Honey Pear Conserve & the evolution of a recipe

Ive been canning like crazy. I don't know why. I haven't
done it in yrs. But I know there's lots of berries and stuff up here and
I planned with the move here to take advantage of it all. And so I'm
doing all sorts of things. I canned peaches the other day in a light
syrup. The recipe I found it at tho had another for peach honey. You
save the peels for that. Well I had to make pickles too and just didn't
have time to make the peach honey. I almost tossed the peels then I
thought....freeze them till I need it. Duh!

And then I had 5lbs
of pears to process. Ive waited the last few days for them to get really
ripe, they were like rocks when I bought them. And so I
thought......well I could make pear honey! Then I thought maybe I should
use honey instead of sugar. And so in my search to see if it could be
done and if it was good... I found this recipe...

http://www.foodnetwork.co.uk/recipes/honey-pear-preserves-with-ginger-ru298348.html

But
I post all this to show you the evolution of a recipe. I just cant
leave things alone. Guess that's why I'm a chef. And so now Ill post my
version of that recipe.

So it went from peach honey to pear honey to honey pear preserves with ginger to finally Honey Pear Conserve.

Honey Pear Conserve Makes 16 half pts.

5lbs of pears
2 1/2c honey
1 lemon, finely chopped (whole lemon) (seeds removed)
2 in. piece of peeled ginger root
1/4 tsp. vanilla
1 box Ball No Sugar Pectin
1/2c. lightly toasted pine nuts





Peel and core pears and chop into chunks. Sprinkle with Fruit Fresh or Vit. C and toss to keep from turning brown.  




Add honey to pears and mix. 




Chop nubby ends off lemon and toss. Chop whole lemon,
finely and make sure all seeds are removed. Put in pear/honey mixture.
Let sit overnight.

Next day put mixture in lg. pot and put in
ginger. Cook 15-20min. I taste tested this as it went along. At the
beginning it reminded me too much of Honey lemon cough drops. While I
like that flavor .....not for my jam. yuck. I decided instead of adding
the ginger to the jars to steep, I would cook it with the jam. This way I
could control just how much ginger flavor I wanted. I suggest you do
the same.

I found the flavors do blend and taste better and when
it hits the level of ginger you like, remove the piece. Then add 1/4
tsp. vanilla or a bit more if you like. I found it took some of the bite
out of the ginger.

Get water bath canner ready and wash jars.
Put lids in a pan to boil and stay hot. I like to heat my oven to 200
degrees once the jars are hot and clean so they stay hot. Once the
canner is ready, put pot of jam back on stove. Whisk in one box of the
pectin and cook and stir till its beginning to thicken......then for
3min. more.  




 I can never leave things alone,,,this flavor reminded me
of something Italian I had long ago so I thought why not pine nuts?  So I
took some out raw and tasted it and they weren't bad but I thought
toasted might be richer. So I put them in a fry pan and toasted lightly.
Be careful not to do too much to them. I did taste a couple of nuts
that got browner than I wanted and it over powered the delicate flavors.
Toss them into the jam and stir. 




Fill jars and leave a half in. space. Wipe jar edges and
put on lids and seal. Process in water bath for 10min. Remove and let
cool, check seals.