How to Can Pears the EASY Way (2024)

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Learn how to can pears the easy way. With my simple trick you’ll be able to peel your pears with ease and have delicious home-canned food to line your pantry shelves all year long.

Why I Love Canning Pears

This time of year is super busy with all of our canning going on. We depend upon our jars of home-canned goodness to feed us during the winter months when fresh fruit isn’t just growing on the bush right outside our door.

However, that can make finding the time to fit in all the canning difficult. So when I see a trick that can speed things up, you can bet I’ll share it with you. This old-fashioned no-knife peeling tip is one of my favorites.

Azure Standard

This video is sponsored byAzure Standard, a great place to build up your bulk supplies and long-term food storage.

I like to buy my sugar and cinnamon sticks in bulk, so whenever it’s canning season I know my supply will be full.

Azure has a special promotion for first-time customers through October 30, 2022. When you purchase $50 or more, you can get 10% off your order with mycoupon code“MKN10”.

What Is The Best Way to Preserve Pears?

The best way to preserve pears is to can them in your own kitchen. See below for the best way to do all three of the canning process steps.

Do I Need to Hot Pack Pears?

You may be wondering if you need to cook pears before canning. This is considered hot-packing pears, when you boil them slightly before adding them to your canning jars.

You do not need to cook pears before canning, you can use a raw-pack method, but here’s why I recommend using a hot pack method. Hot packing pears will give you the best quality end product, but it is unnecessary unless you’re only canning with water, not sugar.

I don’t know about you, but I want the best-tasting food at the end, so taking the time to do a hot pack and have delicious home-canned pears is worth it.

3 Reasons to Hot Pack Pears:

1. It helps push the oxygen out of the fruit.
2. This, in turn, helps you pack more fruit in your jars.
3. It helps prevent siphoning (which is liquid loss from jars while in the canner).

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.

I prefer to use a light syrup, but if you want, canning pears can be done with honey instead of sugar.

Syrup Ratios

• Light Syrup – For light syrup, combine 5 3/4 cup water and 1 1/2 cups sugar.
• Medium Syrup – For medium syrup, combine 5 1/4 cups water and 2 1/4 cups sugar.
• Heavy Syrup – For heavy syrup, combine 5 cups water and 3 1/4 cups sugar.

Pro Tip: Because it’s safe to can pears with no sugar at all, you can adjust these ratios to your preference. In the video, you’ll notice I make a double batch of syrup, but my ratios aren’t exact. That’s OK!

Supplies Needed

• Water Bath or Steam Canner – I love my steam canner because it’s much easier to operate, and I don’t need to cover my jars with water. You can also use a water bath canner or simply a pot large enough to cover your jars with about one inch of water. I used my pressure canner as a water bath canner when doing quarts because it’s taller than my regular canner. You just use a standard tight-fitting lid and the rack instead of the pressure canning lid.
• Ball Home Canning Utensil Kit– This canning utensil kit is one of the best investments I’ve ever made for canning supplies. I use the measuring and air bubble remover all the time, and because of the jar lifter, I don’t have any more burnt fingertips. The funnel helps keep me from spilling liquid all over the counter.
• Canning Jars & 2-Part Lids – You can use quart or pint-sized jars, depending on the size of your family. Grab your canning lids from ForJars here (use code “modern10” for 10% off your purchase). Pro Tip: Wide-mouth jars are the easiest to use for packing pears.

Ingredients Needed

• Pears – Depending on their size, you’ll want about 16 medium ripe pears to fill six, one-quart canning jars. Some of the best varieties for canning areBartlett, but any pear will do. If canning Asian pears, be sure to read the pro tip below.
• Bottled Lemon Juice (optional) – You can use lemon juice in your bowl of water to help keep pears from turning brown while peeling the rest. This is purely optional and not necessary to safely can them.
• Sugar – Sugar is optional when canning pears. See syrup ratios above to know how much sugar you’ll need.
• Bulk Non-Irradiated Cinnamon Sticks– Buying cinnamon sticks in bulk will be much cheaper than buying them from the grocery store. I prefer to buy my cinnamon sticks through Azure Standard, but here are some good quality cinnamon sticks from Amazon.

