Preserving pears: This is how easy it is without sugar

With autumn comes the pear season. However, those blessed with an overly industrious pear tree will soon have a problem. The sweet little fruits are in danger of going bad. If you preserve your pears, you can keep them for a long time.

Especially in the classic cuisine pears can be found everywhere. Whether as a dessert or as a fruity side dish to game or other meat stews.

The classic: serve pear halves filled with cranberry jam with the meal.

But pears aren't just a hit in more classic dishes. You can use the sweet, chubby fruit for many things all year round. Provided that you manage to preserve pears.

Also, when the fruit is cooked down, it makes a great addition to cakes and tastes great with a chocolate pudding or sweet dishes like Kaiserschmarrn with oatmeal. Pear makes every sweet tooth's heart beat faster.

To preserve pears and have them always quickly at hand, you can preserve pears.

Homemade pear puree tastes incredibly delicious and gives many dishes that certain something.

Today we want to show you how to prepare and preserve fruit puree without sugar.

How to preserve pears?

Pears can be kept for a long time if you have a cool and dark place to store them. In the past, they were often stored in the cellar for the whole winter. Unfortunately, hardly anyone has such a cellar available. But you can also preserve pears.

You can use fresh pears

• chop and freeze
• drying
• Make jam
• or boil down (compote or fruit puree)

The most proven method is to preserve pears. This will save you space in the freezer and in the event of a power outage, preserved food will not spoil.

You can boil them down in whole pieces or even more practical: prepare a fruit puree.

Unlike jam, you are much more flexible with a pure puree. You can use it later for baking, spoon it pure or serve it as a puree with desserts.

Is it possible to preserve fruit without sugar?

Fresh and ripe fruits can be boiled down without sugar. They contain more than enough fructose, which provides flavor. If you do not use table sugar, the preserved fruit will be much healthier and taste better.

Tip: If you want to preserve pears, you should harvest them about a week before they are fully ripe and then let them ripen.

What's the point of canning pears?

Boil down pears, is really not witchcraft. The easiest and fastest way to preserve the fruit is in the form of puree. Pear puree can be prepared in no time and boiled down in just 30 minutes. You don't have to buy it.

Boiling down kills germs and enzymes that promote rotting.

If you cook pears, you save a lot of household sugar. Most ready-made jars of pear puree contain a large portion of it.

But that doesn't have to be the case. Pears contain a large amount of fructose. The riper they are, the tastier the preserved fruit.

If, like me, you have a small tree that bears a lot every 2 years or so, then it's even more worthwhile to preserve the fruit. This way, you can enjoy eating pear puree the following year while the tree takes its breather. Small children love homemade fruit puree - you can be quite sure what really goes into the jar.

On top of that, unfortunately, you often can not buy pear puree in the supermarket. For the most part, there is applesauce in huge quantities and variations. The pear falls by the wayside.

By the way, those with a sweet tooth are sure to enjoy a homemade gift from you! What could be better than a DIY pear jam with extra love? :)

This is how you use fruit puree as an egg substitute!

What you need to know before you start canning pears

If you're a first-time canner, there are a few basics you should know. Let's take a look at them in detail. Very detailed information on preserving food by boiling it down I have recorded in a separate blog post.

The jars for pear puree

For the pear puree, you'll need jars that can be sealed airtight and don't mind high temperatures.

The most practical is to collect jars of jam or jars of pickles. If you start early enough, you will have enough jars for the mush and can save a lot of money. By the way, these jars are called screw jars.

The classic preserving jars from the Weck company are called Weck jars. These were designed for the sole purpose of preserving. From the Weck jars also comes the term einwecken.

No matter what kind of glass you take. All should be in good condition, have no cracks or poorly closing lids. For jars you have to make sure that the rubber is still in good condition.

A good jar is characterized by the fact that it can be tightly closed and that you can put a label on it to label the jar. Because at some point you lose track without labeling. I have therefore online well sealable preserving jars* and have been using them for several years now.

Depending on the size of your household, it may be worth using larger or smaller jars. For me, jars with a volume of 200 to 250 ml are just the right size.

