While I was out on the west coast a few weeks back, I got an email from a very nice woman from the Whole Foods Market corporate offices. She was writing because they’ve recently launched a travel company called Whole Journeys and were partnering with bloggers as a way of shining some light on some of their featured trips and destinations.
In this particular round of promotion, they were inviting a few bloggers to create a preserve would combine seasonal produce with an ingredient from one of the regions visited on a Whole Journeys itinerary.
Despite my crazy schedule, I just couldn’t say no to this very interesting recipe development challenge. Plus, they were kicking in a gift card to cover supplies and another one to give away to a FiJ reader (more about that at the end of the post).
When I got back to Philadelphia, there was a package waiting for me that contained a few jelly jars, a little tub of raw mountain honey, and a sheaf of paper telling me all about the Dolomites, which is a mountain range in the northern Italian Alps.
I spent a goodly amount of time wondering what I could make that would be both appropriately Italian and evoke a mountainous region. So much time, in fact, that I missed the challenge deadline and still didn’t have a plan. Oops.
Last Thursday, I stopped thinking and started canning. One of the details included in the material they sent was the fact that the Dolomites is known for cheeses, speck (it’s a lovely, smokey cured ham), and wines. I decided to make a preserve that would go nicely with all those things.
I took 2 1/2 pounds of cherries, split them in half, popped out the pits and piled them in a low wide Dutch oven. I added the honey that had come in my box (it was a 16 ounce jar), along with a fragrant stem of rosemary (I brought a gallon size bag of rosemary clipped from a giant shrub in my parents’ front yard back to Philly with me). I let it sit for a bit, until the honey dissolved and the cherries released some juice.
Once it was juicy, I put the pot on the stove and brought it to a boil. I cooked it at a rapid bubble for about 20 minutes, until the cherries softened and the syrup thickened a bit. I didn’t add any pectin because I wasn’t going for a jam, but instead wanted tender cherries in a rosemary and honey flavored syrup. Towards the end of cooking, I added the juice of one lemon and just a pinch of sea salt, to help sharpen the finished flavor.
The preserve is a perfect accompaniment for cheese and cured meats, so I think I hit my mark. It’s one that I look forward to cracking open later in the fall when the evenings turn crisp and the days shorten.
Now, the giveaway. I have one $50 gift certificate to send out to one of you. Here’s how to enter.
- Leave a comment on this post and tell me what you would have made given the same challenge!
- Comments will close at 11:59 pm eastern time on Saturday, July 26, 2014. Winners will be chosen at random and will be posted to the blog on Sunday, July 27, 2014.
- Giveaway open to United States residents only.
- One comment per person, please. Entries must be left via the comment form on the blog at the bottom of this post.
For more about Whole Journeys, check them out on Facebook and Twitter.
Disclosure: Whole Foods Market gave me a gift card to cover the cost of supplies for this challenge (along with a few jars and a little tub of honey) and has also provided the $50 gift card for this giveaway. My thoughts and opinions remain, as always, entirely my own.
Cherry Preserves with Honey and Rosemary
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 pounds sweet cherries
- 16 ounces raw honey
- 1 sprig fresh rosemary about 6-8 inches lont
- juice of one lemon
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
Instructions
- Prepare a boiling water bath canner and enough jars to hold 4 half pints of product.
- Wash cherries. Remove stems and pits, and slice in half.
- Combine the chopped cherries with the honey and rosemary in a low, wide pan.
- Put the pan on the stove and bring to a boil. Cook at a moderate boil, stirring regularly, for 15-20 minutes. The preserve is done when the liquid has thickened into a slow running syrup and the cherries are soft.
- Towards the end of cooking, add the lemon juice and salt.
- Remove the pan from the heat. Funnel preserves into prepared jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Apply lids and rings and process in a boiling water bath canner for 15 minutes.
- When time is up, remove canner from heat and set the lid aside. Let the jars cool gradually in the pot for an additional 10 minutes (this is to prevent any liquid loss).
- Remove the jars from the canner and set them on a folded kitchen towel to continue to cool.
- When jars are cool enough to handle, remove rings and test seals. Rinse the jars to remove any sticky residue.
