5 gallon bucket of Bartlett pears
1 cup water
1/4 cup lemon juice, more for soaking water
1/2 tsp salt
The pears I used were tree-ripened, so there were many wormy and overripe parts that I had to cut out.
Blanch the pears in small groups for 30 seconds. Place them in a bowl of cold water. Slip the skins off, cut in half, and cut out the core, stem, and any soft or wormy parts. Soak prepared pears in cold water that has a couple tablespoons of lemon juice in it, so pears won’t turn dark.
Note: Once there were enough pears to start cooking, I no longer used the lemon water soaking, I just added the newly prepared pears to the pears that were already cooking.
To start cooking the pears, add 1 cup of water, 2 tbsp lemon juice, and about 6 cups of prepared pears to a large cooking pot. Cook slowly on medium to low, watching it regularly so it doesn’t burn or cook too hard. I had to turn it off at times to catch up with blanching, peeling and cutting up the remainder of the pears.
When all pears are in the cooking pot, it will take another 15 – 20 minutes for them to cook. Since I had so many pears, I added an additional 2 tbsp of lemon juice at this point. I also added 1/2 tsp of salt, as it intensifies the flavor of the pears.
I like pear sauce a bit chunky, so I turned off the heat when they were still in soft chunks. I stirred and mashed a bit so all the bits were small but still present. This could be blended or flavored with various spices at this point. I kept it plain.
With imperfect pears, I ended up with just over a gallon of delicious pear sauce.
2018