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You’ll love this homemade pear sauce, packed with Fall flavors of chai spice and rich vanilla pear flavors.

If I had to pick a second favorite fruit, it’s pears. They have such a delicate flavor that can be much more complicated and sophisticated than apples. I once got a bushel of pears from a friend who picked them from her grandpa’s farm, and those were positively luscious pears legend in that juice dripping down your arm kind of way.

And while it may be easy to find applesauce albeit a bland tasteless doppelganger of homemade applesauce, pear sauce is not something you’re apt to come across as easily. That is a crying shame! Homemade compotes from good fruit is something we should all make. It helps use up fruit that’s just about past its prime, or helps you put up quarts of fruit when its at its best. Have a friend with a pear tree with some unfortunate windfalls? Make pear sauce. Get a bevy of pears on sale? Make pear sauce.

You get the idea. Grab some pears and let’s make some pear sauce. And if you’re on a roll, use the sauce immediately to make a batch of maple pear butter.

Homemade Pear Sauce

Why pear sauce has so much going on

More flavor possibilities: Pears have an affinity for different spices than apples. They can be delicately flavored with just vanilla or take on complicated flavors like star anise and cardamom. If you’re bored with applesauce, try pears.
Still lazy: Just like with my homemade applesauce, I follow a lazy approach for making pear sauce. No peeling, no deseeding are required; just cut up everything into chunks and go about your merry way.
Like a fruity sauna: Your kitchen will smell so lovely. Pears are really special, and making pear sauce helps you understand just how good this simple recipe can be.

pear butter in jars with whole pear and spices

Ingredients for Pear Sauce

Pears: ripe or overripe are great as you’ll end up with sweeter sauce, organic is better since we’re not peeling anything.
Chai spice blend: optional but nice with cardamom and star anise that compliment pears so well. You can skip it if you want a neutral flavored sauce.

Equipment you need to process your pears

Food mill: the food mill lets you strain out seeds and skins. It also gives sauces a beautiful smooth texture that you won’t get from a blender or food processor.
Heavy pot: I use my Lodge Dutch oven here, but a stock pot is good too.
Jars: for storing your sauce. Pint Mason jars are a good all-purpose size, and this batch makes about 4 jars’ worth.

Tips for your best pears ever

Test, test test: as lazy as this method is, do periodically check your pears. Give them a stir and add a little water if they seem like they’re sticking.
Use the ripest pears you can find: Like other fruits, it’s best to make compotes, sauces, and jams from ripe fruit. I prefer to keep my pears unsweetened as I use it in an ingredient later. Starting with ripe pears keeps them sweeter to begin with.
Double check your consistency: If your pears seem a little too loose after you’ve put them through the food mill, pour the sauce back into the pan to reduce a little. It’s up to you how thick you’d like it.

Homemade Pear sauce

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Author: Elizabeth Farr
Total Time: 100 minutes
Yield: 7 cups 1x

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Description

Simple unsweetened puree made from juicy ripe pears. Use it anywhere applesauce.

Ingredients

Scale

5 pounds pears, preferably organic since you won’t be peeling the pears
Water, as needed
1 teaspoon chai spice blend (optional)

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Instructions

Prep your pears: Wash all the pears. Cut away any bad spots, but don’t bother peeling them. Cut them into large chunks (roughly eighths) and toss them into a stock pot.
Steam: place about 1/3 cup water into the bottom of the stock pot. Bring the pot to the boil, and then reduce down to low. Stir the pears every 20 minutes or so until the pears are tender and the skins are starting to break down. How long it takes for the pears to cook will depend on how ripe they were to start with. Periodically check them for tenderness, adding a little more water if they seem like they’re sticking to your pot. The pears are ready to strain when you can easily stick a knife through them and they can be easily broken down with a potato masher. My batches of semi-ripe pears each took about 90 minutes to be ready.
Set up a food mill over a large bowl. Fit it with the finest disc so that the pear seeds will be easily strained out.
Scoop the pears into the food mill. Turn the crank letting the pear puree fall into the bowl. Scrape down the bottom side of the mill occasionally as it can get clogged. As you get down to the bottom of the batch of pears in the mill, be sure to turn the mill both clockwise and counterclockwise. This will help push the rest of the pears through the bottom more easily. Scrape down the sides of the mill frequently and move chunks of pears to the space under the blade. This will force more of the pears through the holes more quickly.
Keep repeating milling the pears until you’ve pureed the whole batch and the puree is as dry as you can possibly get it. Toss the pear waste into the compost.
After you’ve milled all the pears, check the consistency of your pearsauce. If it seems too thin, place the strained pear sauce back into the pot (clean it first) and cook it to evaporate any excess water.
When the pear sauce is at the consistency that you like, add chai spice blend or apple pie spice to taste. About 1 teaspoon is good.
Place pear sauce in sterilized jars or in Ziploc bags. You can process the pear sauce for canning if you like, following directions in a book like the Ball canning book, or simply freeze your pear sauce.
Canned or frozen homemade pear sauce is best eaten within a year.

Equipment

food mill

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pint Mason jars

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Notes

Double check your consistency: If your pears seem a little too loose after you’ve put them through the food mill, pour the sauce back into the pan to reduce a little. It’s up to you how thick you’d like it.

Prep Time: 10
Cook Time: 90 minutes
Category: Baking Building Blocks
Method: Stovetop
Cuisine: American