At the ranch, tons of ripe pear. Want to make jelly./jam. How much of a PITA is it peeling/cleaning? Also anyone got a recipe?

If you have a box of sure-jell, look at the recipe on the paper inside the box. I'd make preserves. They are so good.
As to peeling, I'd see if blanching in boiling water for 3-5 minutes would loosen the skin. Then peeling is super easy.

Excellent post. Just posting to reiterate that you want the ReaLemon juice, not fresh squeezed. ReaLemon is made to a specific acidity and pH, and fresh lemon juice will vary depending on the ripeness of the fruit. Those recipes are calibrated to give a certain acidity and pH that makes the jelly/jam/preserves self stable and prevent mold and other nasty stuff.

Max06 said:

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I roast the pears in the oven in lieu of boiling them. Halve them, put in large roasting pan, little water in the bottom, cover and cook until they're super soft. Mash them, strain to get the seeds and skins/pulp out.

They are very low-acid, so you'll need to add a considerable amount of store bought lemon juice or citric acid to get the pectin to set.

For every 6 cups of juice you'll need 1/2 cup lemon juice or 1 teaspoon citric acid.

You'll have better luck with the powdered pink box SureJell pectin than the liquid Certo.

For pink box SureJell, follow general instructions for cooked jelly +

6c juice
4c sugar
1/2c prepared lemon juice or 1 tsp citric acid

Will make about eight 8oz jars

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Do I add the Juice sugar and lemon juice to what the pink box already calls for?

Also how many pears do you think I'd need?

I just started this last year, but here is what I learned.


Use a LOOONNG pair of tongs to pick tunas. They should twist or pop off easily from the pad. if it's doesn't come off easily and is not a very dark purple/maroon, then it is NOT ripe enough. There should be NO green at the base of the tuna. I usually look to see if the birds/javelinas/hogs are eating them - if they are - they are ripe.

If you will put them in an ice chest with ice pieces, plenty of water and leave enough room to slosh around. You can then drive around for a couple of hours while you fill feeders and it "scrubs" the thorns off and make them easier to handle. I don't peel the tunas, I use strainers to separate out any thorns. The first time I did this, I used a "Dobie" scrubbing sponge to get the thorns off and clean the tunas. That was a lot of work. The last time, I used the ice chest method.

I cut the tunas into quarters length-wise and "blanch" them for 10-15 minutes in a tamale pot with just enough water to cover. I recover all the juice and run it through a regular kitchen strainer and a reusable coffee filter/strainer stacked on top of one another. You may have to rinse the coffee filter several times as it gets clogged fairly quickly.



I put the tunas in my antique sausage stuffer that has a punched strainer basket that fits inside the stuffer with it's own smaller plate to match the inside diameter of the basket. I then press the remaining liquid out of the tunas and strain as mentioned above. This juice is more concentrated than what you would get otherwise and I believe it adds more flavor. It rendered about 10-15% more juice than just draining them.




To make the jelly, use the recipe on/in the box. As mentioned above, lemon juice is needed. I have made 4-5 different batches and it does take more pectin than what is on the label. I have had to use roughly twice the amount of pectin(and lemon juice) listed on the blue packages to get the jelly to set. I have had to redo 3 batches to get them to set, so some experimentation may be in order. I have not yet used the pectin in the pink package, but that is my next experiment.

5 gallons (~20#) of tunas made ~40 cups of juice. It took 3 hours to clean 5 gallons and netted ~17-1/2# after trimming. Each batch of jelly uses 4 cups of juice and each cup of juice will yield about 1 pint of jelly once all ingredients are added. It's pretty time consuming, but worth it to me.

I use my chamber vacuum sealer to seal the jars. It's faster and doesn't heat the kitchen up as much as a hot water bath. Let jars cool fully before vacuuming.

Maybe I'm putting too much extra into it - but everyone who has tried it likes the results.

BTW, I have made several types of jellies in the last 1 1/2 years: Agarita, mustang grape, *****ly pear and mesquite. All have turned out great. Who says the brush country is not good for anything but deer?

We had an exceptionally good year for Brasil brush berry production. I harvested about 1 1/2 gallons of berries that are in the freezer and will make some jelly with them when I get time. The raw berry had a good sweet flavor to it, so I'm curious as to how it will taste. I also am going to try to make some with persimmon the next year we have a decent crop - this year the rains came a little too late.



Also, this is from last year. We had some HUUUUUGE tunas around Devine. These weighed in at .204 pounds each.





Good luck Tandy! If you have any other questions - ask. PM me or post here & I'll give you email/phone.

I use a handheld propane torch to burn off the glochids. It's the only way I've found to not get any in my hands (but I've not tried the ice chest method).

I line them up on my grill grates, torch, turn 1/3, repeat twice to get all sides. Only takes a few minutes.

And yes, use kitchen tongs to pick them!

Save some of your juice to make a *****ly pear syrup. Equal parts juice and sugar, and I add citric acid to brighten the flavor. Makes great cocktails!

We used tongs and pear burner back in the day to prep tunas for Gramma.

Propane torch, boil till soft, mash don't blend, strain works well to get juice to start for me

Follow the pink box instructions. If it doesn't jell on first go, add some more lemon juice/citric acid and try again.

Girth brooks

DP

Max06 said:

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I roast the pears in the oven in lieu of boiling them. Halve them, put in large roasting pan, little water in the bottom, cover and cook until they're super soft. Mash them, strain to get the seeds and skins/pulp out.

