Some folks like a little fruit with their sugar. I’m not one of them.
I mean if I’m going to the trouble of canning good food for my family, I’d rather it be good food, not half fruit, half refined sugar, right?
I recently shared how I can cherries with honey and how I can apple slices, and today I’m super excited that my friend, and a member of The Prairie Homestead Team, Michelle Visser, agreed to share her amazing recipe for Canning Pears in Maple Syrup. Michelle is also the owner of SoulyRested.com and the author of the new delicious book I’m in love with, Sweet Maple. (affiliate link).
If you’re over in my Homestead & Heritage Cooking facebook group, you already know Michelle, my Community Manager and sidekick in there. (If you’re not in my facebook group and you love true heritage cooking and want more encouragement in that area, hop over and join right here. ) Or if you met us at the Christmas in July Workshops at Lehmans this year, you met Michelle tag-teaming with me out in Ohio. (btw, if you haven’t heard of the mega homestead superstore, you should check out Lehmans right here.)
If you are a canning newbie, I just revamped my Canning Made Easy course and it’s ready for YOU! I’ll walk you through each step of the process (safety is my #1 priority!), so you can finally learn to can confidently, without the stress. CLICK HERE to have a look at the course and ALL the bonuses that come with it.
Meet my friend, the maple queen.
But enough about all that, you wanted to know about canning pears in maple syrup. So without further ado, my friend, the Maple Queen …
Thanks, Jill. But I’m not too sure about being the queen of anything.
Well, unless sometimes royally messing up counts. But, seriously, I’m excited to share this recipe today.
Growing and preserving my own food has always been important to me. My daddy taught me, and his granddaddy taught him, so you could say a love of real food is in my blood. But canning pears in maple syrup was something I had to figure out how to do on my own, after we moved to our little New England sugarbush.
Once we learned how to tap into our own source of sweet sugary goodness flowing through our trees, I was using maple syrup in every way I could think of in our kitchen–a theme that permeates my new book, which btw is definitely NOT just for sugarmakers. (Take a peek inside Sweet Maple and see what folks are saying about it right here. Then make sure to comment below for a chance to win your own copy!)
So I’m excited to share my recipe for canning pears in maple syrup with y’all today!
Honestly, it’s no different than any fruit canning, except instead of a simple syrup (which is usually loaded with refined sugar), you cover the pears in hot, all-natural maple syrup. Read on for the full scoop…
btw, if you want to grow your own pear trees, or any other heritage-cooking-related foods, you’ll love this selection over at Nature Hills that they’ve pulled together just for The Prairie Homestead readers.
Canning Pears in Maple Syrup
Before we dive in, I should point out two things, in case you don’t see yourself as “a canner”:
- Avoid stressing over the equipment. Yes, you do need a few simple things, but I’ll outline everything below, and they’re pretty inexpensive.
- Enjoy the fact that there are numerous ways to personalize this recipe for canning pears in maple syrup. You can make it perfect for your family. Score!
In fact, it’s not so much a recipe as a fantastic idea.
As for the equipment, in addition to a few wide-mouth mason jars, you’ll need:
- A water bath canner
- A canning rack–if your canner didn’t come with one
- A canning tool set (affiliate)–or you can get these all separately, if you have some but not all of them
(Jill has also pulled together a nice collection of items she uses for preserving food right here.)
Preparing your pears
Most folks will peal the pears, core them, and slice them. I take the super easy way. I simply wash them, cut them in half, and scoop out the small seeds. Mind you, they are a grainy texture because I don’t peel them, but we don’t mind. If, on the other hand, you want smooth canned pears, take a few minutes to peel them before canning. Of course you wanna use organic pears, but especially if you decide to take the lazy way out.
While you’re preparing your pears, you can pour your maple syrup in a pan on the stove, on low heat, to get it slowly warming up.
After cutting them, allow your pears to soak for 2-3 minutes in a lemon juice bath. This helps to prevent discoloration. I use a 1:30 mix of lemon to water, so yeah, very little lemon juice, but it does the trick of keeping the pears from turning brown.
Packing your pears
Pack the pears into hot, sterilized jars. (I try to time it right so my jars, getting sanitized in the dishwasher, are done at the same time I’m ready for this step.)
btw, if you need jars, you can pick them up at a thrift store or yard sale (just check them closely for hairline cracks), or I’ve found great prices on canning jars at Lehmans as well as mason jars like these over on Amazon. (affiliate link)
You can also try Jill’s favorite lids for canning, learn more about FOR JARS lids here: http://theprairiehomestead.com/forjars (use code PURPOSE10 for 10% off)
Cover your pears with hot syrup, leaving 1/2-inch headspace. Wipe rims and place a hot canning lid (placed in hot water on the stove for a few minutes) on each jar. And you can also heat your fruit in the syrup on the stove at this stage, which would then be hot packing; I’d much rather pack the pears directly in the jars, unheated.