The jars must be sterilized before canning. How to do this, I explain in great detail in a separate blog post. Look here "This is the only way to sterilize jars for canning correctly„.

It's best to lay down a load of well sealable preserving jars* too. Once you've acquired a taste for preserving, you'll always have too few jars. At least that's how I feel. You'll quickly end up with a batch of

• Tomato sauce boiled down
• Beet salad preserved or
• classic applesauce filled into the glass.

Do I have to peel pears?

You do not have to peel the fruit. If you do not, you can save a lot of time. Visually, the puree will be slightly lighter without the peel - especially if you use darker pears. The peel does not change the taste. With very ripe fruits, peeling is very difficult - I do without it.

If you don't care, just remove the core and the stem. If you decide to use the peeled version, you will need to cut the pear pieces with a powerful hand blender* Puree particularly thoroughly. But it also works in a food processor.

To preserve pears, the fruit must be in excellent condition. You can use overripe fruit that is already starting to get dark spots. However, remove the dark spots.

There are countless varieties of pears - all of them are suitable for canning. And for all of them take the same recipe. It may just be that some more Cinnamon* than others. But you can decide this by tasting before bottling.

Delicious: Amaranth porridge with pears

Hot filling is not boiling down

Yes, you hear and read it over and over again. But just because you fill pear puree hot into a jar and seal it, doesn't mean it's cooked down.

Boiling down means preserving the pear puree in a pot of boiling water for 30 minutes. During this process you kill all germs and bacteria. This will preserve the puree for at least a year - but most of the time much longer.

I have eaten mush that was 3 years old. If you boil it down properly, you can keep it almost indefinitely.

For preserving pear puree 3 steps are necessary:

1. Prepare pear puree
2. Bottle fruit puree
3. Preserve pears without sugar

What utensils do I need for preserving pears?

Before you get started with the DIY pear puree, you should have all the utensils ready.

Because then you have to be pretty fast to fill the puree hot. The better you prepare, the cleaner you will work and, of course, the faster you will finish.

• 1 saucepan - better high than wide so it doesn't splatter so much
• Sharp knife and board
• Hand blender
• Good sealable preserving jars*
• Funnel
• Spices (especially delicious: vanilla, Cinnamon*, carnation)

All utensils must be perfectly clean. Otherwise, you jeopardize the shelf life of the food.

If you love canning vegetables, fruits, and more, I highly recommend the book the preserving bible at Amazon* to view. You'll find 325 recipes and tricks for preserving, pickling and fermenting.

I have myself the preserving bible at Amazon* and have been using them since last year. I've already made lots of recipes with it, such as pickled gherkins, tomato sauce and baked apple spread.

Good to know

It is often recommended to turn the glasses upside down for another 5 minutes afterwards. This tip comes from times when hygiene was not yet so far.

The assumption was that you would kill possible bacteria in the top of the jar by the heat of the pureed fruit. Unfortunately, the opposite is usually the case. The puree settles in the thread of the jar, causing it to go bad faster. Air can penetrate and provide for mold.

You should do without it. Much more important is the next step: preserving pears.

Recipe: Homemade applesauce without sugar

Preserving pears by boiling

The hot mush in the jar is not yet cooked down. The process of boiling down ensures that a vacuum is formed in the jar and the puree cannot go bad. In addition, cooking kills any germs that could cause mold.

The easiest way to do it is in a preserving pot. But I don't have one myself and use a large saucepan for it. Works just as well.

• Place a tea towel in the saucepan. Pour warm water into the pot and place the jars in the water so that they are 2/3 covered with water.
• Put the lid on the pot and turn on the stove top.
• Your jars should be in boiling water for 30 minutes for the pears to cook down. The canning time starts when the water boils, not earlier!
• Take the glasses out of the water - Attention: Very hot! - and let them cool at room temperature. The lid of the jars should now pull down within the next 24 hours.
• From now on, they can go into the pantry.

At what temperature do you cook pears?

You can preserve pears in the canning pot. Or use the oven.

