Tonight I had my first official canning class! I held a private lesson with my good friend, Captain Aidian, who has quite the prolific pear tree. I packed up my canning gear (and the kids) and headed over to his kitchen.
Just look at these gorgeous pears!
I spent some time with him explaining the principals of canning, boiling water vs. pressure canning, and the difference between high and low acids foods. We also went over the equipment and tools, and what he would be needing to get started canning on his own.
Aidian decided that he did not want to peel the pears, which was totally fine. I had actually been reading a lot about this rustic method of canning pears, and it is much faster! We washed the jars and got the canning pot heating up, then got to work on those beautiful pears.
We prepared a light syrup and set it to boil with a few cinnamon sticks, star anise, cardamon pods and cloves. Then, we heated the pears in the syrup and hot packed them in the jars, pouring the delicious syrup over the pears to leave a 1/2 inch headspace. We are right at 3,000 feet elevation, so we processed the quarts for 30 minutes.
Look at this guy, what a pro! Now that he has the basic skills, I’m sure his family will be enjoying wonderful canned fruits (and smoked salmon?) all through the winter.
The skin on canned pears turned out beautifully, I’m going to have try this myself sometime. Aidian even had enough extra prepared pears to make his family a lovely fruit crisp for dessert. We had a heaping basket of their own pears, and filled a case of quart jars in just about 3 hours. It was a lovely afternoon, thanks for having me over!
For more information on my canning classes or private canning lessons, click here!