Canning Pears, raw pack
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Ingredients
- 8-9 pounds Bartlett pears
- 8-9 pint canning jars
- ¾ cups sugar
- Ascorbic Acid Solution* (see below)
- water
Instructions
- Fill a boiling water canner half-full of water and heat to just below a simmer. Wash and keep hot, 8-9 pint sized canning jars. (Figure about one pound of pears per pint jar) For quarts, see **Note below.
- Prepare a very light syrup by mixing 6½ cups water and ¾ cup sugar in a saucepan (enough for 9 pints of pears.) Bring to a simmer and keep hot until ready to use.
- Wash and peel pears. Cut lengthwise into halves and remove core. A melon baller or metal measuring spoon works well. Slice into smaller pieces if desired.
- o prevent discoloration, place cut pears in an ascorbic acid solution.
- Remove pears from solution and gently pack pears into clean, hot jars. Add cut-up pears to fill space as needed. Pour hot syrup over pears, allowing ½ inch headspace. Remove air bubbles. Clean jar rim with wet paper towel. Position lid on jar and screw on the metal ring.
- Place jars in canner and bring to a boil on high. Cover and reduce heat to a low boil. Process pints for 25 minutes (if elevation less than 1,000 feet.). Start timing after water comes to a boil.
- *Ascorbic Acid Solution: Mix 1 teaspoon of pure ascorbic acid powder to one gallon of water. (Substitute crushed vitamin C tablets if you have them. To each gallon of water you will need 3,000 milligrams, or six 500-gram tablets.
Yield: Makes 8-9 pint jars.
**NOTE: Can pears in 7 quart jars if desired. Use 10½ cups water to 1¼ cups sugar for the syrup. Process for 30 minutes in a boiling water canner.
Recipe courtesy of Marge Braker, Preserve
Tags: bell canning, canning jar, canning pears, canning recipes, home canning, pears
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12 Comments
how do I can under ripe pears?
how long to I process for 1 quart jars and what solution of sugar and water do I do
I canned pears last week, and thought I did everything correctly, but the tops of my pears are brown, and the brown is slowly turning all the pears below it a dark brown. What went wrong?
Hi Lisa:
Marge says to be sure to pre-treat the pears by soaking them in an ascorbic acid bath prior to canning – see step 4 above, or around :57 after the video starts. She says “It’s not a safety issue, but oxidation. Any air left in the jar reacts with pear compounds and browns. Inadequate processing can also leave excess air in the jar.”
You might like to check the National Center for Home Food Preservation:
http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/how/can_home.html
Hope this helps!
Pears can also be pealed by blanching like a tomato or peach. Much easier than a potato pealer
Thanks for the tip, Darlene! I’ll give that a try myself.
In the video it is said that the sugar is not the preservative. This comes as a relief to me as I don’t like using a lot of sugar. What then is the preservative? The ascorbic acid or the boiling the jars for 25 minutes?
The ascorbic acid helps keep the pear from turning brown in color. Creating a vacuum seal (boiling for 25 minutes) keeps the pears from going bad. I understand sugar is used for flavoring purposes only here. It’s also recommended to date the jars after they have cooled and not to keep them any longer than 1 year.
Why are my pear halves pick after canning?
Did you mean to type “pink”? If so, this is what I found:
Oxidation may cause foods to darken at the tops of jars. Oxidation is from air in the jars or too little heating or processing to destroy enzymes. Overprocessing may cause discolored foods throughout the containers. Pink and blue colors sometimes seen in canned pears, apples, and peaches are caused by chemical changes in the coloring matter of the fruit. Iron and copper from cooking utensils (or from water in some localities) may cause brown, black, and gray colors in some foods. When canned corn turns brown, the discoloring may be due to the variety of the corn, to stage of ripeness, to overprocessing, or to copper or iron pans. Packing liquid may dissolve coloring materials from the foods.
Darkening of foods at the tops of jars may be caused by oxidation due to air in the jars or by too little heating or processing to destroy enzymes. Overprocessing may cause discoloration of foods throughout the containers. Pink and blue colors sometimes seen in canned pears, apples, and peaches are caused by chemical changes in the coloring matter of the fruit. Iron and copper from cooking utensils or from water in some localities may cause brown, black, and gray colors in some foods. When canned corn turns brown, the discoloring may be due to the variety of corn, to stage of ripeness, to overprocessing, or to copper or iron pans. Packing liquid may dissolve coloring materials from the foods. The use of plain tin cans will cause some foods to lose color.
Source: U.S.D.A. 1976. Home Canning of Fruits and Vegetables. Home and Garden Bulletin No. 8. (Issued February 1965, Slightly revised May 1976). United States Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C.
I have just started canning with in the last year. I want to learn all i can about preserving fruits and vegetables, also jams and jelly. Any advice you have would be greatly appreciated…Linda
Great to hear you want to learn more about canning, Linda! Besides the video here, Marge shows how make Small Batch Strawberry Jam ( http://cookingupastory.com/making-small-batch-strawberry-jam ) – which also has a link to a written recipe ( http://cookingupastory.com/small-batch-fresh-strawberry-jam ).
There are several websites that talk about canning, and here is one I like: Canning Across America ( http://www.canningacrossamerica.com/ )
I’ll be posting more how-to videos in the future, so keep checking back. If there is a certain something you’d like to know about – let me know and I’ll see what I can do!