Old Fashioned Pear Honey

Pear honey is an old-fashioned Southern spread with no honey in it at all. You cook pears down slowly until they turn clear and golden, thick and pourable just like honey, and it’s a sweet way to turn a big pile of pears into something for biscuits and toast all winter.

I know, pear honey is a strange name for a preserve that doesn’t include honey. The name comes from the color and the texture. A jar of it on the shelf looks a lot like a jar of honey, and it pours like one too.

It’s an old Southern recipe and a good way to use up a big pear harvest. I adapted this one from the 1973 Farm Journal’s Freezing and Canning Cookbook.

The Swiss make their own version, Birnenhonig, by boiling pear juice down with no sugar at all. The Southern one keeps the whole fruit, and the crushed pineapple adds a little tang so all that sugar doesn’t taste flat.

Pear honey is looser than pear butter and smoother than pear jam, and you use it more like honey than like either one.

If you have more pears than jars, there’s a whole list of pear canning recipes to work through, including pear syrup and old-fashioned pear preserves. Once the canner’s full, dehydrating pears is an easy way to save the rest.

Ingredients for Pear Honey

There are just three ingredients, and the pears are the only one where you get a choice.

• Pears: Regular pears like Bartlett, Bosc, or Anjou. I used Bartletts. Weigh them whole, before you peel and core them, since the recipe uses the whole weight.
• Sugar: Plain granulated sugar, and a lot of it. The thick, honey-like syrup is mostly sugar, so keep it as written. My guide to sugar in canning recipes explains what sugar does in a jar.
• Crushed pineapple: Canned crushed pineapple in juice. Add it undrained, juice and all. Pineapple is very acidic, and it gives pear honey a little tang that keeps all that sugar from tasting flat. Don’t drain it, and don’t leave it out. If you have fresh pineapple to put up, try canning pineapple too.

Use your heaviest pot, like a Dutch oven, since a mixture this sugary scorches easily. An immersion blender is the easy way to make it smooth at the end.

Choosing Pears for Pear Honey

I made this with Bartlett pears, and any regular pear from the grocery store works. Bosc and Anjou make good pear honey too.

Slightly underripe pears hold up a little better through the long cook. Stick with regular pears for this one, not Asian pears.

How to Make Pear Honey

Pear honey is mostly hands-off once the pears are ready. Everything goes in one pot and cooks down slowly, and you stir more often as it thickens.

The ratio is 2 1/2 pounds of whole pears to 5 cups of sugar and 1 cup of crushed pineapple. By weight, that’s 2 1/2 pounds of pears to about 2 1/4 pounds of sugar.

Get the canner heating before you start. It takes a while to come to a boil, and the honey goes into the jars best while it’s hot.

Prep the Pears

Peel and core the pears, and cut out any hard, gritty bits near the center. Cooks used to run the pears through a food grinder for a fine, even texture that cooks down fast.

Finely chopping by hand works too, and so do a few pulses in a food processor. Cut them small if you want them to melt into the syrup. Bigger pieces candy and turn glassy, like preserves.

If you plan to blend at the end, the size doesn’t matter much.

Cook It Down

Put the pears, sugar, and crushed pineapple, juice and all, in a large, heavy-bottomed pot. Stir until the sugar starts to dissolve, then bring it to a gentle boil over medium heat.

Keep it at a steady simmer, stirring often, until the pears turn clear and the syrup thickens. Plan on about 45 minutes, but stoves vary, so go by the look of it instead of the clock.

Stir more often near the end. A mixture this high in sugar sticks to the bottom of the pot as soon as it starts to thicken, and it scorches fast.

Smooth or Chunky

Once the pears are clear, decide on the texture. For a smooth, pourable honey, run the immersion blender through the pot until it’s even and glossy. It takes care of any stringy bits of pineapple, too.

For a chunkier spread, leave the pieces as they are. Either way, keep cooking until it mounds softly on a cool spoon instead of running off like water. It thickens a little more as it cools in the jars.

Canning Pear Honey

Pear honey goes into a boiling water bath, the same as applesauce. If you’re new to it, my guide to water bath canning for beginners walks through every step.

The original Farm Journal recipe sealed the jars with paraffin, which isn’t safe by current standards. I’ve adapted it to modern safety standards.

There’s no USDA or NCHFP process for pear honey. It comes out thinner and more acidic than applesauce, so I use the NCHFP times for applesauce, which gives it a good safety margin.

Have the water bath canner hot and the jars warm before the honey is done. Ladle the hot pear honey into the jars through a canning funnel, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Remove any air bubbles, wipe the rims clean, and put the lids and bands on fingertip tight.

Lower the jars into the canner, and make sure at least an inch of water covers them. Process half pints or pints for 15 minutes, adjusting for altitude with the chart below. Then shut off the heat and leave the jars in the canner another 5 minutes.

Lift the jars out with a jar lifter and set them on a towel. Leave them alone for 12 to 24 hours before you check the seals.

Ways to Use Pear Honey

Use pear honey anywhere you’d use honey. It’s good on warm biscuits, toast, pancakes, and cornbread, and a spoonful disappears into oatmeal or plain yogurt. It melts right into hot tea, too.

It works in savory cooking as well. Brush it over ham or pork for the last few minutes of roasting for a quick glaze, or set a jar out with sharp or salty cheeses.

Warm the chunky version and spoon it over vanilla ice cream. Pour the smooth one over a Dutch baby pancake the way you’d use syrup. For more spreads to cook down, try apple butter, peach butter, or quince jam.

Storage and Shelf Life

Once the jars are cool, press the center of each lid. A sealed lid is firm and doesn’t flex. Take the rings off before the jars go on the shelf, so a seal that lets go later is easy to spot.

If a jar doesn’t seal, put it in the fridge and use it first. You can also reprocess it with a new lid within 24 hours.

Store sealed jars in a cool, dark place, and use them within 12 to 18 months. Once a jar is open, keep it in the fridge and use it within 1 to 2 weeks.

You don’t have to can it. Store unprocessed pear honey in the fridge and use it within 1 to 2 weeks, or freeze it for up to 6 months in straight-sided, freezer-safe jars with 1 inch headspace.

Pear Honey FAQs

Quick answers on the name, the pineapple, the sugar, the pears, and batch size.

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