Many people prefer to hot pack, but there are really only 2 advantages:
- If you hot pack, your pears won’t shrink, and
- If you hot pack, you pears won’t float to the top of your jar.
I personally don’t mind that my pears shrink a bit, or that they don’t stay suspended nicely throughout the syrup. For me, the ease of cold packing outweighs all else. Plus, when I cold pack them, I wind up with firmer pears. If you prefer to hot pack yours, simply place your pears in the hot syrup on the stove for a few minutes before bottling.
Processing your pears
Process in a boiling water canner for 25 minutes for pint jars and 30 minutes for quart jars.
Keep in mind that you will need to add 1 minute additional processing time for every 1000 feet above sea level.
Partaking of your pears
No, I don’t usually walk around talking about “partaking of my pears,” but I couldn’t resist the alliteration I have going on there… see all the “p”s? Prepare, Pack, Process, and Partake. Sorry, my English-Nerd side is showing…
But, seriously, this part is the truly beautiful part of this whole idea of canning pears in maple syrup…
Are you ready for this?
The pear juices infuse into your syrup and create sweet pear-flavored maple syrup. After you’ve enjoyed eating the delicious pears, the syrup has new life. Not one drop was wasted. Instead, every bit of your maple syrup can be used. It will bring new layers of joy to pancakes and ice cream and transform something as seemingly simple as a cup of hot tea or ice cold lemonade to utterly divine. Cue the harp. Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating just a tiny bit, but this pear-infused maple syrup is pretty heavenly in my book.
A Few Tips for Canning Pears in Maple Syrup
- Don’t even think about trying this with imitation syrup. Only the real stuff will do. I love this all-natural maple syrup.
- Feel free to water down your maple syrup to any amount of sweetness you would like for canning your pears, using any option from water with only a hint of maple syrup to 100% syrup. But if you’re considering doing this because you think canning pears in maple syrup is wasting your valuable syrup, keep reading.
- Be sure to keep (and use!) every drop of your maple syrup after you’ve enjoyed eating your canned pears.
- If you’d like a warm, thick maple pear sauce for an amazing ice cream sundae (ummm, who wouldn’t?), boil your pear maple syrup to a corn syrup consistency and slather it over on your vanilla ice cream. (Just stop and imagine how good this is.)
- Enjoy your pear maple syrup as a delicious glaze on pork chops and ham steaks.
- For extra oomph in a meat glaze, boil your maple syrup down a little and add some grated ginger as you boil. This will thicken up your meat glaze while adding a delicious zing.
Canning Pears in Maple Syrup
Ingredients
- Firm, ripe, washed pears (about 2 pounds fills one quart jar)
- Lemon juice and water for presoaking (optional)
- Maple syrup (enough to fill jars after pears are packed in)
Instructions
- Cut pairs in half and scoop out the small seeds.
- Soak your pairs for 2-3 minutes in a lemon water bath. (optional)
- Pack the pears into hot, sterilized jars.
- Cover pears with hot syrup, leaving 1/2-inch headspace.
- Wipe rims and place a hot canning lid on each jar.
- Process in a boiling water canner for 25 minutes for pint jars and 30 minutes for quart jars. (Add 1 minute additional processing time for every 1000 feet above sea level.)
Other Home Canned Recipes & Tutorials You’ll Love
- Canning Made Easy: A step-by-step canning process walkthrough– perfect for beginners or nervous canners!
- Roasted Poblano Salsa
- Honey Canned Cinnamon Peaches
- Honey Canned Cherries
- How to Can Hot Pepper Jelly
*** Maple-Infused GIVEAWAY!***
I am thrilled to be giving away a 2-part, maple-infused treat to one lucky winner. Along with Michelle’s brand-new, just-released book, Sweet Maple, the winner will also receive full access to Michelle’s delicious mini crash course–Making Maple Sugar. (Because one can never have too much all-natural delicious sweetener in their life…)
One winner will be chosen randomly in a few weeks and announced right here.
Want to enter to win?
