Peachy Pear Jam
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This is one of my favorite recipes from childhood, and the very first thing I canned on my own! It’s still the one thing I have to can every year. The bright summery taste of fresh peaches and fresh pears is amazing on toast, bagels, or biscuits on a snowy January morning (and all year round!). It is also awesome on vanilla ice cream and for a glaze on chicken and pork. The recipe is originally from my mom’s Ball Blue Book from the 1970s .
Peachy Pear Jam
makes about 60 oz
ingredients:
- 2 cups mashed fresh peaches (about 5 good-sized peaches)
- 2 cups mashed fresh pears (about 5 good-sized pears)
- 6 1/2 cups sugar
- 1/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice (about 2 lemons)
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 1 pouch liquid pectin
Preparing your jars
First, sterilize your canning jars. This recipe will make about 60 ounces of jam. To sterilize jars, wash them in hot, soapy water. Then place your jars in your water bath canner, completely covered with water. Bring to a full boil. Once the water begins boiling, cover and let the jars boil for 15 minutes. Remove jars and place inverted on a towel until ready to use.
Place your canning lids in a small pot and let simmer for at least 10 minutes to activate the seal while you are working.
Making the Jam
1) Peel, cut, & mash the peaches & pears. Lightly strain to remove some of the excess juice
2) Combine mashed fruit, sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon, & nutmeg in a large pot. Place over high heat and bring to a full, rolling boil
3) Boil hard for 1 minute, stirring constantly
4) Remove from heat & stir in pectin. If needed skim any cloudy foam that floats to the top.
5) Ladle into sterilized hot jars to within 1/8 inch of rim. Wipe rim, adjust lids, & tighten ring.
6) Process in boiling water bath for 5 minutes (water should be at least 1 inch over the tops of the jars).
7) Let your jam set up overnight, and check the lids are sealed properly. Enjoy!
Wow that was perfect timing! I’ve got pairs that are almost right here and peaches that I just froze and saw the canning in the next week or two. We’ll try that! Thanks for posting it
I have powder pectin. Can I just add that to the fruit mixture and sugar after it came to a rolling boil?
Yes that would work with a couple modifications – For one pouch of liquid pectin use 2 Tablespoons of powder pectin and you should add the powder pectin to the mashed fruit before boiling
My jam is very soft. It is thick but almost runny. Is it okay to eat?
Being runny doesn’t in itself mean the jam is bad. Your fruit likely just had too much juice in it. I’ve also found that some brands of pectin firm it up more and some leave it softer.
Peach and pear together work because the pear has more pectin than the peach, so the two cover for each other in a way a single fruit would not. That is also why this jam sets without needing the amount of sugar most peach jam recipes ask for, and it is worth understanding rather than just following. Stone fruit goes soft fast when it is cooking so the order of adding things matters, the pears go in first because they take longer. I got better results once I stopped pushing the fruit around once it started to cook, it breaks up faster than you think. If you want a more dependable set across fruit that varies in ripeness from year to year, a little gellan gum helps and the flavour of the fruit still comes through on its own.