They are very low-acid, so you'll need to add a considerable amount of store bought lemon juice or citric acid to get the pectin to set.

For every 6 cups of juice you'll need 1/2 cup lemon juice or 1 teaspoon citric acid.

You'll have better luck with the powdered pink box SureJell pectin than the liquid Certo.

For pink box SureJell, follow general instructions for cooked jelly +

6c juice
4c sugar
1/2c prepared lemon juice or 1 tsp citric acid

Will make about eight 8oz jars

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ETA this is for jelly, not jam. Glochids cook down/out in the oven.

What's a glochid

The tiny hair like needles that are impossible to get out of your skin

I have about half a corn sack full, headed home. Can I still do the ice chest method when I get home?

I had mine in the ice chest for 2-3 days as I was working out of town. They scrubbed themselves really well.
I worked on cleaning/making juice in the evenings after work. All worked fine.

Just keep 'em cool or you may have some beginnings for wine instead of jelly.

tandy miller said:

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Girth brooks

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Seeing previous pics of you on here in the past, I'm not sure that is as large as it looks. Forced perspective. lol




Just joshing Tandy. Hope it all works for you.


ETA: you need a new watch band. That one is definitely the wrong color.

Been doing a bunch from a project site I was in near Big Spring
Torch the hair off
Slice the ends off and then quarter
Barely cover in water and boil till soft
Mash and strain

3 cups of juice
1/4 cup lemon juice
Boil
4.5 cups sugar
1 packet pectin (Sure Jell)
Boil 4-5 minutes
Jar in boiled jars, then boil the filled jars in hot water bath 10 minutes

Doing another batch this afternoon

Oh. OP, do NOT try to double the recipe. That the cups of juice and sugar will FILL an 8qt stew/bean pot and then simmer down to about 3 pints.

Want to do more, make more juice then do single batches.

Once the crawfishshrimp pot for sterilizing the jars/lids and the after filling water bath is boiling the other step go quickly enough for single batches

The recipe I use suggests ~27 tuna to make 3 cups of juice. Your mileage will vary on the juice but the harder you can squeeze/strain it the more you'll get.

Put just enough water in the pot to barely or almost cover them.


You've got enough tuna for multiple batches.
I just whipped up a batch of *****ly Pepper... I halved 3 large jalepenos, removed the seeds (leaving as much membrane behind, then diced into ~1/4 pieces. Once my juice, pectin, & sugar were at a rolling boil I added all of the chopped pepper. I got right at 6 full 1/2 pint jars.


I'm also thinking about making a batch with a little less sugar and ZERO pectin. Just a sweet syrup for cocktails and pouring over ice cream.

Here goes nothin'

Hodor said:

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I use a handheld propane torch to burn off the glochids. It's the only way I've found to not get any in my hands (but I've not tried the ice chest method).

I line them up on my grill grates, torch, turn 1/3, repeat twice to get all sides. Only takes a few minutes.

And yes, use kitchen tongs to pick them!

Save some of your juice to make a *****ly pear syrup. Equal parts juice and sugar, and I add citric acid to brighten the flavor. Makes great cocktails!

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how much citric acid

tandy miller said:

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Hodor said:

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I use a handheld propane torch to burn off the glochids. It's the only way I've found to not get any in my hands (but I've not tried the ice chest method).

I line them up on my grill grates, torch, turn 1/3, repeat twice to get all sides. Only takes a few minutes.

And yes, use kitchen tongs to pick them!

Save some of your juice to make a *****ly pear syrup. Equal parts juice and sugar, and I add citric acid to brighten the flavor. Makes great cocktails!

---

how much citric acid

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Honestly, I don't remember. I made a few quarts last summer, and tasted the flavor after adding a tablespoon or so, then adjusted. Given that the recipes above call for 1/4 cup of lemon juice to 3 cups of pear juice, I'd guess it's going to be 2-3 T a quart?

I vac sealed and froze a couple of quarts of syrup (it has enough sugar in it that it only gets sluchy, actually!). I also vac sealed and froze a quart of unsweetend juice, and I'll make a batch of jelly with it soon when I have time.

Ended up with just over 4 gallons of juice. Gave a couple raw quarts of juice to a friend. Put it all in fridge for now.

How long do I have to process with the juice chilled in the fridge?

Made a batch of jam. A little runny, but it will work. Think I need to cook a bit longer

*****ly pear and mesquite beans have become two of my favorite summertime projects the last couple of years. There's just something about taking an item that most people consider trash/throwaway, and making it into something tasty and useful.

If you are looking for another use besides the jelly on the pear juice since you have a ton on hand, look into a simple syrup as mentioned above, and I've got a recipe for a bbq sauce/glaze that turns out really well. Just made a second batch myself a couple of weeks ago.

For the bbq sauce:

1 cup *****ly pear puree/juice
1 cup ketchup
2/3 cup mustard
1/4 cup worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons pepper
1 tablespoon cumin
1 tablespoon salt
3 teaspoons honey
1 teaspooon garlic
1 teaspoon chili powder

I think I read somewhere that during hard times in the South, mesquite beans were used for coffee and flour.
A couple years so I filled two feed sacks with Mesquite beans still in hulls to dry and grind o play with. Still in garage in dry mode along came LBJ flood of 10/18 that put four feet of water in my garage, rehydrating those beans and trashing the garage. They were rank smelling by the time I got to them during cleanup.

I recently had a batch that I thought didn't set. A week later I thought well i'll try some over ice cream as a syrup... It had indeed set. Some times it takes a little longer.