- Take a second to subscribe to Michelle’s Resource Library right here. It’s loaded with printable information you’ll love, but one of my favorites is Michelle’s conversion chart for replacing refined sugar with maple syrup in any recipe!
- Then just leave a comment below telling us why you’d like to win.
Listen to the Old Fashioned On Purpose podcast episode #34 on the topic How & Why to Cook With Maple Syrup HERE.
While that recipe looks delicious I hope no one does this just to avoid sugar.
“Refined sugar” is pure sucrose. A sugar syrup used in canning will also contain a little invert sugar from boiling.
Maple syrup is almost entirely sucrose and water with a little invert sugar from boiling it down.
The other ingredients that give it its distinctive flavor are found in trace amounts.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maple_syrup#Nutrition_and_food_characteristics
Using maple syrup instead of white sugar will taste more interesting and will be considerably more expensive but nutritionally nearly identical.
It does provide manganese and a little zinc so I guess if you’re low on manganese…
Thanks for your thoughts, Sobachatina. I’ve been studying the science behind the syrup for years and talked with many experts who have analyzed the properties of syrup. In truth, we still have a lot more studying to do to truly be able to understand all the amazing properties of this all-natural sweetener. But we do know it contains a long list of minerals (not just manganese and zinc, but also calcium, iron, magnesium, potassium, and copper), antioxidants, and polyphenolic compounds. What I find the most amazing is the fact that both tree sap and the syrup we produce from it contain polyphenolic compounds that are found no where else in nature. And, of course, plant phenolics are anti-inflammatory, antioxidants, and even used in the prevention and treatment of cancer. So I’m convinced that science will discover, the more they study the all-natural wonder of maple syrup, that maple, when eaten in moderation, can indeed be beneficial. Yes, it is more costly than refined sugar, which is why our family uses every drop of the pear-infused syrup after we have enjoyed the pears. (oh, so good. 🙂 )
I would love to win because we also make out own syrup …. the Canadian variety ? I am always looking to swap out refined sugar for syrup but I am not always sure how to go about it. “The trees of thevLord are full of sap” Ps 104:16
Oh! I am heading out to buy some pears! I so miss the pears my mom used to can when we were kids, and had a huge pear tree in the yard.
I would love to win this book, as I am always trying to find ways to please my sweet tooth without highly refined, white death! I am also interested in learning about the syrup process, so I can try it on our sweet gum tree! It seems a shame not to use it, but I have no clue where to start.
I would love to win so I can teach my children more about natural sugar vs processed white sugar (that is pervasive and in everything!)
As a homeschool mom, I’m always looking for new ways to teach important topics! This book is definitely useful for that! Thanks Monica. 🙂
I am always looking for recipes that use maple syrup rather than refined sugar as the sweetener. It would be helpful to have this book. I’m interested in her story and also the process of extracting maple syrup from trees.
My husband is trying to get refined sugar out of our home. We would love to use more maple syrup and would love the ideas in this book.
It’s an interesting read! And you can’t beat the recipes in Sweet Maple. 🙂 I’m sure you’ll love the book.
Thanks for sharing your recipe! I’d love to try it sometime and learn more about making my own maple add well!
It’s truly delicious! Let me know if you give it a try!
We just moved into a house with at least 15 maple trees, so I need all the help I can get. This book would be very helpful.
Congrats Toni! You are our winner! Email sent with more info. 🙂
Love using maple syrup!
Meeeee toooooo 😉
Love using maple syrup!
Would love to win … I m in the learning process and trying to read up on everything I can and get started. As we will be moving to a farm with in the next 5 years and I am preparing and learning the best way to preserve and use as much natural and homemade as possible.
How exciting! I wonder if you new farm will have some tappable trees!? 🙂
I love finding ideas for using alternatives to sugar. We are working on reducing our sugar consumption, but still want some sweet things we can enjoy with less guilt.
I am excited to think I can make canned pears this method instead of with all of the sugar watwer that just gets tossed. Pear infused maple syrup sauce sounds divine!
I am learning so much, from both Jill and Michelle, and I am having so much fun, learning to go back to the basics! I look forward to what is to come!
That looks amazing! My family has been eating mostly no refined sugar and would love to learn how to sweeten with just maple syrup. The pear recipe looks great to! (cool that you can use the syrup also!)
I truly love sweetening most things in my kitchen with maple. (And yes, pear-infused syrup is a-mah-zing!)
Maple syrup gives such a wonderful, autumn-taste to everything! Even the pear-water when canning pears is delicious; pear-infused maple syrup must be amazing!
