for this receipe…..We have friends who have tons of ASIAN pears, and I’ve canned them, dried them and have made Pear jam….now I’m going to try this Asian Pear butter receipe as it sound wonderful.
Ashlee, mine have been fine without lemon juice. It’s similar to making a jam, which I also don’t add lemon too. Just fruit and enough sugar.
We’ve noticed that all extension services are now suggesting adding lemon juice to pears and asian pears when home canning. Here is the note on the Oregon State extension service website:
All home-canned Asian pears must be acidified to prevent growth of the bacteria which cause
botulism food poisoning. Adding lemon juice before canning will bring the acidity of lower acid varieties into the safe range. They then may be safely canned using procedures for other types of pears.
All I do is wash the asian pears cut in 1/2 or 1/4 (the skin has pectin in it) cook til soft. Pour in to the Fowley mil. I take the juice that flows through and put it in another container. Then I press the fruit through the Foley mill adding a little juice if needed, ( 1/2 cup a little at a time as needed. I still have a moister sauce than apple sauce but I believe i pour off about two cups of juice, which I drink when it cools. The juice can be used for jam if you wish.
The USDA home canning page also recommends 1tbs of lemon juice per pint jar when canning asian pears. My understanding is that this is to prevent botulism, which may still be present even if your preserved food looks and tastes fine. Being relatively new to this, I am not sure if I should put the lemon juice in the recipe, or add it to the jar directly, on top of the fruit. Some pear butter recipes do call for lemon juice and zest, but not really in the quantities it would take to have a tbs per pint. However, I would think adding liquid to finished pear butter would kind of ruin it. Anyone have thoughts on this?
Jenn, lemon juice is good to add to foods on the border of having enough natural pectin and acidity. Tomatoes are one of those borderline foods for canning. The sugar and fruit in this recipe should have enough acidity, but you can stir lemon juice into the finished product if it makes you more comfortable. Your local state extension services office would be another good resource for advice on canning.
If using a water bath it is essential to have the proper acidity in you processed foods to kill any botulism. It is the exact reason why say, chicken stock is not hot water canned, it lacks proper acidity. For low acid canning you need a pressure canner (not a pressure cooker) which can reach temperatures waterbath canning cannot to kill botulism spores. There are many charts online about canning method and processing times, and the third essential – head space in you jar. Just google canning, processing times, and you can find a large selection of site to dig into. I took a canning class early in the summer and it really opened my eyes to some of the ways I was processing, not always in the safest fashion! Protect yourself and those you share your canned goodies with and do the research!
Asian pears are a low-acid fruit, just like some tomatoes. Why take chances? Add lemon juice.
this might be even faster: don’t peal those pears. when they are tender, force them through a foley mill, a ricer, or a conical colander. take the residue, put it in a blender. add enough water to thoroughly whip/cream it. add it to the pulp in your slow cooker. it contains fiber and pectin. it will add depth and additional flavor to your pear butter, and no peeling! THATS appealing, isn’t it?
Sonya – amazing! Thank you for sharing.
Do you have measurements? Amounts of pear? Water? Spices? Thanks!
I used a very basic recipe from this very simple (and cheap!) Ball cookbook: https://smile.amazon.com/Ball-Blue-Book-Guide-Preserving/dp/0972753702/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1475188220&sr=1-5&keywords=ball+canning The ingredients were about 6-7 lbs pears, 4 c sugar, 1 tsp orange peel, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, 1/3 c orange juice.
Can you use cinnamon with asian pear butter? Why use cardamom?
Yes, you could use cinnamon. It’s a personal preference – I just like cardamom with pear