Homemade Pear Butter

My beautiful mom brought a huge bag of pears grown in her neighbor's yard in NC. Using my apple butter recipe, we made pear butter in the crock pot! The aroma was warm and inviting while the pears slow cooked for over 12 hours with cinnamon, nutmeg and other flavors. It's the smell of fall in my house (usually apples, but pears smell the same). Since we don't have an orchard yet and there aren't any pick-your-own orchards around here, I was so grateful for the gift of the pears!

We canned about 100 ounces of preserves for the winter. Haven't even tasted it! Oh, I did lick the spoon when I was done and let me tell you...that my friends was gold in a spoon! Gold I say!

It isn't difficult to make your own apple or pear butter. The toughest part of the chore is peeling and chopping. I outsourced that part of the job to my Chief Farmhand Chris. Then I took over with the seasoning, cooking, stirring and canning. I used the pear cores and peels to start a batch of pear vinegar fermenting in my cabinet. (Oh did I tell you about the muscadine vinegar?! No? Oh my gosh, I will have to do another write-up on my homemade scrap vinegars - it's a very exciting thing to make!) I need to check on my vinegars today.

After you wash, peel, and slice your pears toss them into the crockpot with the cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and other spices. Turn on the crockpot to low and let it go. Don't disturb it too often - opening the lid lets all the heat out and slows down the cooking process. But stir about every two to three hours. After 12 hours, mash the pears (or apples) with a potato masher. Stir. Continue cooking a few more hours until the fruit is soft and the preserves are a rich dark golden brown color. Ladle into clean, sterilized jars. Then you can process the jars for five minutes in a water bath canner OR you can simply put your jars of homemade fruit preserves in the fridge!

We haven't popped open a jar yet (we still have an open jar of muscadine jelly!) but I know that when we do those pears are going to taste so good on a piece of toast (or cooked on pork chops)! Making my mouth water just thinking about it. That will be an awesome treat later on this fall or in the winter.

A little fresh summertime love in a jar!

Don't miss our muscadine jelly article, recipe, how-to by clicking here! The Pear Butter and the Muscadine Jelly go perfectly with my copycat recipe of Bojangles Buttermilk Biscuits!