Yes! They are really good. The flavor of maple syrup is wonderful, isn’t it?
I am the oldest of 8 children and the only one that really bottles as much as possible each year for our use and that of our children and theirs. I love trying at least one new canning recipe each year and the pears in maple syrup sounds enticing! Wonder how peaches would be??
Hmm peaches in maple syrup sound really good! If you try that, please let us know how they come out! 🙂
We use maple syrup in place of sugar whenever we are able to. The flavor of maple syrup is my favorite! We’d love to win that book!
Isn’t maple just the best flavor? 🙂
This book looks like a great resource. I love how knowledgeable Michelle is about maple syrup.
I think I’m going to have to try this pear recipe. We have lot of pears that were given to us… =)
Wouldn’t you think that a 77-year-old country-living-farm-raised-homesteading type lady should know all this stuff by now? So I’m asking myself: “why have I never tried this”? Thankfully it’s pear season here, so it’s never too late!
Love maple syrup and would certainly enjoy your maple-infused GIVEAWAY. Thanks for offering such a wonderful gift for the fortunate recipient.
It’s never too late! Plus, life would probably get boring if we never had anything else to learn 🙂 Maple syrup is always a win, so I’m glad you’re loving using maple lately. 🙂
I’ve got a bunch of pears from my trees just waiting to be processed and this looks a.maz.ing! I’ve also been hunting for a big leaf maple tree to tap (I’m in Washington) so learning to make homemade from scratch would be awesome.
Yay! We’re all for pears and maple syrup over here! 😉
We just boiled our first batch of maple syrup this spring ! I loved everything about it ! This recipe sounds amazing ! I have not done any canning yet but am super intrigued!
Yay for making your own maple syrup! That’s awesome! 🙂
I have become much more interested in alternate sugar sources. Honey, Maple Syrup, Hickory Syrup. It is all so fascinating to read about and really makes me stop and think about different options and the flavor they bring. Several decades ago I had the opportunity to travel to Vermont with a friend and watched his Aunt process maple syrup. What a hot job that was….but by seeing those steps, I think it makes us appreciate where our food comes from, and what it takes to grow and transform our food. I would love a copy of your book and access to your resource library
Born and raised in NC, I’m not sure I’ve ever had real maple syrup. However I’d like to try some and learn more so that I can teach my children that there are other things besides white sugar and honey.
Honey is great too (I’m a beekeeper as well as a sugarmaker 🙂 ) but oh my word someone needs to get you some maple syrup!!! There’s nothing else like it.
I love maple syrup and would love to find more ways to use it in our home!
First of all, thank you for having this giveaway. Although I have purchased Sweet Maple and am anxiously awaiting its arrival, I would love to win another copy for my son. We are planning on purchasing a homestead together in about 5 years and maple syrup is one of the resources he wants to learn to harvest for the future. He has a garden in his yard in Kentucky and has encouraged me to try to grow anything in my apartment in Florida just to get started. We are reading and watching everything we can get our hands on to do with homesteading. Thank you for this blog, the Facebook groups, and the constant encouragement to move forward towards our dream. God bless!
You made my day, just thinking about you and your son jointly working towards this wonderful goal!! I hope you’ve gotten your copy of Sweet Maple by now and are enjoying it!!
I love the option of replacing white sugar with maple syrup. It is nice to be able to use different sweeteners, natural if possible, in a variety of recipes.
I loved the podcast about tapping trees and making (gathering) your own syrups! I am now going through my property and riding down the road noticing the types of trees and wondering which ones might be tappable……I would love to add Michelle’s book to my homesteading library!!!
Yay! That’s so awesome! We love to hear about people starting to tap their own trees! How exciting.
The comment at the top…
Some folks like a little fruit with their sugar. I’m not one of them.
I do feel the same way. As a still somewhat new home canner, all the “books” have you canning with such high amounts of sugar! That stressed me out at first because controlling what was in our food was a top reason for starting homesteading in the first place.
I love finding people who are sharing other refined sugar-free ways to preserve. So thank you for sharing??
Beth @ http://www.theupcycledfamily.com
We’re so glad you enjoyed this post!
This recipe looks delicious and I plan to try it!
I am newer to canning and tapping my sole maple tree in my yard, and wondering……
Could I boil my maple sap and reduce it slightly, strain it, and use the “maple water” to can the pears in?
My thoughts are that I would have a less sweet result, and it might be a better use of the maple sap as, once boiled down, I yield enough for less than a bottle. LOL!
Thinking perhaps this could work for pickling beets as well?