Pear Jam???

[northepaul]

Hi all
I have never seen it, but have come into a load of pears (English) and wondered if I can make pear jam? Or maybe pear and something jam? If so, does anyone have a tried and tested recipe please?

Thanks

[Scottishnewbie]

you could make pear honey - i made loads last year and it was fabby

[Glutton4...]

LOL - I read the title as 'Pearl Jam' and thought of Wayne! LOL

[Glutton4...]

Just to prove I'm not a total nutter - I just 'googled' PEAR JAM, and the first hit was PEARL JAM's website!!!

There were, however, some interesting recipe sites below that. The spicy one sounded particularly good.

[zazen999]

LOL - I read the title as 'Pearl Jam' and thought of Wayne! LOL

Me too - I resisted!!!

[northepaul]

Hmm I googled it too before asking but came up with only American ones...cant get my head around using cups instead of grams!

[northepaul]

OK...I looked up pears in the Pam Corbin RC book, and it says they are both low in pectin and acid, which could explain why I cant find any recipes? Anyway if I add about 200g of cooking apples per Kg of fruit, and some lemon juice, would that solve the pectin/acid problem do you think?
Thanks

[Glutton4...]

Hmm I googled it too before asking but came up with only American ones...cant get my head around using cups instead of grams!

The cup is defined in United States law as 240 millilitres.

[Hilary B]

OK...I looked up pears in the Pam Corbin RC book, and it says they are both low in pectin and acid, which could explain why I cant find any recipes? Anyway if I add about 200g of cooking apples per Kg of fruit, and some lemon juice, would that solve the pectin/acid problem do you think?
Thanks

I would boil up the peel and cores (both of pears and apples) and add the liquid from that to the prepared fruit, along with some lemon juice. That should do it. Maybe reduce the sugar content a bit (perhaps 2½lb sugar to 3lb fruit); that will mean you need to boil it longer to get a set, and make a bit less jam, but it will help the set, and the fruity flavour of the jam will be more intense.

[northepaul]

I would boil up the peel and cores (both of pears and apples) and add the liquid from that to the prepared fruit, along with some lemon juice. That should do it. Maybe reduce the sugar content a bit (perhaps 2½lb sugar to 3lb fruit); that will mean you need to boil it longer to get a set, and make a bit less jam, but it will help the set, and the fruity flavour of the jam will be more intense.

Hi Hilary,
always a fountain of knowledge!! Thank you
I was thinking of putting them (peel/pips) in some muslen and boiling along with the fruit? Or do you think it would work better boiled seperately?

[Hilary B]

Hi Hilary,
always a fountain of knowledge!! Thank you
I was thinking of putting them (peel/pips) in some muslen and boiling along with the fruit? Or do you think it would work better boiled seperately?

I always tend to boil separately, but that is just me. It would probably work just as well the other way, as long as yu squeeze as much out of the peel-bag as possible.

[HeyWayne]

Erm, nope, sorry, as you were...

[northepaul]

Success

I now have three jars of Pear Jam!

Here's the recipe I made up, (thanks to Hilary B for guidance)

1 kg of pears, skinned and cored
200g cooking apples, skinned & cored.
600g granulated sugar (or more to taste but it would be a bit sickly with much more)
juice of 1 lemon

Or more but in proportion to the above.
Gently cook the pears and apples together with 200-400ml of water to get them going, until they are very well cooked and mushy (NB I actually used a masher for the stubborn chunks) - about half and hour.
Add sugar and lemon juice. bring gently to boil until all sugar has dissolved.
Once this is achieved hard boil for 20-30 mins (be careful as I found if I didnt stir it now and again, the mixture began to burn) Check for setting point - saucer or thermometer.
Pour into sterilised jars and seal. - I got 2 1lb and one half lb. (Not bad)

Tried it this morning on toast - yummy!

[chris]

Looks great!