Preserve Your Excess Fruit-Pears

Max, I would love to try your New York Uncooked Relish, but with our drought there are NO green tomatoes in the garden. There won’t be any to try and save for Thanksgiving.

You know, that recipe must have been pretty old as it did not mention killing the relish with a Boiling Water Bath. Your recipe doesn’t say so, but I will bet that originally the frugal housewife didn’t even put it in jars. It probably sat in a big brown stoneware crock in the basement.

You lucky person with bushels of pears. Have you ever made Pear Butter? It is obviously a first cousin to Apple Butter, and some people like it better. I actually do not leave the cores in for the first cooking as they are a mess to remove, but do leave the peels on as they add a lot of taste. And, I do not seal with paraffin. I use hot sterilized pint and half-pint jars and seal them like they are pickles. Try it, you’ll like it.

Pear Butter:

2 pecks ripe pears
½ cup of white sugar to each cup of pear pulp
½ teaspoon cinnamon to each 3 cups pulp

Wash pears, but do not peel or core. Slice. Place in large pan with a small amount of water. Cook until very soft which will be 15 to 30 minutes.

Run pulp through a strainer or food mill to catch the peels and seeds. Measure the pulp and return to kettle. Add the sugar and cinnamon according to the amount of pulp. Cook until very thick, stirring frequently to prevent burning. Watch like a hawk!! Pour into sterilized jelly jars and seal with paraffin while hot.

Yields 12 small jelly sized jars.