Pear sauce is basically just applesauce made with pears, and it’s incredibly simple. Pears cook a bit differently than apples, so making pear sauce isn’t exactly the same as making applesauce, and the flavor is well worth the effort!

How Many Pears Do you Need for Pear Sauce?
Believe it or not, pears have a lot of juice in their tissues, a good bit more than apples. If you’ve ever bitten into a perfectly ripe pear to feel that sweet juice dribble down your chin, you know just what I mean.
That means they take a good bit longer to cook down into sauce, but you’ll also need more pears per pint of finished sauce. The flavor will be concentrated, which is even better. More pears per jar!

Roughly 2 1/2 pounds of pears. Peeled, cored, and diced they yield about 5 cups, which is just right to make 1 pint of pear sauce.
Best Varieties for Making Pear Sauce
How to Make Pear Sauce

Canning Pear Sauce
Ways to Use Pear Sauce
Preserving Pears

Pear Sauce
A simple, single-ingredient recipe for pear sauce that's perfect for water bath canning.
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 lbs. pears (about 5 or 6 medium-sized pears)
- 1/2 cup water (or apple/pear juice)
Instructions
- Wash, peel, and core the pears and then cut into chunks.
- Add the cut-up pear chunks and 1/2-cup of water to a heavy-bottomed saucepan or a Dutch oven.
- Simmer the pear pieces over medium heat until softened, anywhere from 30-50 minutes.
- Blend the pears and concentrated juice with a stick blender or process using food mill — the pear sauce can be chunky or smooth.
- Carefully ladle the hot pear sauce into a prepared 1-pint jar, leaving 1/2-inch headspace.
- Wipe the jar rim and apply two-piece lids until fingertip-tight; load the jar into the canner and process for 15 minutes (or see chart below).
- Turn off water bath canner and let the pear sauce rest in the hot water for 5 minutes before removing.
- Let the pear sauce cool to room temperature (about 12 hours) and then check the seal of the jar. Store unsealed pear sauce in the refrigerator and use within a week. Store sealed pear sauce in a cool, dark place away from direct light — enjoy within 18 months.
Notes
Feel free to increase this recipe to much larger batch size. Just multiply the ingredients by the number of pints you'd like as a yield. I've made this a super small batch on purpose so that you can adjust as necessary. It takes roughly 2 1/2 pounds of fresh pears to make a pint of finished pear sauce. Once prepared, that 2 1/2 pounds is equal to
about 5 cups of peeled, cored, and diced fruit.
If you want a standard 9-pint canner batch, multiply the recipe by 9 and start with about 22 1/2 pounds of fruit. Similarly, for a 7-quart canner batch, you'd need about 35 pounds of fruit. Pears cook down considerably and have a lot of juice. That means you need a lot to start with to make near sauce, but you also get an amazingly sweet, concentrated flavor without added sugar.
Altitude Adjustments
- 0 to 1000 feet in elevation - 15 minutes for pints, 20 minutes for quarts
- 1,001 to 3,000 feet in elevation - 20 minutes for pints, 25 minutes for quarts
- 3,001 to 6,000 feet in elevation - 20 minutes for pints, 30 minutes for quarts
- Above 6,001 feet in elevation - 25 minutes for pints, 35 minutes for quarts
Fall Canning Recipes
Putting up more than just pears this season?
Fall Food Preservation
There’s more to preserving than home canning…
- How to Make Apple Cider Vinegar
- Beginners Guide to Root Cellaring (Without a Root Cellar!)
- How to Preserve a Whole Pig without Refrigeration
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