- Sealed jars will keep on the shelf for up to a year. Any unsealed jars should be refrigerated and used promptly.
Dandelion sweet compote or Blueberry jam sweetened with honey and a tab of fresh ground cinnamon and homemade vanilla. We have an abundance of dandelions, blueberries and local honey in our area. These items we share in kind to the Dolomite Alps.
Sounds simply divine! I never thought to preserve sweet cherries. Wonderful use of a delicious fruit!
I was thinking figs, apples, honey and a splash of lemon juice. The pictures of the Dolomites sound amazing!
I just bought a huge bag of cherries – they were on sale. I also have some honey I bought at a farmers’ market this last week-end. I will use Marisa’s recipe to make this yummy sounding preserve. Oh, and for the challenge, I will try honey-sweetened fig jam ( right now, I also have a lot of fig fruits in my front yard tree begging to be picked and put to good use ).
I like the idea of using cherries for the challenge in honor of the Amarena cherries from Modena. I would also suggest using Italian Alpine honey, Siciilian Pizzuta almonds for real almond tastiness plus a splash of Limoncello liquor from the Amalfi Coast to brighten up the whole mixture.
That’s a tough one… I guess something with wine in it, because Italian stuff doesn’t usually bring a lot of fruits to mind outside of wine grapes… Honey and wine would probably need a third fruity flavor to bring it together, though, and cherries would probably have worked 🙂 Plums might work, too… Oh wait, is quince from close to or around that region? Maybe honeyed quince jam…
I would have made this wonderful honey baked bananas. They are amazing over vanilla ice-cream!
Maybe honeyed apricots? So good over yogurt in the morning.
Peaches with honey sound lovely!
I’d like to make a plum preserve with star anise and ginger!!
I would have made a honeydew and honey with some white wine. Your recipe looks great!
I learned (on Wikipedia) that the regions surrounding the Dolomites are famous for beans, Piave cheese, and apples, so it would be nice to incorporate some of those ingredients– perhaps in a salad with the honey featured in the dressing.
I don’t know what I would have made, but now I want this! Mmmmmm
Whoa, that sounds amazing. I think I would have tried a lemon curd with honey in the place of sugar.
I would have made a cherry compote with a bit of red wine added. Yours looks delicious!!
I have two huge bushes of basil and I usually make pesto for the year but I might try some honey with ginger and basil. Has anyone tried this mix?
Hmm, maybe an Italian Ice made with Spumante, apples, and honey.
Your cherries are beautiful!
I could never have come up with something this yummy – which is why I am reading your blog & not the other way around. :o) There is a Whole Foods opening my area soon so I would love to win this. I’ve never shopped in one before.
I have a fig-honey jam recipe all ready for fig harvest. Thanks for the giveaway. 🙂
One of the journeys is to Turkey ( I would not mind winning one of those trips by the way) What that trip would inspire me to make is a apricot sumac glaze. It think it would be perfect for both meats and tofu.
That’s a tricky one! I don’t know much about mountainous regions, having mostly lived in the Midwest and coastal Sweden. But I think I would have used the honey to bake some sort of simple, buttery, crispy cookie (or even biscotti) to dunk in the wine! Your flavor combination of cherries and rosemary would have made a good cookie, too!
I tend to pair seasonal fruit with different teas that I collect from all the countries that I visit. Its great fun and makes for some unique blends!
I’m looking forward to trying your cherry recipe (my CSA overfloweth with cherries!)……I would have incorporated the honey into something peachish….perhaps with some thyme….or something….. I agree with you–something to go with the cheese and wine!
I would make maybe make cherry muffins
So I’m a little obsessed with the amazing blackberries here in the Mid-Atlantic. I love a little anise with them, so maybe a cordial-ish blackberry preserve using some sambuca and for a complementary herbal note — some tarragon? I think I’d put a bit of cracked black pepper in there too.
I imagine this would be nice with chevre on a cracker. Or to finish a pan sauce after searing off some duck breasts. Oh man, now I might have to actually go and make this!!
