This dish is Spanish in origin. Instead of the usual chewy squid dish, it is soft and juicy. It’s easy to make, filling, delicious, and undoubtedly a family favorite! If you like, you can substitute butter for the olive oil and black pepper for the paprika.
| Prep Time: | 30 mins |
| Cook Time: | 1 hr 45 mins |
| Total Time: | 2 hrs 15 mins |
| Servings: | 32 |
| Yield: | 4 (1/2-pint) jars |
Ingredients
- 4 pounds medium pears, quartered and cored
- 1/2 cup water, or as needed
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 teaspoon grated orange zest
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ cup orange juice
Instructions
- Place pears into a large pot over medium heat; add just enough water to cover the bottom of the pot and keep them from sticking, about 1/2 cup. Cook until the pears are soft, about 30 minutes. Press pears through a sieve or food mill, and measure out 2 quarts of the pulp.
- Pour pear pulp and sugar into a large saucepan and stir to dissolve sugar. Stir in orange zest, nutmeg, and orange juice. Cook over medium heat until mixture is thick enough to mound in a spoon. When mixture begins to thicken, stir frequently to prevent scorching on the bottom. This process will take about 1 hour.
- Ladle pear butter into hot sterile jars, leaving 1/4 inch of headspace. Remove air bubbles by sliding a metal spatula around where the pear butter touches the glass. Wipe jar rims clean, and seal with lids and rings. Process for 10 minutes in a boiling water bath. The water should cover the jars by 1 inch. Check with your local extension for exact processing times for your area.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 82 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 21 g |
| Cholesterol | 0 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 2 g |
| Protein | 0 g |
| Saturated Fat | 0 g |
| Sodium | 1 mg |
| Sugars | 18 g |
| Fat | 0 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
One spoonful & all of my kids (5 adults) each wanted some! Normally I like the shorter reviews but I have some information about how mine came out. I made 2 batches, both in the crock pot with the only changes of coring & peeling the pears (soaking in salt water to prevent browning until all are peeled), 1/2 cup brown sugar, added a tsp of vanilla to help bring the flavor out & Tones’ has a Cinnamon Maple Sprinkle that I added which really amped up the flavor aspect. I used my immersion blender to blend the butter & although I left the lid off for a couple of hours, it never thickened up. So I added 2 packages of Knox Unflavored Gelatin & turned out the perfect consistency when cooled. The second batch I did not add the water at the bottom because of the prior results & accidently forgot the orange juice. I did add the zest near the end but didn’t want to add the juice seeing how it all ready had a lot of liquid. Again, added the unflavored gelatin to thicken it up. The taste is slightly different but still amazing! I will make it again next year but I may try using pectin to see the results.
I love the flavor of this recipe and will use it again. I made it to the directions and the only change I will make is next time I will peel and core my pears, I did not care for the mashing and mess with hot fruit. I usually make my pear butter to a apple butter recipe and we love that but this is a little different.
did not cook long enough to be a jam-it was a sauce added: cardamon, pumpkin pie spice, vanilla paste, COOK LONGER it should be a jel
Yummy …First timer here and it work very well ….
I made it with about 8 lbs of pears. I make mine in the crockpot overnight or until most of liquid is gone. I wait until end to add sugar and add according to taste.. I used 1/2 cup brown sugar and 1/2 cup of white sugar. Then blend with hand blender right in the crockpot for a nice smooth butter
I cooked the pears first and put through folly mill then cooked in the crock pot for about 18 hours on low. Stirring occasionally and rotating the pot of the crock pot. I added 2 very large cinnamon sticks used Brown sugar and increased nutmeg.
Put all ingredients in crock pot on low for 8 hours.Then on high for 5 hours ,stirring and mashing with potato masher hourly. when It reached the consistency I wanted I canned 2 pints and one half pint of Great Pear Butter.
I made this last week and it has a wonderful flavor and consistency. I did replace the OJ with pineapple juice because I had it from the Pear Honey recipe on this site. I used my CrockPot as others had suggested and it worked…BUT when I started to clean the crock, I discovered it had a couple of hairline fractures. I contacted the company, CrockPot, and was told the pot must be 2/3 to 3/4 full or the heat can buildup and result in cracks in the crock or the lid. I did take the lid off for the last 2 or 3 hours to allow the moisture to evaporate. So, just a word of warning to those using a slow cooker.
