Amish Pear Butter Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Why is my pear butter not thickening? ›

If your pears are very juicy, you'll need to cook them longer so they reduce to the proper consistency for butter. If your pears are less ripe, they will contain more natural pectin that will gel and thicken the pear butter more quickly.

Pear butter is a fruit spread or thick sauce; it has no butter in it, and I don't know where the name came from. But just like citrus fruits turn into marmalade and berries become jam, pears or apples cooked down into a spread are called “butter.”

Cut the pears into quarters, remove the core, and peel. Slice quarters in thirds if working with large pears or into half in working with small pears. Place prepared pears in water with 1 tbsp of lemon juice to keep them from turning brown. Prepare the syrup by combining the water and sugar in a saucepan.

Bottled Lemon Juice (optional) – You can use lemon juice in your bowl of water to help keep pears from turning brown while peeling the rest. This is purely optional and not necessary to safely can them. Sugar – Sugar is optional when canning pears. See syrup ratios above to know how much sugar you'll need.

“Any conditions which tend to harden the butter-fat will require a comparatively high churning temperature; and any conditions tending to soften the butter-fat will require a lowering of the churning temperature.” In summer, I can pull the cream straight out of the fridge (at 40°F) to churn.

Your butter needs to be “room temperature”, or around 65ºF. If it is too cold, it won't blend with the sugar evenly and will be almost impossible to beat it into a smooth consistency; if it is too hot, the butter won't be able to hold the air pockets that you are trying to beat into it.

When purified procyanidins were treated at 95 °C at three different pH values (2.7, 3.3, and 4.0), procyanidin concentrations decreased after treatment, the more so as the pH was lower, and a pinkish color also appeared, attributed to tannin-anthocyanidin pigment. The pink color was bound to cell walls.

If your recipe called for lemon juice and you forgot to put it in, your mixture will not be acid enough for safe canning. You have to open the jars and put the mixture into a sauce pan.

Use bottled lemon juice in all canning for safest results. Whether adding lemon juice to tomatoes to acidify them safely or adding lemon juice to a jelly or jam, the best and safest choice is bottled lemon juice. Here's why. Bottled lemon juice is standardized, or uniformly acidified, per FDA regulations.

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.

What is the best pear for canning? ›

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.

Prepare pears for freezing by washing fruit, peeling, and coring. Prevent cut pears from browning by soaking in one quart of water with either one-half tablespoon salt, three-quarter teaspoon ascorbic acid (often sold as Fruit Fresh), or 3 tablespoons lemon juice. Drain fruit before preparing further for freezing.

too quickly initially will result in a thin sauce that is difficult to thicken later on. Only once at least half the butter has been added and a double cream consistency has been achieved can the butter be added a little more quickly, but still carefully. Overheating the emulsion will split it.

Simmer rather than boil fruit butter. Stir constantly as it thickens, especially as it reaches the point of doneness.

If there isn't enough pectin in the fruit itself and you don't add extra pectin, the result is runny jelly or jam. Additionally, if the fruit is overripe, its pectin levels are lower. Added pectin comes in a couple of forms. You can find powdered pectin and liquid pectin at grocery stores and online.

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.