Ingredient · Ingredients

Pear

A stone-adjacent pome that Ohio State groups with fruits that always need added acid, pectin, or both, and a Group II fruit in U.S. jam identity.

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Pear is a pome that eats juicy and gels reluctantly. Ohio State places pears in Group III: always needs added acid, pectin, or both 1. Their pear-apple jam example uses bottled lemon juice and liquid pectin 1. Apple is the pectin-rich partner in that pot; Lemon is the acid. See Pectin and Jam.

Jam identity. 21 CFR 150.160 lists pear in Group II 2.

Not jam. NCHFP: traditional Southern preserves of whole or uniform fruit in a very thick sugar syrup — usually figs, peaches, or pears — are not jam or pectin gel 3. That product is Preserves. Peach is the neighbor fruit in that sentence.

What to notice. Give at the neck; grit is stone cells, not doneness. A hard pear is underripe. Do not invent a canning time.

At a glance

Also called
pears

Ingredient

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Sources & further exploration

Cited in this article

  • Jams, Jellies, and Other Fruit Spreads (HYG-5350) — Treva Williams. Ohio State University Extension. 2015 — Culinary definitions of jam, jelly, preserves, marmalade; pectin/acid/sugar roles; sheet, temperature, and plate tests for doneness. Cites USDA Complete Guide and NCHFP.
  • 21 CFR § 150.160 — Fruit preserves and jams — U.S. Food and Drug Administration (text via Cornell LII) — U.S. standard of identity. Group I fruit-to-sugar 47:55; other cases 45:55; finished soluble solids not less than 65 percent. Kitchen usage and this labeling standard are not the same thing.
  • Ensuring Safe Canned Foods — National Center for Home Food Preservation, University of Georgia — Adapted from USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning, AIB No. 539 (revised 2015). Acid vs low-acid foods, pH 4.6, botulinum, boiling-water vs pressure canning.

Updated 2026-08-26. gg:ingredient:pear · CC BY 4.0

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