Working our way through 80 pounds of pears is time consuming. We decided to process one canner load (9 pints) of pear quarters in medium syrup. Hot packing cut fruit is not my favorite of canning chores. I would much rather make jam or sauce.
It is the actual packing of the jar with the very hot very soft fruit that makes this process so tedious. The fruit is so soft that it makes placing the piece just right in the jar difficult. It seems each time I place a piece of fruit in the jar it turns the wrong way as soon as it slips off the spoon. When I try to correct its placement, I just squish or break the fruit. It is so much easier to place cold firm fruit pieces the correct way into the jar.
But raw pack does not work with pears. I know. I have tried... more than once. No success. While the jars look prettier before going into the water bath, they are unacceptable coming out. There is liquid loss and lots of sputtering out of syrup under the lid when removing from the water bath. The jars do seal, but then I worry about the quality of the seal with the syrup layer now between the jar rim and lid.
At the end of the day when I am exhausted from the days chores I would appreciate a nice canning shortcut. As much as I would love to be lazy and raw pack my fruit, it just is not worth it.
I followed the instructions in the Ball Blue Book for canning pears.
How do you can your pears and other fruit? Hot or raw?
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