The end of the market season brings a lot of colors ... many different varieties of pears and apples. A fruit butter is the most simple way of preserving the vitamins and sugars of the fruit - no additions are necessary - but you can spice it to your taste.

You will notice how different varieties of fruit will cook and change the texture and flavor - you have to experiment. I'm planning to record on this web page my own experiments, therefore expect to find different variations of this simple recipe.

Total time of labor: 10 - 20 min. / cooking 3 - 6 hours with labor time depending on method of preserving.

Fill a large roasting pan with whole apples or pears with only the stems removed, as long as the fruit is nice quality and doesn't need more trimming.

Put in the oven at 350 degrees for several hours ... how long depends on the fruit variety. These pictures are taken with pears believed to be Bosc - an old tree, not sure of the variety. In this picture the pears have cooked for over 2 1/2 hours.

After about 2 hours in the oven the fruit is soft and ready to be pressed through the same kitchen tool I have been using for many years to make tomato paste.

It is made in Italy and is called "Velox" - I've called the company in Italy and unfortunately they don't have a US distributor - but they will provide me with names of their clients ... so I can bring them to Kenosha and save you the shipping and handling charges.

Return the sauce to the oven that you left at the same temperature of 350 degrees and bake it for a few more hours (more or less depending on fruit type and your fancy for consistency of the butter).

Pear butter is just thicker

Yes, that's it!!! No other addition of ingredients in my kitchen ... just the perfect sweetness as nature provided.

I had several friends taste my first experiment with this fruit butter and they could not believe it. They kept asking: - How much sugar did you add? [none] - What else is in it? [nothing but pears!!!]

Don't you think that this could be your "no-sugar-added" and "no-preservatives" spread of the future. One more item off my shopping list!

I started with 6 pounds of pears (16 large pears) - and finished with 5 cups (plastic container to be refridgerated) or 5 half-pint jars (that's where the additional 10 minutes of labor come infor the Hot Pack Processing - as the jars need to be boiled for 10 minutes to have the lids seal).

The pears baked for 2 1/2 hours with the peels and an other 2 1/2 hours from sauce to butter without sticking to the pan. So kitchen tools cleaning time: 5 minutes.

An other economical idea for a gift to a friend?

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Looking forward to meet you at the Kenosha HarborMarket this Saturday, or some day.

Your friend will be under the white tent,

Curzio