Canning Part 2: Pear Butter

My mom came over on Sunday and helped me cut up the rest of the pears. Since these were ripe, I made pear butter. It took forever to boil down making the house smell like pears. In the end, I had ten jars and a little left over for Thorny Guy to eat.

Here is the recipe, from "Small-Batch Preserving by Ellie Topp and Margaret Howard:

Spiced Plum/Pear Butter
10 plums or pears, sliced
1 cup water
Sugar (See below)
1 cinnamon stick
4 whole cloves
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1. Place plums and water in saucepan, bring to boil. Cover and reduce heat to simmer for 20 minutes.
2. Place plum mixture in food processor and process until smooth. Measure and return to saucepan. For each 1 cup plums, add 1 1/4 cup sugar. Tie cinnamon and cloves in spice bag and add to sauce.
3. Return plum mixture to boil, simmer unti, mixture is very thick.
4. Discard spice bag; stir in nutmeg.
5. Ladle into hot jars and process for 10 minutes in water bath.
Makes about 3 cups.