Pear preserves You will need a pot with a thick bottom so that the preserves won’t be as likely to stick as they thicken. I make a large batch each time so I use a large pot. Peel the pears and remove the fruit in sections from the core. Slice the sections really thin. I use to do that by hand but now I run them through the slicing blade on my food processor. It is much faster and works well. Measure the pulp and put it in a stainless steel pot. Add 1 part sugar for each 2 parts fruit. I use a 3 quart bowl. If I have 2 bowls of fruit, I add 1 bowl of sugar. Add a little lemon juice. For 2 bowls fruit – 1 bowl sugar I use the juice from 1 lemon. I add the lemon peel until it’s through cooking then remove the peel and eat the lemon from it. It is a treat. If I don’t have a fresh lemon, I add about 3 tablespoons of bottled lemon juice. Stir well and let it sit overnight. Pour the mixture into the thick bottom pot. Place over medium heat until it is hot. Then turn the heat up to medium high. I add a dab of butter then so that it won’t foam as it cooks. Keep it at a slow boil until the liquid thickens to about the consistency of syrup. How long that takes depends on how much juice is in the pears. It will probably be about 2 hours. While the preserves are cooking, boil the jars for five minutes to sterilize them. Remove them from the water but leave the hot water in the pot. When the preserves are cooked, put the jars in the sink with about an inch of hot water. This will keep the boiling preserves from breaking the jars. Pour the preserves into the jars. Wipe the top of the jar with a clean damp cloth. Place a lid on the jar then a jar ring. Hand tighten and place in the pot of boiling water. Have the water at least ½ inch above the top of the jars. Boil for 5 minutes. Remove and place on a towel. Don’t touch them until the next morning. Press the center of the lid to make sure it is sealed. If it is not sealed, refrigerate and eat soon. If it is sealed, it can be stored for years as long as the lid is not rusted. You will need one of these to handle the hot jars: