Last summer we had bumper crop of pears and turned them into pear butter and let me tell you Bob, it was freakin’ delicious! If you’ve never made pear butter you should give it a try. My favorite way to enjoy it is on toast or pancakes. This pear butter recipe is always a hit any time of year.
Make this! You’ll be so glad you did.
~Mavis
Pear Butter Recipe – Canning 101
Ingredients
8 pounds pears {I used Anjou pears from our backyard}
1 cup water or apple juice {I used water}
1 cup sugar
3 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon cloves
Instructions
Wash, dry and quarter your pears. Toss pears, water {or juice}, sugar, and spices in an 8 quart pot and bring to a boil. Once you reach a boil, stir the pears, reduce the heat to a simmer and cook until the pears are tender {about 20 minutes}, stirring often.
Once the pears are soft, carefully spoon them in to a food mill to separate the peels, stems and seeds. Next place the pear mixture in a crock pot and cook on low for 6 hours, stirring occasionally and prepare for your house to smell awesome!
Once the pear butter has thickened and turned a dark brown color it’s time to can your bounty.
Bring a boiling-water canner, 3/4 full with water, to simmer. Wash jars and screw bands in hot soapy water; rinse with warm water. Pour boiling water over flat lids in saucepan off the heat. Let stand in hot water until ready to use. Drain well before filling.
Ladle the pear butter immediately into prepared jars {I used Weck jars} , filling to within 1/4 inch of tops. Wipe jar rims and threads. Cover with two-piece lids. Screw on bands. Place jars on elevated rack in canner. Lower rack into canner. {Water must cover jars by 1 to 2 inches. Add boiling water, if necessary.} Cover; bring water to gentle boil and process 10 min.
Remove jars and place upright on towel to cool completely. After jars cool, check seals by pressing middles of lids with finger. If lids spring back, lids are not sealed and refrigeration is necessary}. Yields 4 pints.
Looking for a few more canning recipes? Search my Full List of Canning Recipes
Looking for a good canning book? Here’s a list of my favorites:
- Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving
- The Blue Chair Jam Cookbook
- Jam It, Pickle It, Cure It
- Food in Jars
- The Amish Canning Cookbook
- Not Your Mama’s Canning Book
Also, check out these tutorials if you’ve never used a canner before:
Tutorial: Hot Water Bath Canning
Tutorial: How to Use a Pressure Canner
Melissa says
Would this recipe also work for apples to make apple butter? Also, is any lemon juice required for acidity when canning? This looks great, and I’d love to use it for apples.
Kathy says
I use a similar recipe for apple butter but peel then use apple corer/slicer and dice apples for apple butter. Going to have to try the pear butter though, sounds delicious! Mavis, do you make your own allspice or buy it bulk? I make my own as I don’t use it but maybe 3 times a year. And since I go through cloves like water, I buy whole ones and use micro planer to get just the best ground clove imaginable.
Wynne says
Your pear butter looks awesome! This may not be a big deal, but I’d like to mention that pear seeds are not good for eating. They have small amounts of cyanide, like apples and stone fruits do. One year I made apple sauce just like this and ran the seeds through the food mill with the rest of the cooked apples. The finished product was noticeably off and I tossed it. Just in case.
Laura says
Using the crock pot to cook down fruit butters is not considered safe because the temperatures are not as high as they are if you boil the fruit butter in a pot on the stove. You can make it safe by transferring to a pot and bringing your fruit butter to a full boil right before you put them into the canning cars. This ensures that the heat will have time to properly penetrate to the center of the canning jar, killing any unsafe bacteria or microbes. When you add fruit butter that is just crock pot temperature, the internal temp in the jar at the end of canning time may not be high enough. Please be safe! 🙂
Sue says
I’ve been using a crock pot for years to make my various butters (apple, peach and apricot) and have never had a problem with any type of bacterial growth. I cook my butters for long periods of time, as does Mavis, and have never had a bad batch yet. I tweeked your recipe just a tad by coring and removing any seeds and pith before cooking as Wynne brought up. Haven’t done a pear butter yet so this looks scrumptious!
Kitty says
Laura thank you for sharing the saftey information here. Many of us understand the importance of this. Thanks again!!!
Lisa@RuralintheUrban says
Picked a ton of pears definitely going to make pear butter. Looks great -love the jars!!
Lynn says
Thanks so much for posting this! I love this recipe so much I am currently cooking up my second batch!
I found this page from a google search for pear butter since my Bartlett tree gave us an overwhelming bounty. I had already made pear cookies, bread, honey, and jam, and was looking for something new. This is my absolute favorite!
Mavis Butterfield says
Hi Lynn, it’s my favorite too! 🙂 Glad you are here. 🙂
tiffany says
Would you be willing to tell me where you got your jars in the above picturr? I LOVE them.
Mavis Butterfield says
I think I purchased them from Zulily {a daily deal site}. They are Weck Jars, and you can find them on Amazon as well Williams- Sonoma. 🙂
littleink says
Do the pears need to be ripe for pear butter?
Mavis Butterfield says
Yes.
Glen Triplett says
Used your basic recipe, but used nutmeg, cinnamon, a dash of orange extract, a dash of vanilla, a little orange juice and threw in some left over apples. Sampled a bit of leftovers while watching the pressure cooker do it’s thing and this is delicious. Thanks for the inspiration, I will be checking your site often.
Linda says
I don’t use sugar at all so I pour the pear butter in a big roasting pan and bake on low heat for about three hours or more and it makes it very very sweet and thick without sweetener and then I water bath can it.
samm says
so, no sugar at all……means you make it up and when finished, and before putting into the jars,,,,,that’s when you bake it?
do everything else including the crock pot cooking …….just add this one step,,,,bake it before jarring it ….am I understanding?