Pro Tip: Asian pears are not acidic enough to can on their own. If you do decide to can this type of pear, add 1 Tablespoon of bottled lemon juice per pint jar or 2 Tablespoons of bottled lemon juice per quart jar to can Asian pears safely.

How to Can Pears at Home

To can your pears at home, there are three main steps.

1. Preparing for canning.
2. Preparing the pears.
3. Canning the pears.

Prepare for Canning

1. Prepare the water bath or steam canner.
   • For water bath canners, fill with water deep enough to cover the jars, place the rack, and begin heating the water.
   • For steam canners, fill to the recommended level and begin heating the water.
2. Wash canning jars in hot soapy water, rinse, and place on a folded towel near the hot syrup and stovetop.
3. Make sure you have clean canning lids ready.

Preparing the Pears

Remember that easy trick on peeling pears that I mentioned? Here it is – you can peel pears the same way you peel tomatoes and peaches by blanching them.

How to Peel Pears (the Easy Way)

This is my favorite old-fashioned tip for peeling pears. I found this method in a really old 1920s book, and it’s been my favorite method ever since.

1. To blanche pears, take a big pot of boiling water and submerge your washed, ripe pears in a single layer for 15 to 30 seconds.
2. With a slotted spoon, remove them and place them in a bowl of warm water. Continue until all pears have been blanched.
3. Rub off the peel of each pear. Seriously, the skin slides right off. There is no knife or peeler needed.
   Pro Tip: If part of the pear is difficult to peel, it may not have been submerged in the boiling water. Just take the back of a spoon and scrape it off.
4. Cut the peeled pear in half. This is the only time you’ll need your knife.
5. Scoop seeds and core out with a spoon.
6. Place cored pear halves back into the bowl of water. Continue until all pears are cored and halved.

Pro Tip: To keep pears from turning brown, add 1/4 cup of bottled lemon juice into the bowl of warm water. Once pears are peeled, use this bowl to store them until you’re ready for the next step.

Canning the Pears

In the video, I’m showing how to can in a steam canner. However, the directions below will be for a water bath canner. Refer to the video if you’re using a steam canner.

1. Make syrup by combining water and sugar in a large pot (see syrup options in “Syrup Ratios” above).
2. Heat over medium-low and stir until almost a boil and sugar is dissolved.
3. Place the pears into the hot syrup in a single layer and let them heat through for about 5 minutes.
4. Fill your jar with two four-inch cinnamon sticks.
5. Fill your jar with the hot pears using a slotted spoon (about 6-8 pear halves per quart jar). Leave 1/2-inch headspace. Pro Tip: If you put the pear halves face down, you can get more pears into the jar.
6. Pour the hot syrup over the pears to 1/2-inch headspace using a ladle and canning funnel.
7. Remove air bubbles with the bubble-remover tool and double-check your headspace, adding more syrup if needed.
8. Wipe the rim of the jar with a clean towel and place the lid and band on.
9. Tighten the lid to fingertip tight and place the jar in the water bath canner.
10. Add more water to the water bath canner, ensuring the water’s surface is at least 1 to 2 inches over the top of the jars. Bring to a hard boil.
11. Start the processing time after the water has reached a full boil and process 20 minutes for pints and 25 minutes for quarts.
    Pro Tip: If you’re 1,000 feet above sea level, increase processing time by 5 minutes.
12. When the jars have been processed, turn off the heat. Leave the lid on for 5 minutes.
13. Remove the canner lid; leave the jars in the canner for an additional 5 minutes.
14. Remove jars onto a folded towel in a draft-free area and let cool for 24 hours.

Did you make this recipe? If so, please leave a star rating in the recipe card below. Then take a photo and tag me on social media @melissaknorris so I can see.

Be sure to check out my new canning book, Everything Worth Preserving, for all the ways you can safely can pears at home.

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