Sunday, August 8, 2010

Adventures in Butter Making: Part 2

The Strawberry-Pear Butter is complete and delicious!


Here is how I did it:


  • Peeled, cored, sliced, and pulverized in the food processor 8 pounds of pears.
  • Chopped 9 cups of strawberries.
  • Cooked the pears and strawberries in my Crockpot w 2 1/2 cups of water on high for 4 hours, stirring once.
  • Strained out the large bits of strawberries. (just most of them, didn't worry too much about getting them all out)
  • Measured how many cups of cooked fruit were left (I had 10 cups).
  • Measured and stirred in 1 1/2 cups of sugar for every 2 cups of fruit. (7 1/2 cups for me)
  • Cooked in Crockpot on Low for 10 hours (stirring occasionally) (it probably didn't need to cook that long, but I went to bed.)
  • Stir the mixture really really well and put a small amount on a plate to make sure it stays together.  This is how you know it is done.
  • Carefully fill canning jars and seal, use your favorite canning method (I used a water bath), label and enjoy!
I ended up with about 10 cups of fruit butter.  We already tested it out on whole wheat English muffins, sorry no pictures - we ate them up too fast!

Two websites I found helpful:

Sweet Preservation
Canning Basics

The original recipe for the butter came from the book Clearly Delicious compliments of my local library.

Saturday, August 7, 2010

Adventures in Butter Making: Part 1


Our dear old pear tree has happily supplied us with many many pears this year.  This is my first attempt to make use of them.  Everything is prepped and now cooking away for a double batch of Strawberry-Pear Butter.  I purchased cute little jelly jars and am hoping to fill at least 12 full of delicious butter to enjoy all winter long.









Now we wait.
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