Amish Pear Butter Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Why is my pear butter not thickening? ›

If your pear butter isn't thick enough after the cooking time, prop the lid open and cook for an additional hour or until desired consistency is reached. Ladle in to mason jars. Keep refrigerated for up to a month.

Do I need to peel the pears? You can make this recipe with either canned pears, which require no prep (you just need to drain them), or you can use fresh. If using fresh core them and cut them into chunks. You don't have to peel fresh pears as we do blend them after cooking to get a smooth butter.

Leaving the skin on the pears is not an issue and usually comes down to personal preference. With the skins on, the canned pears can become a bit tough and turn an off-color in the jar, so I prefer to remove them.

Pears should be fully ripe for drying, but not soft or mushy. Typically the best varieties for drying are Bartlett or other summer varieties—but others may be used. Peel and core the pears and slice into desired thickness—remember the thicker the slice, the longer the drying time.

Some varieties are more grainy or gritty than others but peeling any pear will help reduce that graininess. As pears ripen on the tree, they develop stone cells, and most of these lie just under the skin. Most pears are harvested before they're fully ripe for this reason.

Be sure to drain the pears well with the spoon so your sauce won't be too thin. NOTE: You can wait for your pears to cool before you blend them, but they'll be easier to blend and your pear sauce will be thicker if you blend the pears while still very warm.

The pink color persisted in the residues, and canned pears gave significantly higher amounts of residues after solvent and enzyme treatments than fresh pears. Procyanidins were the entities responsible for the appearance of pink discoloration.

Although pears are most often canned in simple syrup, it is quite safe to can them in juice or even plain water. The canning liquid is a flavoring element, not a safety consideration. There are two basic ways to safely can pears: the hot pack method and the raw pack method.

Bartlett, Bosc and Seckel are good varieties to preserve, however Anjou, Comice, Nelis and Forelle may also be preserved, depending on the end product. It is important to harvest pears at the correct time. Pick them when they are mature in size but not yet fully ripe.

It (probably) is more for color retention, basically keeping the pears from browning on exposure to air while processing, than safety reasons.

Why did my canned pears turn brown? ›

Enzymes in pears cause discoloration when exposed to air. If the pears are packed into the jars raw and then covered with syrup, the air will be released into the jar and the headspace will be greater after processing. Excess headspace allows more oxygen in the jar to cause the fruit to darken.

The first option is to unseal your jars and re-cook the jelly. Add more sugar, add some pectin, and you'll get your gel. Resterilize your jars, top with new lids, and process again.

Just keep cooking, as alilja and Golly suggest. Mix a small amount of corn flour with some water if it's already cooled and keep mixing until it thickens. This is a bad idea if you are expecting your apple butter to keep for more than a week.

Apple butter is thickened by cooking it until most of the liquid has evaporated. This is usually a rather lengthy project, but results in a very thick, smooth texture. I prefer to use a slow cooker to do the final cooking of the apple puree.

Add pectin.

Whisk a tablespoon of powdered pectin (preferably the no-sugar-needed variety) into the pot of cooking jam. Test for thickness and add another tablespoon if needed. Learn More About Pectin: What's the Deal with Pectin?