ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

Easy Pear Butter

Updated on December 23, 2022
cygnetbrown profile image

Cygnet Brown is a high school and middle school substitute teacher. She is the author of fourteen books and a long-time gardener.

Another Use for a Bumper Crop of Pears

A friend of mine had a pear tree that produced a bumper crop of pears year after year. The problem was she was a school teacher, and the pears ripen during her busiest time of the year making it impossible for her to do anything with them. One year, I asked her, since she wasn’t able to use them if I could pick them and use them myself. She said that I could, so I went to her house and loaded the trunk of my car with pears. I spent about a week canning those pears. I also made some of the pears into pear sauce to cook down into pear butter. Here’s my recipe.



A Low Tech Way to Prepare the Pears for Making Pear Butter

To make pear butter, the first thing I have to do is to cook and sauce the pears. There are a number of ways to make the sauce. I know of several appliances or tools I can have used to help me in the process. The lowest-tech way that I know to use to sauce pears is to pare off the skins and remove the seeds. I place them in a large saucepan on the stove and fill the pan until it's about one-fourth full of water. I add the pared and cored pears and cooked the flesh in a saucepan over medium heat until the pears can be crushed with a potato masher.

This is one way to prep the pears, but it's not the way I do it.

Canned Pears and Pear Butter

Making Pear Butter

I do not use the lowest tech way. Instead, I use a hand-cranked machine that is made for that job. I make the sauce using a strainer I got from Lehman’s. It is a neat tool that I am able to take cooked pears. Put the cooked pears into the hopper, turn a crank, and the peels and seeds come out one end while the sauce comes out the side. I use this hand-cranked machine not only the pear butter, but also use it to make applesauce, tomato sauce, and pureed pumpkin, and remove the seeds when making blackberry jelly.

Once I have the pear sauce made, I can either put it into a crockpot or into the oven, but an ideal tool for cooking down pear butter is an electric-powered roasting pan. Begin cooking down the sauce on high in the crockpot or electric roasting pan, or 350 degrees Fahrenheit if using the oven.

Cook the sauce down until you have pear butter that is thick (the amount of time it takes varies depending on the moisture content of the pears). Be sure to stir the pear sauce every half hour or so to prevent scouring, because if the pears scorch, the pear butter will not be any good.

When the pears are thickened, add ¼ cup of honey or ½ cup of sugar, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, ½ teaspoon nutmeg, ½ teaspoon ground cloves, and ¼ teaspoon ginger for EACH quart of finished butter made. (Example--if you have one quart of pear butter you use the amount of each ingredient as listed above. If you have 2 quarts of the finished product, you use double those ingredients).

Be sure to add these ingredients only after the pears are cooked down to the desired thickness, Reduce the heat to low and continue cooking for another half hour; be sure to stir about every fifteen minutes or even more frequently to prevent scouring.



Strainer Used for Making Pear Butter

This hand-crank strainer is perfect for saucing tomatoes, apples, berries and pears.
This hand-crank strainer is perfect for saucing tomatoes, apples, berries and pears.

Canning Pear Butter

to can pear butter to use in the future, pour prepared butter into half-pint or pint-sized sterile jars, cap (using sterile caps and rings), and process in a water bath canner for 15 minutes. If there isn’t enough to fill another jar, place any remaining pear butter into a bowl and place the bowl in the refrigerator to use right away. In my experience, uncapped pear butter will usually keep in the refrigerator for about thirty days.

This content is accurate and true to the best of the author’s knowledge and is not meant to substitute for formal and individualized advice from a qualified professional.

© 2012 Cygnet Brown

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)