I have a Nesco dehydrator and have never tried drying cherries – I’d love to try it! I would want to have some of them fresh, too! I’d make a buttery lattice-topped cherry pie and add some of the dehydrated cherries to amp up the flavor!
Elderberries grow in the Dolomites so maybe an elderberry jam sweetened with honey would be good. 🙂
Honestly, I have no idea what I would make for that challenge…probably something overly complicated that would have turned out so-so.
Question about the preserves…do I just fish out the rosemary stems when it’s ready to jar? I’d assume, but just wanted to check. Thanks!
I would try an apricot preserve with honey and thyme… and maybe I’ll just go ahead and try it!
Hi Marissa,
I think I would have made a dark cherry rosemary shrub!
But I know I am going to make some little 4oz jars of these preserves also.
But I have a question…
What is the value of mixing fruit with honey first, versus adding the honey to the cooking fruit?
And, I routinely have few jars done with the recipe than you. Could this be the size of my pan requiring longer cooking? Could it be the adding the honey as the fruit cooks? I was curious.
Cheers!
I think I would need to visit the Dolomites first 🙂 but maybe some sort of nutty conserve?
I have always thought that at some point in my life I’d like to try to make mead – a honey-based alcoholic drink- and there’s a recipe out there for a fruit-based mead (aka melomel) that I thought sounded wonderful. The ingredients for this “Super Berry Melomel” are Wildflower Honey, a Triple Berry Mix (of frozen Blackberries, Raspberries, and Blueberries), fresh Strawberries, and Black Currant Juice along with yeast and water. I think making a jam with these same ingredients (minus yeast & water) would also be delicious!
maybe a fruity sauerkraut; i really don’t know, i don’t cook much 🙂
jslbrown2009(at)aol(dot)com
All the honey, pears with lemon lime basil in a half preserve/half syrup style concoction. Bright and sweet to compliment all the flavors that region has to offer.
I was thinking of your strawberry/vanilla bean jam. I also have a friend who just entered her cherry marmalade, and her apricot jalapeño jam with pieces of red and green bell pepper in the California State Fair, and has already won several prize ribbons!
Definitely something fig. I usually make Fig Ouzo and Fig Amaretto soft jams. So how about Honeyed Fig Amaretto jam. Amaretto’s Italian, right?
I think a compote of fig, cherries, shallots and honey would be delicous. I can’t wait to try this recipe!
I would have used peaches with the honey!
I think a wine jelly, using a good Italian white wine.
I would have made a hearty, whole grain bread. Great with cheese, wine and honey.
I’m into pickled carrots, so I think I would have tried spicy pickled carrots sweetened with the honey. Yum!
These cherries sound amazing! Such a delight. As for the challenge…does some sort of liqueur count as a preserve? Because I bet you could do something super interesting with an apricot and rosemary vodka infusion (or maybe a mix of vodka and brandy?) plus honey simple syrup. Now I may have to try that. 🙂 I don’t know if it’s quite mountainous enough, but apricots must be a thing in southern Italy, right? Thanks for the giveaway opportunity!
I would have made a fig and honey preserve – with some fresh thyme or marjoram infused at the end. Local cherries are finished for the season here, but this recipe is being pinned for next year…
I probably would have baked something with the honey. Like some spiced ginger biscotti I have a recipe for… somewhere.
I probably would have gone for something involving peaches, honey and basil. Mmmmmm that honey looked delicious!
Perhaps a Wine Jelly?
I might have done a fig-orange-honey spread. Also good with strong, hard cheeses and speck!
Your cherry/honey/rosemary concoction sounds delicious. Cherries are just coming into season here in Wisconsin, so I might just make it!
If I had a similar challenge, I’d look at cherries, as you did, or high bush cranberries. High bush cranberries are different from the bog-grown kind and are often found in mountainous areas.
In fact, I used some of my own spiced cranberry jam with grilled chicken the other night. Preserves in action: it was delicious, and had a side dish of fresh steamed green beans. I love summer’s fresh produce!
I would have perhaps gone with a wine infused dipping sauce of some sort. Or perhaps make a honey infused cordial? Italy brings to mind a certain state of mind: bread, family around the table, & wine cups always full!
I think Alpine Strawberry Jam with honey .