Pear brandy jam
I received a little jar of pear brandy jam last summer from a friend of my dad. It was delicious so I was really sad when I couldn't find the store nor the company that had distributed it. I search here and there on the internet and I came across this recipe on Chloe's Blog from Big Mill.
My take away from this recipe, read the whole post. I only looked at the ingredients and purchased what was necessary. Little did I know that it needed to sit for 4 hours after you cut up all the fruit and then it cooked for another 3 hours. It was only by sheer luck that we weren't canning at 10pm. I rushed the soaking part and it passed the gel test well before the end of the cook time. With four adults working, we cranked out 13 half pints of pear brandy jam and then 10 half pints of marmelade my mom was making in record time.
8-10 half-pint canning jars with lids and rings - have more cleaned and ready in case you need them. We did.
10-12 pounds hard pears, about 16 cups of cut up fruit (I used Bosch but another variety is Kieffer)
Fruit Fresh or lemon juice
8 cups sugar (and as a note, I bet I could cut down to 7 cups next time, they are super sweet)
3 lemons
1/2 cup brandy
Peel and core the pears cutting into 1/2 inch pieces
Put them in a very large bowl with water and either Fruit Fresh or lemon juice to stop them from turning color
Wash the lemons and slice into thin pieces being careful to remove the seeds and then cut into quarters or sixths
In a large cooking pot, layer the pears, lemon slices and sugar
Continue until all the pears, lemon and sugar are used.
Allow to sit four hours - there will be plenty of liquid without having to add water
Stir gently and bring to a slow boil
Lower heat and continue to boil gently for an hour
Add the brandy and cook 1-2 hours more or until the pears are tender and golden and translucent
Ladle the pears and their syrup into the jars and process in a hot water bath
Again, adjust for your altitude but we processed for 25 minutes
My take away from this recipe, read the whole post. I only looked at the ingredients and purchased what was necessary. Little did I know that it needed to sit for 4 hours after you cut up all the fruit and then it cooked for another 3 hours. It was only by sheer luck that we weren't canning at 10pm. I rushed the soaking part and it passed the gel test well before the end of the cook time. With four adults working, we cranked out 13 half pints of pear brandy jam and then 10 half pints of marmelade my mom was making in record time.
8-10 half-pint canning jars with lids and rings - have more cleaned and ready in case you need them. We did.
10-12 pounds hard pears, about 16 cups of cut up fruit (I used Bosch but another variety is Kieffer)
Fruit Fresh or lemon juice
8 cups sugar (and as a note, I bet I could cut down to 7 cups next time, they are super sweet)
3 lemons
1/2 cup brandy
Peel and core the pears cutting into 1/2 inch pieces
Put them in a very large bowl with water and either Fruit Fresh or lemon juice to stop them from turning color
Wash the lemons and slice into thin pieces being careful to remove the seeds and then cut into quarters or sixths
In a large cooking pot, layer the pears, lemon slices and sugar
Continue until all the pears, lemon and sugar are used.
Allow to sit four hours - there will be plenty of liquid without having to add water
Stir gently and bring to a slow boil
Lower heat and continue to boil gently for an hour
Add the brandy and cook 1-2 hours more or until the pears are tender and golden and translucent
Ladle the pears and their syrup into the jars and process in a hot water bath
Again, adjust for your altitude but we processed for 25 minutes
10/2022 update-
We used Kieffer pears this time from a local farm through our buying club. Added 3 of the juiciest lemons I've ever seen and used 6 3/4 cups of sugar. Since we had another sick person in the house, I prepared the fruit and cooked it at my house and took the non sick person with me to fill jars and process at Pops and Bijou's house.
Notes from this time. I did let the fruit soak for a long time. After 3 1/2 hours. the level of the liquid was almost to the bottom of the fruit before I started cooking. It took another 2 3/4 hours to get to the sheeting test. It didn't pass the full sheet test but it was close enough. We took the jam over and had it all put into jars quickly, mostly due to many experienced hands. All the jars had sealed by the end of the evening. The color and flavor are just stunning.
Comments
Post a Comment