Good but way too sweet when I make this again i will reduce sugar. I was also out of nutmeg so used apple pie spice with excellent results.
We made this recipe and I’m loving it more than Apple Butter! We made more so we could can some and will definitely make it again!
I had 8# if pears which i cut up and cored. Used the water to cover the bottom of heavy ceramic dutch oven as per recipe. It boiled and boiled and boiled, no stick, no burn. Added the other ingredients –+ 1/3 more zest, – 1/4 sugar. I didn’t have anything to mush the pears, so i used a hand mixer on high when the pears has softened. It is too sweet — if i do this again, i’ll use about a third of the sugar (helps to have sweet, fairly ripe pears) And i like the effect of the mixer — it left a textured product which takes a surprising time to gently chew — which just means that the flavor lasts longer in my mouth — and to me, that’s a plus. Remember — 1 pint of cool water is one pound (old Anglo Saxon measurements) and i checked that 8# of pears boiled down makes 6 1/2 pints (or 6 1/2 pounds) of pear butter _______________________ I had another 4 pounds of pears, so i boiled them soft and used the mixer again to make Textured Pear Sauce. My wife and i did a full taste test — and we want more textured pear sauce with no additives.
After reading the reviews we just put ours in the crock Pot on Low … It took 24 + hrs. … but delicious …
I just made this today. I didn’t have any nutmeg. So, I substituted cinnamon instead. After it was all finished. It only made two small jars. But it was my first time and I will definitely make more in the future.
I did it in the crockpot as other suggested. It’s super gritty!! I will not make again.
I gave the recipe a 3 and the product a 5, Like so many others, I did not get 2 qts of pear, I only got 5 cups from 4 1/2 pounds of unprocessed pear. Since I got 5 instead of 8,, I used the calculator on the recipe to adjust for 20 servings and it came out nicely. I did take the time to core and quarter–in looking back, I could have skipped that with using the foley (Thanks, husband) The taste is wonderful. I thought it was going to be super sweet at first, but it mellowed in the cook process. I love pear with lemon–I did add a tsp of lemon juice. From 5 cups of pear puree, I had a yield of 8 small, 4oz jelly jars.
I will definitely make this again. I followed Momo’s advice and reduced the orange juice while keeping all the zest. I also transferred the cooked pears straight from the food mill into a crock pot where I ran it on low for a total of 10 hours. I didn’t weigh my pears at all but I did pick a hefty basket off of my pear tree and it was a perfect three pints. 🙂 Many thanks for the recipe!
Scaled down to 2 pears. Tasted great with Chef John’s Dutch Babies.
I use a mix of Splendora and brown sugar. My favorite spread – not too sweet, but delicious.
Just finished making this pear butter. Everything worked as stated EXCEPT the 4 lbs of pears only made 1 quart of pulp using my food processor. I halved the amount of sugar, zest and juice since I had only half the amount of pulp. Ended up putting in the full amount of zest and juice so that the orange notes would be noticeable. In the end (with just one qt of pulp) I jarred 4 half-pints which is what the recipe said would be the final amount. Conclusion: The 2 quarts pulp stated in the recipe must be incorrect.
Highjacking my hubbies computer! Anyway I made the butta today. *I used my overripe pears for the butta and it turned out great. Halved and de-stemmed and seeded cooked down for 30 or so then ran them through the Vitamix. Poured all but 2-3 cups back into the pan. Added 2 small organic oranges (quartered) to vitamix along with 2-3 cups pear ran on high till smooth. Split 2 organic vanilla beans add all back into the simmering pot, added sugar and a large pinch O cinnamon. I cooked till I got the consistency I liked and pressure canned for the longhaul of winter. I ate a jar with a spoon while still warm…. LOL!
I’m not a huge nutmeg fan so tweaked to my taste , used 1/4 tsp cinnamon instead and only 1/8 nutmeg.mine only took 10 min more than directions to cook down / some folks said it took a lot more…. But then I was using very ripe pears. I did not bother to peel the pears, used and apple corer to whip through em and put in the blender before sieve,