Brown Sugar Pear Jam (canning recipe) • Heartbeet Kitchen (2024)
A flavorful, small batch pear jam lightly sweetened with brown sugar, giving it caramel flavor. With the addition of flaky sea salt and simmering time, this version resembles caramel decadence in jam form. The brown sugar boils down into absolute deliciousness, and the addition of cardamom brings warmth and depth. This pear jam recipe has no added pectin.
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Although the song “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” was made for the holidays, I find the lyrics playing in my head as I stroll down the aisles of the farmers market these days.
Tomatoes of all colors, crisp cucumbers, zucchini of every size, bags full of sweet corn piled high. And in fall there are winter squash, pears and apples just starting to arrive. It’s the true essence of a beautiful summer meets fall collision. Canning and preserving each season’s harvest is one of my favorite hobbies, ensuring that I can enjoy things all year long.
In Spring, I love to make fresh rhubarb sauce. In summer, several batches of zucchini pickles, tomatillo salsa verde, and fire roasted salsa.
What pears are great for making jam?
Seckel pears are the sweetest and the smallest of the pear family and look like a blushing bosc, which you’ll commonly find in grocery stores. So if you can’t find seckel pears, bosc work well in this recipe too. Both have a delicious spice flavor to them and a fresh crispness even when ripe.
Those qualities make them perfect for simmering and preserving into this Caramel Cardamom Pear Jam. Swoon……
How to Make Pear Jam:
Getting this jam to set couldn’t be easier. It naturally happens as the fruit simmers for an hour and the juice of a lemon at the end gives it the acidity it needs for canning safety, no artificial pectin needed.
I peeled half of the pears, but left the others with the skin on because I like a little bit of texture. (If you like something completely smooth, this Vanilla Chai Pear Butter is delicious too.)
The end result is lush preserves that with the addition of a hint of salt, give off a homemade caramel taste.
Its ideal match is a fresh slice of whole wheat sourdough bread, but let me tell you, it’s amazing on ice cream or with big cluster granola and yogurt.
With the addition of flaky sea salt and double the simmering time, this version resembles caramel decadence in jam form. The brown sugar boils down into a sticky, sweet mess, and the addition of cardamom is what autumn comfort is all about.
Cardamom is one of my favorite warming spices, such a lovely match to the slight spice of the seckel pears. I ground the seeds of the green pods with a mortar and pestle, it’s scent so unique – a hint of eucalyptus and citrus and cloves.
Used this way, the spice is quite potent, which is why you’ll see two measurements – one for if you grind it yourself, the other if you buy it pre-ground, where exposure to air tames it down a bit.
A flavorful, small batch pear jam lightly sweetened with brown sugar, giving it caramel flavor. The cardamom adds warmth and depth, making this a winning jam.
3 ¼poundsof pears,half of them peeled (I used Seckel, but I think any variety would work)
1 1/4cupslightly packed brown sugar
scant 1/2 teaspoon flaky salt
juice of one large lemon
¾teaspoonground cardamom or (1/2 teaspoon freshly ground cardamom if you grind it yourself in a mortar and pestle or spice mill.it’s more intense, so less is needed)
Instructions
Sterilize jars in boiling water canner. and wash lids and tops with soapy water.
Coarsely chop the pears, then combine them with the sugar in a large pot and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Simmer, stirring frequently and lightly mash with a potato masher the pears soften, until the mixture thickens and is syrupy. This will take about 45 minutes, and you will see larger bubbles forming in the simmer.
Stir in the salt, lemon juice and cardamom, then simmer for 2 more minutes.
Ladle the hot preserves into hot jars leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Remove any air bubbles. Wipe the rims. Center the lids on the jars. Apply bands until the fit is just tight.
Process the jars in a boiling water bath canner for 10 minutes, adjusting for altitude. Turn off the heat and let the jars sit for 5 minutes then remove the jars and let cool in a draft-free spot overnight. Check the lids for seal after 24 hours – they should not flex up and down when the center is pressed. Store in a cool, dark place for up to one year.
