This week we finished working up the delicious pears that we picked at my friend, Caroline’s house. The trees were planted over 100 years ago and several generations of her family and the neighborhood have benefited from those trees.
Previously I have always just canned the pears as slices or pear sauce. This year I also canned some pear pie filling. The recipe I used for the pear pie filling was the same as the apple pie filling recipe.
Note: A few years ago when working up pears Adisyn asked why we didn’t use the apple peeler/slicer for pears too. Um, well because I never thought about it! So needless to say now we use the apple peeler/slicer and those pears work up much faster. However, if the pears have started to get soft it doesn’t work well.
Pear Pie Filling
- 6 quarts sliced pears (approximately)
- 5 1/2 cups sugar
- 1 1/2 cup Clear Jel®
- 1 T Cinnamon
- 10 cups cold water
- 3/4 cup bottled lemon juice
Mix the sugar, Clear Jel® and cinnamon in large stock pot with a whisk. Then add cold water. Stir well. Cook on medium high heat until begins to thicken. (continue stirring well!) Once it is thick and transparent add the lemon juice. Boil for one more minute. Then gently turn the pears into the hot filling and return to a boil. Then ladle the pear pie filling into the prepared jars and process either in pressure canner or water bath.
Pear Slices
Peel, core and slice pears. I use a very light syrup. (10 1/2 cups water and 1 1/4 cup sugar) Heat the syrup then stir in pear slices and boil for 5 minutes. Pack the pears and syrup into prepared jars and process.
Below are the times for both the Pear Pie Filling and the Pear Slices:
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Pressure Canning |
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| Size | Time | 0-2,000 ft | 2,001-4,000 ft | 4,001-6,000 ft | 6,001-8,000 ft |
| Quarts | 10 minutes | 6 psi | 7 psi | 8 psi | 9 psi |
| Water Bath Canner | |||||
| Size | 0-1,000 ft | 1,001-3,000 ft | 3,001-6,000 ft | Above 6,001 ft | |
| Quarts | 25 minutes | 30 minutes | 35 minutes | 40 minutes | |
*Before canning please read the recommendations for your pressure canner!
Blessings,
Jennifer
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This looks really good! I love pears, so a pear pie would be wonderful! Thanks for the recipe.
Going to try this recipe today only going to switch it up just a tad by adding nutmeg, a pinch of cloves , and mixing 50/50 apples and pears.
Sounds yummy! Enjoy!!
I have pears for the first time from our pear tree. They are surprisingly sweet. I want to cut back the amount of sugar I use in the pie filling. I am concerned that this may have an adverse affect on the finished product. Do you know if the sugar can be cut back without affecting the quality?
Thanks!
As far as I know, reducing the sugar will not affect the finished product. Just make sure you use the lemon juice so that the acidity is high enough. I’d love to hear how you get along! 🙂
Thank you for stopping by!!
Jennifer
We moved into a house and now we have two seckle pear trees. I know nothing about these types of pears. I do know they are hard and I don’t when to pick them or know when they are ripe? What is the best way to cook them? They do not seem juicy.
Thank you
Diane
I have not had access to seckle pears before so I’m afraid I don’t have any personal experience with them. The pears I’ve had are hard when we pick them and then get softer after picking. I would think you could use seckle pears in much the same way though.
I have seckle pears, two trees. This year was the best ever for them and the Comice pears but I am looking at buckets of seckles and wondering how to use them. The seckle is not as sweet as the comice (which is like honey) and it has a sort of sourness that lingers in the mouth which I don’t like. Some cooks say they are very sweet. ?? They are smaller too, but this year they are bigger than golf balls, some twice that. I may use them to make wine or cider. I also have an apple tree and was interested in your mixing pear and apple for pies. I have a brother in Oregon who praises his sister in laws pear/apple pies when they visited her in Texas so I want to can filling like hers and use in half moon pies as we want them hot from the oven. Half moon is when you put a saucer on the dough and cut around it, put filling on one side and fold it in half, sealing with a fork, BTW. Oh yes when to pick the pears: lift them until they are at right angle to the way they hang. if they fall off in your hand they are ripe, if they don’t then they are not ready yet. If you miss the magic minute it will eventually fall off on the ground so clean up under the tree every day to catch the new falls and discourage green fruit beetles. Hang plastic drink bottles by the neck ihe tree starting at first blooms with the lid off and a mixture of half a cup of brown unsulfured mollasses, half a cup of apple viniger and only a half teaspoon of ammonia in it, half an inch in the bottom.. That catches the brown coddling moths before they lay eggs and later the green fruit beetle in August.
I forgot to say also to add a quart to the insect trap formula, sorry.