Pear Butter,What Really Happend

Ok, so I posted yesterday that I intended to use the crockpot and let it do the work for me.BUT, I kinda needed to have it finished by the time I picked Nate up from school.So inorder to save time,I let the pears cook in the crockpot for about an hr and half,then added them to my big deep stock pot. It still took them right at 2 hrs to cook like that,on med heat,with a lid over it.
I washed my jars.This year since I stocked up last year,I have not had to buy any jars. But yesterday I had to scour my kitchen and china cabinet for loose stragelers.I even poured a few things out from 2 half pints I had in the fridge. I washed 5 pints, 4 half pints,and one teeny lil 1/4 pint jar. Got my big canner going. It didnt start even boiling until time to put the jars into it.
So, aside from using my stock pot,I still followed the basic instructions. I got out the blender, which Ive never had good luck with,mind you,so I was a wee leary of how that would all work. But thankfully,I had all my dishes washed and had a large mixing bowl handy. So,I used a 2 cup measuring cup and added 4 cups at a time inti the blender. I hit puree for about one solid minute,then hit blend on high for about 30 seconds. It turned into a sort of taupe color with brown specks in it. The brown specks being peeling. I tasted the plain pears. to them I added 1 cup of left over preserve syrup from a batch of preserves I cooked lightly. then added 2/3 cup sugar. Plenty sweet. I think if you dont have any sugar try 1/2 cup white corn syrup,then taste.Add more as needed. so back into the pot the pears went,again on meduim heat. since I didnt like the color,I added a few drops of neon pink food coloring,and a few drops of purple. It came out mauve and I liked it. so,then I added an 11 oz bag of cramel bits. and began to stir. and stir and stir, I also turned up the heat to med/high. You know your own stove and how temps work,so on my trusty builder grade hotpoint stove between 7 and 8 is where it sat. I ran to potty, scrubbing my hands,of cource. I bet I washed my hands 5 times during the cooking process. I didnt want to contaminate anything. then I cranked up the heat to high and kept stirring the entire time. {I had the radio on,so me and the Judds,sang to the bubbling caludron} You get into a rythm with it, being sure that youre touching the bottom with the wooden spoon. Id stir for 5 minutes at a time,then check to see exactly HOW it was boiling. I wanted it to rolling boil before I jarred it up. When I removed my spoon,and the mauve lava esque stuff hit the bottom of our over stove microwave,I determined it was time to jar up. My canning funnel came in SO handy for this batch. Some things you dont have to use it with,but this stuff,it was a MUST. I removed it from the heat,and set it on my silicone pampered chef square thingie. But a dishtowel works fine too.Just double it over, b/c that heavy bottomed pot was HOT! So I began to sppon it into the jars. I spooned nad I spooned. I wound up using every jar I had washed and sterlized. 5 pints, 3 half pints and the one 1/4 pint. it worked out perfectly! And my my does hte butter taste GOOD!!!! Yes,its kinda grainy,but its b/c some of the pears are.
I fully plan on making another batch of this stuff either today or tomorrow and dont plan on changing my techinque at all. I am going to have to get up in the attic and dig around in my box of jars up there. And I may have to buy some more lids. But if I dont have enoguh pints,the pear butter will be going into quarts!
So thats how it really went down at my house with Mama's time tested recipe. The only thing she said shed do different was not use the food coloring! She likes natural colored stuff and Im more into color! I bet a package of Kooliade added while cooking would work too. And maybe since its 100 % citric acid,it would help with the browning. I think lemon aide flavor would work best.

I hope that if you try this,you sing to your pot. A long wooden spoon works great for a mic!