Yesterday I was given 3 large bags of pears by the husband of a friend who hated to see them go to waste. I have made 4 small jars of pear butter that tastes pretty good. The problem is that these pears are not ripe enough and they are very hard. The few riper pears I found had a good flavor, but are still rather hard.

The pear butter has a good flavor, but has some rather hard, grainy particles in it that I'm pretty sure is the pears - not the sugar or spices.

Can these pears ripen at room temperature? Will that problem with the hard particles in the pears go away if they are more ripe when cooked?

Thanks for any help.

Teresa