My 86 year old father made about 50 pints of pear preserves a few weeks ago. Unfortunately they are like water. What do we need to do, so that they will thicken? Will it ruin them to be cooked more? He only used sugar and pears in his recipe. Is that right, or is there an ingredient that makes it thicken, that he left out????
Please help me salvage his preserves.
Thanks a lot!!!!
The Village Idiot
Hi villageidiot :)
Lucky you that your father is still helping out at his age - that's a lot of preserves!
If he processed them the correct amount of time, they should be ok to eat just as they are. You don't need to add anything to preserve the pears. If you want to thicken the syrup when you open them before eating, just boil the water/sugar syrup with a little extra sugar and pour over the fruit when cooled, just before serving.
Hope this helps!
--CM
Please help me with this as well...Why does this happen??? I added lemons and fresh ginger as usual and sometimes, yesterday, the syrup would not cook down fast enough. I took out all of the fruit and let the liquid cook by itself. The preserves are not as golden as I would have preferred. My fruit was a little riper than usual. Could that have been the problem? thanks for the info...
Thicker liquid
Deep in the how-to's of the canning books the solution to having a thicker liquid in the end is to use less water at the start. This may mean don't add so much water or it might mean draining the fruit before adding it to the pot. It sure saves a lot of time and helps prevent overcooking the food.
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