The summer of 2012 I canned what seemed like a truck load of pears. I ate canned pears. My kids ate canned pears. I made cakes and muffins and cobblers using pears. They were delicious.
Then sometime within the past year the pears turned soft in the jars. They were still good. The seals on the lids were intact. But the fruit had softened enough so I wasn't overjoyed with the texture. I like a bit more firmness in canned pears.
So what do you do with 16 pints of soft pears. I am too frugal (read cheap) to just toss them out. I thought about making pear butter, but my supply of canning jars is dwindling and I still have several foods left to can before winter sets in, so I kept looking for ideas. Then I found a couple of videos showing how to make fruit rollups from canned fruit. I have 5 fruit rollup inserts for my dehydrator trays and even though I had never made rollups before, I decided to give it a go.
I opened all the jars and drained off the liquid. I had 4 pints of canned peaches left that had been canned about the same time as the pears, so I drained them as well, rinsing the fruit with water to wash off most of the sugar/water syrup they had been canned in, making them less sticky. I ran the fruit through my blender to make a puree and filled 5 trays. Each tray holds two cups of fruit puree. I still have two quarts of puree in the fridge to dehydrate tomorrow.
The fruit is drying nicely, but it is taking longer to dehydrate than expected. I suppose that may be due to the high humidity in the air right now. I will just turn the temperature down from 130 degrees to 100 degrees and let the fruit dry overnight. The plan is to wrap the dried fruit rollups in waxed paper. I will save out a few pieces for snacking and freeze the rest. I think the pear rollups will make a nice evening snack for me or a tasty, healthy treat for the Grands.
I read somewhere that about 40 % of the food in the US is wasted. I grew up in a frugal family. We wasted very little. We couldn't afford to just toss out leftovers. I will admit that once in a while a container of food will get shoved to the back of my fridge where it winds up looking like a science experiment run amok, but I try really hard to use up everything I cook. I'm glad I was able to find a good use for those pears. And there is the added bonus of having another 20 empty pint jars now to fill with something else. I'm thinking a big pot of chili might be good.
The Last Gasps...
5 hours ago
I don't mind soft pears. But, your pears may have been too soft for me, too. Good for you in finding a way to salvage them and get jars, too. I was thinking some sort of fruit dessert might be a good fix. You fruit rollups sound like a better idea.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Linda...I thought about other ways to use them up, but I kind of wanted the shelf space and empty jars, so pear rollups seemed the best (and easiest) route to go to deal with them all at one time. There is a really good aroma coming from the dehydrator. Hope the rollups taste as good as they smell!
ReplyDeleteWhat about "pear bread?" I've never heard of it, but it might work! lol
ReplyDeleteGorges...Good suggestion. A person could probably use pear puree in nearly recipe calling for applesauce. I might have to make a pear cake later today. :)
ReplyDeleteHave you ever canned rhubarb? My grandmother made rhubarb relish. Great stuff.
ReplyDeleteBW...When I lived on a farm and grew rhubarb I canned lots of it. We used it mostly in baked goods. Now that I am in the city I have to buy rhubarb at the Farmer's Market and it is sort of spendy. Not long ago I got strawberries to preserve. And some rhubarb that I combined with some of the berries for what we call strawberry-rhubarb sauce. It is really good over ice cream or cake. Made some strawberry-rhubarb jam, too. I've never heard of rhubarb relish. Do you know how your grandmother made it? Sounds like something I would like to try.
ReplyDeleteYou probably have already thought of the following tricks for fruit leathers, but I made lots of mistakes in my dehydrating, and I would like to share my experiences. I would recommend using plastic wrap rather than wax paper because my fruit leathers and tomato leather stick more to the wax paper. Additionally, we have accidentally chewed the paper. I lay the leather on the plastic wrap and then roll to allow plastic between each layer to prevent a sticky clump resulting. If the leather is really wide, I will cut in half or in thirds to resemble the more familiar shape found in a grocery store box which my children had eaten previously. When I make leathers now, I make several long, narrow rectangles on the dehydrating sheet rather than a large, wide rectangle. I also do individual ovals sometimes which I wrap individually in plastic wrap as well.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoy reading your blog.
Anon...Thanks for the tips. I am out of plastic wrap at the moment which is why I thought of alternatives, but I didn't know there might be a problem using waxed paper. I do have both parchment paper and freezer paper on hand so I will try wrapping the pear leathers in those to see which one works the best. I like your idea of making ovals and will try that the next time I make fruit leather. Thanks for stopping by.
ReplyDelete