Old Fashioned Pear Butter

This sweet and easy pear butter recipe is the perfect fall comfort food. Use this old fashioned recipe for pear butter as topping for toast, ice cream, and fresh biscuits. It is similar to apple butter in flavor, just with a bit sweeter natural flavor.

Updated August 2019

Who doesn’t love fall? It’s my favorite season–everything is just so VIBRANT in the fall here in the midwest.

The crisp air….high school football games…my favorite cozy sweatshirt…Harry Potter movie marathons, apple cider making in Amish country, my favorite potato soup….all the good and wonderful fall things!

This pear butter is right up there in my favorite fall foods. Pears are an easily overlooked fall choice thanks to apple cinnamon and pumpkin spice errrrything taking over the world, but do NOT forget about pears!

I have gotten a lot of questions about this old fashioned pear butter recipe over the years so I thought I would answer some of the most common ones here.

What are the best canning pears?

I like to use Bartlett Pears for canning. This is my EXPERT level, mother approved choice! Be sure to check your local farmer’s market or fruit stand for the best deal on quality pears this fall!

What to do with lots of pears?

You can easily use a large amount of pears (I like Bartlett pears best for canning and preserving) for this sweet pear butter. It cooks down nicely without a large amount of work (besides the slicing and peeling). I used 15 large pears (5 pounds) for this recipe.

RELATED: EASY PEAR CRISP

How long will canned pear butter last?

Like most home canned products it is recommended to use up your pear butter  within a year. Will they keep longer? Yes. Will anyone turn you into the canning police? No. Shhh. This is the golden standard canning book where I take all my canning and preserving questions!

If you’re a fan of easy healthy recipes you won’t want to miss my 4 Week Healthy + Easy Fall Meal Plan!

In this healthy fall meal plan you’ll find 4 weeks of cozy, healthier comfort food for busy weeknight dinners. Let me take meal planning off your full plate!!

This easy pear butter recipe is sure to pair nicely with all your fall comfort food favorites!

Pear Butter Recipe

If you like this recipe be sure to pin it on Pinterest to your favorite Fall or Canning board!

 

My Mom’s reflections on canning pear butter

Pear Butter – thick and sweet, dripping in globs from a spoon and sliding off a warm biscuit like lava down a mountain. Until I was 25 I’d never even heard of it. Now it has become a tradition linked to fall, comfort food, and memories of a dear friend.

One of the traditions I embraced as a young bride was canning and freezing fruits and vegetables. I felt like it connected me to the women in my family. I have memories of homemade chunky applesauce served as dessert around the table at my Great Aunt Caroline’s old farmhouse.

I see, like it was yesterday, the arthritic fingers of my grandma as she wiped spills off the rims of jars full of crimson tomatoes.

My mouth waters at the memory of my mother’s spicy, sweet homemade pickle relish all warm and crunchy and good, ready to be canned in pint jars on a hot August day.

And I smile at the memory of a young bride canning a bushel of red beets alongside a kind hearted mother-in-law.

Pear butter came to me on the wings of a very dear woman.

Evelyn was the middle aged farm wife of the young adult Sunday school teacher at our country church. She was a hospitable, generous woman whose life revolved around God, her husband and her family.

Every fall she peeled bushels of pears alongside her elderly mother at her kitchen sink. The pears were blended into sauce which was then refrigerated until the appointed day that her large family came together to cook the sauce down in a copper kettle over an open fire. She shared with me the joy of her family tradition and the instructions of making pear butter for my own family.

And so it began – the yearly practice of cooking down pears into pear butter. Not with my elderly mother at my side. Not in a copper kettle over a crackling fire. Not in 10 gallon batches.

And not with my family gathered around.

But in my own kitchen, at the sink I’ve stood at every day since we moved here 24 years ago. And with pears from the trees that my good husband faithfully cares for throughout the year in an old red crock pot that once belonged to my mother.

And as the sweet smell fills the rooms of my house, God fills the nooks and corners of my heart with joy and gratitude. I feel connected to Evelyn who went home to be with Jesus just a month ago. I remember with love those women in my life (all of whom are now home with the Lord) who taught me the art of food preservation and love for my family.

And I feel connected to my husband, children, and grandchildren who enjoy the fruit of my labor. My heart is full and I am thankful to God for the gift He has given me in pear butter!

Hope you enjoy this pear butter as much as my family has!