Pear Jam: a Clark Family favorite!

(update: Well, I had to make two more batches of this! One of my former students dropped by with a couple of friends. I gave them fresh bread and pear jam and she grabbed the pint jar and said "I'm taking this!" I'm telling you, it's an addiction! )So I'm a Fiechter by name, but by heritage, I'm a Clark! Fiechters eat regular jams--doubt they venture past strawberry. But we Clarks ate: currant jelly, crab apple jelly, currant raspberry jelly, ground cherry jam, blackberry jelly, strawberry rhubarb jam--AND this delectable pear jam. I make several batches and freeze them so that there is no fighting over jars between my nieces, nephews, and siblings when they come back to Indiana in the summer.
If you watched my grape jelly video, you should be familiar with the process of jam making using powdered pectin.
Pears are a pain to peel, so the prep is a bit more time consuming than with other fruits like peaches or strawberries. But the jam is delicious! We have our nicer pears (you'll see them at the end of the video) that I will be using to can pears in another week or two.
#pear #jelly #preserves #blender

[@doriann3826]

Thank you so much for posting this video! I tried it and I really like the blender method. It made my jam turn out so smooth instead of the fruit floating on top!

[@heresmyindianagardenandkit5003]

Not my mom's pear jam! But sometimes laziness (not wanting to do all that chopping!) leads to a nice surprise!

[@EileenJoyHappy]

Yummy! Thank you so much for showing us!

[@lorifiechter26]

Thanks for your comment!

[@genrose1993]

Made it this morning! Turned out great! Thank you so much for the video! I basically just used a Mellon baller to core the whole pear instead of using a knife. Went fast and only took an hour to make! Will make another batch soon! :)

[@heresmyindianagardenandkit5003]

Fantastic! Around here, pears are plentiful this year (except for our trees!) Melon baller is the way to go!

[@abody9992]

Hi, thank you for your nice recipe. I am from Saudia and I don’t have pectin, can I do the jam without it?

[@heresmyindianagardenandkit5003]

without pectin you could cook it down to make a thick pear butter--won't be the same, but still good.

[@NolaGB]

Thank you for the video. I'm making pear jam in the morning. I like it thicker, with tiny, tiny pieces of fruit in it.

[@heresmyindianagardenandkit5003]

Yes, that's how my mom used to make it. Takes a bit of stirring after it's done so the pieces don't float to the top of the jars. Good luck!

[@susanrobinson408]

Lori, I made this today. The flavor is amazing!! But mine turned out more like pear butter....not a bad thing, but I would have preferred jam. Can you guess what I might have done wrong? I used 4 cups of puree, pectin and lemon juice, and 5 cups of sugar like the Sure-gel box says.

[@heresmyindianagardenandkit5003]

that's odd...pear butter usually takes many hours of cooking (like in a crockpot) with some cider and cinnamon. And it ends up dark brown in color. If you cooked the pear jam for exactly 1 minute after it came to a rolling boil, the only thing I can think of is your pears themselves--maybe they were more mealy, less juicy than our pears. But really, I'm stumped!

[@susanrobinson408]

@@heresmyindianagardenandkit5003 After I posted, I think I figured it out. You used 4 cups of pear chunks and then pureed them. I pureed the pears and then measured 4 cups. I think I had way too much pear puree for the recipe. I'm going to try again, but we will use this as it is really good!!

[@heresmyindianagardenandkit5003]

Actually, I measured after I blended it! So I have no idea. But if you have more pears, go ahead and experiment! Our pears didn't produce this year because of the very late freeze in May, but I still have lots of jam from last year. Let me know how your next batch turns out!

[@kathy-ro6es]

I just made this and it turned out perfectly, except I too spilt some hot jam onto my fingers.....ouch!🙂

[@heresmyindianagardenandkit5003]

oh, dear! that hot sugar syrup really sticks and burns! Glad it turned out, though!

[@tracymorgan6186]

I made this last week and it is delicious, but I made another batch today and I forgot to add the lemon juice. Does that mean it just won't be a shelf stable?

