Chunky Pear Preserves with Sage

This is an adaptation of Chunky Pear Preserves with Sage from "Preserving by the Pint" by Marisa McLellan.

We made this recipe today and found there was too much syrup, as well as not enough "pear" to fill three half-pint jars.

For three half-pint (250 mL) jars:

• 2 pounds (900 g) of pears (original recipe was 1 pound)
• 1/2 cup honey
  
• 20 fresh sage leaves (she says you can substitute rosemary or lavender)
  
• 1.5 cups water
  
• "juice of one lemon" = 3 tablespoons of RealLemon lemon juice
  

Steps:

1. Process jars as you would for all canning
2. Combine honey, water, sage, lemon juice in a pot and bring to a boil. It would be good to package the sage leaves as though you were making tea; this will make removal easier later.
3. Peel, core, and roughly chop the pears (We think you could slice them too, like you might for peaches)
4. Put pears into syrup, cook for 2-3 minutes ("just until it returns to a boil")
5. Remove sage leaves from pot
6. Funnel pears into jars, top with syrup, tap jars to remove air bubbles and top again ("return headspace to 1/2 inch")
7. Wipe rims, apply lids and bands, process in boiling water bath for 10 minutes.

I needed to process for 15 minutes; air was still escaping the jars after 10 minutes. But all three jars eventually popped, indicating that they sealed.