I made another batch of jam jars, this time preserving red pears. As incredible as it may sound, this is the first time I see this variety of pears, though I'm not sure what it is. But they were very tasty and the jam came out quite sweet.
- 1.5 kg of cleaned cut pears
- 750 g of sugar (next time I would add less, these pears were really sweet)
- 1 teaspoon of citric acid
- 3 tablespoons of cognac
As you may have noticed, I prefer not to use pectin as a jellying agent, as I don't like the taste it gives to the preserves. However, I wouldn't shy from using pectin for preserving soft and delicate fruit such as berries or figs, as with pectin you can only boil the fruit for a few minutes and prevent them from becoming too squashy.
My preparation procedures were as usual - I cleaned and cut the pears, covered them with sugar and left them in the fridge for the night. On the following day I brought the fruit to boil for a few minutes and left it to cool on the hot plate for a few hours. Then I smashed the pears a little with a hand blender and cooked them at moderate temperature for about an hour until the jam thickened. Then I added a teaspoon of citric acid and cooked for 3 more minutes. Just before I took the pan off the plate I added three tablespoons of Greek cognac, stirred and poured the jam into the clean, dry jars. I don't know if it's the pears or the cognac, but this is the best jam I've made so far! The jars were actually four but to my surprise, when I entered the kitchen this morning to take a few shots of the jam, I found the fourth jar almost empty :)))
Looks yummy. Do you just ladle the preserves into the jar and close the lid? Or does one require special equipment to seal those hats so it'll have shelf life?
ReplyDeleteJust close the lids and turn upside down until the jam cools. That's enough for at least a year of shelf life.
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