[@heresmyindianagardenandkit5003]

I had to look this up to be sure, but the lemon juice is to help the pectin set. Some fruits are acidic enough and don't need the lemon juice. If your jam set, fine! As far as shelf stable, that's only if you have processed your jam--water bath/steam bath. So glad you liked it! I've been trying my hand at apple butter and hope to post that in a day or two!

[@genrose1993]

I’m going to try this! We have a pear tree so I wanna see how this turns out :) how much lemon juice did you use?

[@heresmyindianagardenandkit5003]

The video says 2 T. of lemon juice for one batch of jam. Hope it turns out for you! I've been using citric acid when canning pears instead of using lemon juice but I've never tried that with jam!

[@genrose1993]

Thank you for your quick reply! I am sorry I missed that in the video! If you prefer citric acid I will do that then!

[@heresmyindianagardenandkit5003]

@@genrose1993 I missed it in the video the first time myself! 😄 I think I'd stick with lemon juice to be safe. I haven't experimented with citric acid for jam yet!

[@beancole]

when sealed in jars how long will it last? stored in a dry store?

[@heresmyindianagardenandkit5003]

I always freeze mine and so it lasts for years (as in 5+ years) but if it is processed and stored at room temperature, I would think the quality would not be as good after a couple of years and the color would darken. I mean, you could still eat it, but it might not be quite as appealing in appearance.

[@YonaMurry]

When do we add the lemon ?

[@susanrobinson408]

I want to make this!! If it calls for 4 cups of pear chunks, do you also use 4 cups of the puree? I know we would like the puree kind better, too.

[@heresmyindianagardenandkit5003]

I use the same amount...you have to figure out what you like as the consistency (whether thicker or thinner). Nothing floats to the top on the puree kind!

[@belindawhisman2634]

blanch pears in boiling water and then immediately put in ice water and let cool. The peeling just comes right off.

[@heresmyindianagardenandkit5003]

I've tried that before and it never worked for me...maybe if pears are smooth skinned and perfect. I'll try again next year! thanks.

[@beverlystufflebeam5731]

How much pear to a box of pectin

[@heresmyindianagardenandkit5003]

Surejell regular pectin has these measurements: 4 cups finely chopped pears, 2 T. fresh lemon juice, 5 cups sugar. If you are making the reduced sugar kind of pectin, the measurements will be different for the pears (and of course, the sugar)

[@bhartenduprakash]

try this recipe here: www.wellcure.com/recipes/428/raw-pear-jam-great-way-to-have-seasonal-fruits

[@Sarah_Genevieve]

That looks delicious!!

[@heresmyindianagardenandkit5003]

and now I know who "SarahGen" is! Just subscribed to your channel today! So nice seeing you again.

[@NuffinEdited]

When you say instead of processing you mean the water bath for 25 minutes?

[@heresmyindianagardenandkit5003]

I freeze my jam. Yes, if you are going to keep it at room temperature, you need to water bath/steam bath process but 25 minutes isn't necessary--10 minutes is fine.

[@NuffinEdited]

@@heresmyindianagardenandkit5003 Thank you so much. I use to can years ago but frogot the rules of it all

[@heresmyindianagardenandkit5003]

It's not like cooking or baking--you really have to know the procedure. Freaks some people out...especially pressure canning! But that's only for non-acidic vegetables and mixtures. Kudos for trying again--proud of you!

[@NuffinEdited]

@@heresmyindianagardenandkit5003 The jam turned out perfect thank you

[@johnmontoya2398]

Pear apple sauce? Are you high?

[@heresmyindianagardenandkit5003]

It's pretty common around here--makes the applesauce sweeter!

[@TheBandoury]

Would it thicken when cold?

[@heresmyindianagardenandkit5003]

It thickened some when cold--not as much as pectin jam, though. A cross between sauce and jam.

[@TheBandoury]

@@heresmyindianagardenandkit5003 maybe I should add pectin or apple ?

[@heresmyindianagardenandkit5003]

@@TheBandoury If I were to make it again, I'd use pectin. I used to make a rhubarb-sour cherry jam that was great. Let me know if you try it!