K mccoy says
I have question if you cook thoroughly in crockpot, why
Do you bake?
Linda says
In reference to the above post – I bake it after it as been cooked overnight in the crock pot.
ilona says
hi ~ I have the same question as Melissa … is any lemon juice used required in this recipe since it is Hot Water Bathed?
Mavis says
I don’t use any.
Sandy says
My pear tree has brown skinned pears. My husband said these are canning pears. They are kind of tart tasting if you eat one. I’m trying this recipe as I type this. I hope it turns out good! I recently had a jar someone else made and it was my first ever pear butter and it was delicious. I usually let the squirrels eat my pears as I did not know what to do with them. I can’t wait to try my finished product.
Karen McCloskey Keehn says
Brown skinned pears sound like Bosc pears. These are usually a bit crisp when ripe. I would think this recipe would be great for using them. After years of having pear trees, we just found out the trick to ripening them. Pick them before they are ripe. When you lift the pear up, the stem should break off the tree. Then ripen indoors on paper towels until they begin to soften near the stem. Then they are ready to eat or use in recipes. We had well over 100 lbs of pears this year and this recipe is the first one I plan to use now that they are ripe.
Michelle says
I don’t have a food mill. Can I skin and core the pears and then follow the recipe?
Robin says
when i make apple butter i don’t use a food mill…just peel and core then cook and use a potato masher to make it like apple sauce….so im assuming you could do the same with pears. Making this recipe as we speak….hope it turns out as great as it smells!!!!
Charlene says
I don’t have a food mill I use a juicer and it works well as long as the pears are soft!
Mavis says
Good tip!
Val says
Just made this. I hadn’t realized how long it had been since I had pear butter. Tastes just like my childhood! Thanks for the recipe. My hubby and his family have never had it. I’m excited for them to get a taste 🙂
Neil says
Thanks for the recipe. I’m on my 3rd batch. This is some fine eating. I’ve trekked the slices to my own taste but this is great!!! Thanks again!! Neil
Leslie says
Do you know around how long the canned pear butter will keep?
Mavis Butterfield says
The USDA recommends using canned goods within 1 year.
Doc Wayne says
Just made this delicious recipe and I could not help myself, I had to add chocolate. 2 tbsp of freshly milled roasted cocoa beans and 1 oz of chocolate liquer. Planning on drizzling this over gluten free crepes stuffed with sweatened marscapone. I am using organic pears picked from my tree and included the cores. Results were good for me. Thanks for the recipe.
Kathy says
I have a tree full of pears…. And really struggle with the “when to pick”. We do not know the variety of tree. I see you said to use ripe pears, but the pictured pears look like very firm and crunchy pears. If so, mine are at that stage now,….. Or, would you say soft and juicy is better? Pears ripen off the tree, so I would like to prepare. TIA
Mavis says
They have a bit more flavor if you wait until they are soft, but the ones I used were still a bit firm and they worked just fine. The cooking will bring out their flavor, too.
Jennelle says
DELICIOUS! Big fan of the low sugar content. The last recipe I tried was so sickly sweet I gagged after one bite. So this is FAR better! Only prob I had was the cooking time. I know not all slow cookers are created equal but after 7 hours on low it wasn’t the right consistency. Cranked it up to high for 3 more hours. Still not quite the thickness I wanted but I got tired of waiting so I bottled it up & water bathed it anyway. Next batch I’ll just start it out on high & keep an eye on it. Thanks for the recipe! This one’s a keeper!
Gary price says
Can u replace the apple juice with orange juice
Gay says
I have just made your Apple Pie Jam for the second year. It is truly just like my apple pies. I love it. Now I wonder how to make it with a sugar substitute. Would the gelatin amount have to change? Any help is appreciated.
Also, I am looking to sub oat or barley flour in Quick Breads. That will be a trial and error ordeal I’m sure. Most recipes I find all have some whole wheat flour in, which I am trying to stay away from.
Thanks for this great site.
linda matzke says
I used no sugar, tastes just fine.
Susan says
I cut this recipe in half. So will it only take 3 hours in the slow cooker?
Meg says
When you put it in the crockpot do you leave the lid off while it’s doing it’s thing? And do you put it on high or low?
Leah Gilham says
My friend added to much sugar. How can I fix this? Please help!
Ashley says
What should I do if it’s not thickening up! It’s been on high for 2 hours before I blended it and now 6 hours on low and it’s VERY watery.
Mary says
Mine cooked for 30 hours and my crock pot boils. Put it on low as it got thicker. It was a different recipe but same concept
linda matzke says
Are you using the liquid that it is first cooked in? I am not sure if this liquid is dumped or used in the slow cooker.
Mavis Butterfield says
After the pears have cooked down for 20 minutes, you are scooping the pears out of the liquid {there won’t be much liquid left} and into the food mill. You don’t need to run the liquid through the food mill, you can discard it.
Beverly Rowland says
I haven’t made this yet, but I was comparing your “Pear Butter Recipe” and your “Spiced Pear Butter recipe, trying to decide which recipe I will make. I’m somewhat confused as to the ratio of “Sugar=Pears” in the recipes. In this recipe “Pear Butter” you only use 1 cup of sugar for 8 lbs of pears, and in the “Spiced Pear Butter” you use 4 cups of sugar for 6 lbs of pears. That is a huge difference. Can you explain why there is so much more sugar used in the “Spiced Pear Butter” recipe? I really want to try one of these recipes, but want to be sure of the correct amount of sugar.