Oh boy.

First I'll address the pressure canner issue. Amazon sells the two most common and popular pressure canners, the moderately-priced Presto (which is a gasket model) and the All-American which offers a machined metal-to-metal seal.

I recommend you do a search and read the many many previous threads outlining pros and cons of both models.

The All-American comes with a 5-10-15 psi weight and the company regards the gauge as a backup, not the primary indicator of pressure. Weights are more accurate anyway, as they are machined to be exact.

Presto comes only with a 15 psi weight but you can emulate the All-American by purchasing part #50332, which is a 5-10-15 psi regulator designed for that canner.

Again, there are numerous threads which discuss the weight issue.

As far as the pears are concerned, I assume you're thinking of the water or the sugar. Sugar does not affect pH. It can affect shelf life but it is not a safety issue per se. Water becomes an issue when it excessively dilutes vinegar solutions used in pickling low-acid products, for example. But pears and peaches, etc. fall into a different category, being high-acid fruits.

Your wife could have canned those pears in pure water and they still would have been fine. And, you are correct, that Ball Blue Book recipes are reliable. They have been thoroughly tested to resolve any issues relating to pH, water activity, density, etc. while leaving a good margin for error.

You might want to check online with the NCHFP for its self-paced home food preserving course. It's free and is a good way to get up to speed on the common issues in home canning. Just scroll down the page at the link.

Good luck and welcome to the forum. It's always nice to meet someone new.

Carol

Here is a link that might be useful: NCHFP Self-Paced Online Preserving Course

Agree with Carol's excellent advice and information.

There are lots of things you can can in water-bath canner with complete safety (luckily, since that's all I have!). The BBB has a wide range of recipes, all tested. Most are mainly fruit or tomatoes --- to do meats and most vegetables you do need a pressure canner, as you need to get to a higher temperature than boiling water. But some include other things mixed in, in specified amounts that have been tested to make sure the final product is safe. So there are some salsa, tomato sauces with other veggies mixed in, conserves with nuts, jellies with bits of pepper supsended in them --- all kinds of lovely things can be canned with total confidence in their safety if you follow the instructions in the BBB and/or the NCHFP guidelines.

Enjoy, and good luck! Those pears sound lovely. I like to do pears in light syrup, too --- I find a heavier syrup is too sweet for me, but the ultra light syrup or plain water doesn't preserve as much pear flavour.

Best,

Z

ok, thanks! yep, I was worried about the water. I figured that if pears are acidic and water is neutral, at some amount of water the pH would be too high.
cheers