Alternatively, if you don’t want to mess with the canning, you can skip the whole jar sterilizing and boiling water bath process — just store in clean, air-tight jars in the refrigerator for up to a month.
Canning pears is an easy way to preserve the fruit for later enjoyment when the pears are at their ripest. For these canned pears, I'm using a light syrup ratio of a cup of sugar to a quart of water. You could also use apple juice or white grape juice as your canning liquid.
Sadly, sugar plays a huge role in set. If you cut the amount in the recipe and you don't compensate with a pectin designed for low sugar preserving, your jam may well be runny. Did you check for set while the jam was cooking? Any time a recipe gives you a cooking time, it's simply an approximation.
If properly sealed, pear preserves can be stored in a cool, dark place for up to one year. A simple storage option for pear jam, butter, and chutney. Storing halved or whole preserved pears in the freezer is not recommended due to their fragile texture. Preserves can be stored in the freezer for up to six months.
Also, have sterilized jars with lids and rings at hand. Cut the pears into quarters, remove the core, and peel. Slice quarters in thirds if working with large pears or into half in working with small pears. Place prepared pears in water with 1 tbsp of lemon juice to keep them from turning brown.
Once you think that your jam has reached its setting point or has thickened, spoon a bit of the jam on the cold plate and tilt it vertically so the jam runs. You are aiming for a slow descent, not a runny mess. If it runs slow, it's set!
Just wait. You've followed the recipe and even tested the jam for thickness by smearing a bit of the cooked jam on a cold spoon straight from the freezer, but it still looks runny in the canning jars after processing. ...
Pectin is often used as a thickener in cooking and baking. It is a natural polysaccharide (starch) product extracted from fruits and is commonly used as a natural thickening and setting/gelling agent that shouldn't affect the taste or smell of your recipes.
Although pears are most often canned in simple syrup, it is quite safe to can them in juice or even plain water. The canning liquid is a flavoring element, not a safety consideration. There are two basic ways to safely can pears: the hot pack method and the raw pack method.
Many varieties of pears are grown in Oregon. Bartlett, Bosc and Seckel are good varieties to preserve, however Anjou, Comice, Nelis and Forelle may also be preserved, depending on the end product. It is important to harvest pears at the correct time.
Enzymes in pears cause discoloration when exposed to air. If the pears are packed into the jars raw and then covered with syrup, the air will be released into the jar and the headspace will be greater after processing. Excess headspace allows more oxygen in the jar to cause the fruit to darken.
When purified procyanidins were treated at 95 °C at three different pH values (2.7, 3.3, and 4.0), procyanidin concentrations decreased after treatment, the more so as the pH was lower, and a pinkish color also appeared, attributed to tannin-anthocyanidin pigment. The pink color was bound to cell walls.
All things being equal, and the recipe is a good one, and you have followed advised processing steps, the general advice is that canned fruits or jams should ideally be used within 12 months of being made.
The ratio between fruit and sugar varies: with sweet fruits, it's about 2:1 (2 kilos of fruit, 1 of sugar), while with more bitter fruits like oranges, it should be more like 3:2. If uncertain, it's better to round up with the sugar.
Add ¼ to ½ cup sugar to each quart of prepared fruit. Bring to a simmer over low heat. Pack fruit while it's hot in the hot juice that cooks out. Light corn syrup, light brown sugar or mild-flavored honey can replace as much as half of the sugar used in canning fruit.
Do You Need to Use Sugar When Canning Pears? You may can pears in just water, unsweetened apple juice, or light to medium syrup (which is a mixture of sugar and water in different ratios). You must use the hot pack method if you choose to can fruit with just water.
It is possible to preserve fruits with little or no added sugar, which is great for those who prefer less sweetness, reduced calories or other dietary restrictions. NOTE: It's important to not alter the sugar or sugar content of evidence-based recipes.
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