Fruits are always cooked in a saucepan at 100 ° for 30 minutes. In the oven 180 ° and 30 minutes are necessary.

Oven:

• Place the jars in a mold that you fill with water - they must be at least half in the water bath
• Turn on the oven
• When the bubbles rise to the top of the jars, turn off the oven.
• Now leave the jars in the oven for 30 minutes without opening the door

In my experience, canning in the oven is not as safe as canning in the crock pot. I therefore always boil down in the cooking pot!

How to store pear puree properly?

Store the glasses in the dark. Brightness and especially direct sunlight reduce the shelf life. A cold cellar is not necessary. Everything that is boiled down can be kept at room temperature, e.g. in the pantry or larder.

Now your mush will keep for at least a year. But I have also opened and eaten jars that were more than two years old. They tasted as fresh. In forums, users report that they have eaten fruit puree that was already more than 5 or 10 years old.

As always, look, smell and taste before you start eating in large quantities.

Good to know: Fruits and fruits of all kinds are always boiled down for 30 minutes. You can also boil down many other recipes, like tomato sauce with onions - but that will take at least 90 minutes. If you're unsure, check here: "Canning in the crock pot + canning times as a table".

What kind of pears is best for canning?

Basically, all types of pears can be preserved by canning. Depending on what pears you have on hand - all can end up in the jar. However, cooked pears are best suited. Their flesh is more firm to the bite, so they won't fall apart if you preserve them whole. They are also comparatively small.

It is important that they are not rotten or have many brown spots.

They should also not be too little ripe - that is, green and hard. Then the pear puree will be sour and not deliciously sweet. You can let pears ripen by leaving them at room temperature for a few days. I put them down one by one so that they don't get damaged.

If you want to preserve pears in pieces, you should process them a week before they are fully ripe. That is, when they have already developed a slight sweetness, but are not mushy. This preserves the pear pieces in the jar.

Why are pears so healthy anyway?

Pears have much more fiber than most other fruits. Dietary fiber is important for the digestive system. They also keep us full for a long time.

Especially when the days become shorter, the vitamins of the pear are urgently needed. It is characterized by vitamin A and C. In addition, pears contain minerals such as zinc, copper, magnesium and phosphorus. If this is not a reason to preserve pears?

On top of that, pears contain little fat, are easy to digest and contain potassium and calcium. This stimulates the metabolism and has a dehydrating effect.

Those who still have fruit left over after preserving can turn to this juicy pear tart with lavender dare.

And because it all sounds so wonderful, let's quickly turn the pear puree into a quick and healthy dessert.

Layer dessert with pear puree

After successfully boiling down pears, you have a lot of delicious puree. One way to use them is in this dessert. The great thing about it is that it's super easy, extremely quick to finish, healthy and delicious. What more could you ask for? The recipe is enough for 2 servings.

Ingredients:

• 4 tablespoons oatmeal
• 4 tablespoons chopped nuts
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 4 tablespoons pear puree
• 4 plums
• 1 cup Greek yogurt
• 1 pinch Cinnamon*

Preparation

Fry oatmeal and chopped nuts in a pan. Important: without oil!

Add the honey and fill the bottom layer.

Cut the plums into small pieces and put them into the jar.

This is followed by the pear puree and finally the yogurt. On top there's another blob of pear puree and Cinnamon*. Done!

Tip: Overnight Oats

Pear puree also goes wonderfully with Overnight Oats. The basic recipe for the popular Overnight Oats is oatmeal and liquid (usually milk) in the ratio 1:2.

And as soon as the basic recipe is ready, you can let off steam. For example, with pear puree, plums and apples as an autumnal variant. Tastes really awesome :) . Not on Cinnamon* forgetting to add a touch of autumn to the whole thing.

Our conclusion

If you want to preserve pears, you should definitely do it. So you have very long something of the delicious taste of the healthy fruit.

You can celebrate any dessert with it. But you can also just mix it with yogurt. You already have a delicious dessert.

Good luck!

To browse further:

• Brownies without an oven - quick, easy & delicious
• These are the 11 best baked apple recipes
• Make your own protein muesli

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