Source: University of Minnesota On a one-to-one basis, neither light, mild honey nor corn syrup can substitute fully for sugar. Honey can replace part of the sugar in recipes for jelly and related products, but not all of it. Products made with honey will have a darker color than those made with sugar as the only sweetening. The flavor, of course, will be slightly different. Light, mild-flavored honey is best to use when making jelly. Consider its liquid content when it replaces part of the sugar in a recipe. If you make jelly and add pectin, up to one cup honey can replace an equal amount of granulated sugar. For recipes that do not call for added pectin, honey can still replace up to half the sugar that is needed. You may also use corn syrup to make jelly. Once again, consider it's liquid content. In products made with no pectin, corn syrup can replace up to 1/4 the sugar. When you use powdered pectin, corn syrup can replace up to 1/2 the sugar. With liquid pectin, corn syrup can replace only up to 2 cups sugar per batch of jelly. The honey can give a darker color to your jams. I also know that some people do use all honey in some recipes for jams. You can make a syrup using honey instead of sugar for canning your fruits. Works fine. What a great deal, all the free honey !! No reason you cannot freeze these jams. Honey Pear Jam 2 lg Firm-ripe pears; cored and diced 1/2 c ;water 1/4 c Lemon juice 1/4 c Pear eau-de-vie ( I don't even know what it is ! Some liquour?) 1/4 ts Cinnamon 1/4 ts Clove powder 1/4 ts Nutmeg 1/2 c Honey 1 pinch Salt Combine all ingredients except honey and salt in a saucepan. Cook 5 min over high heat, stirring. Reduce heat to medium and cook 25 min, stirring occasionally. Add honey and salt. Cook 15 min, stirring, until the right texture is obtained. Store in a non-reactive container in the fridge for up to 2 mos. 45 Honey Plum Jam 3 c Pitted and coarsely chopped purple plums 1/3 c Sugar 1/3 c Water 2 tb Lemon juice 2 tb Liquid honey Combine the plums, sugar, water and lemon juice in saucepan. Bring to boil, reduce heat, but maintain boil. Stir and mash occasionally with back of spoon for about 15 minutes, or until thickened. Remove from heat, stir in honey. Allow to cool to room temperature. Refrigerate in tightly covered jars for up to 2 weeks.

I have millions of apples, too. Instead of canning apples for pies, I freeze those in pie-size portions. Putting Food By suggested freezing them using a pie plate as a form, so the frozen disc fits in the crust, but I wasn't so good at that. For canning dessert slices, I use Pomona Pectin at half the recommended rate, and it thickens the low-sugar juice just a bit. Alternatively, add no thickener and thicken the apples with cornstarch when you make your pie. I can applesauce, dessert slices and apple jelly made from "nectar" from peelings and cores(yum!), but not apples for pies. We also dry some of our apples, and freeze lot of frozen chunks for making juice or wine in the winter. Plus we give a lot away!

I did a test today of three apple varieties. I cut half of each into about 1/2 inch pieces and added 1/4 cup of water and placed it in a coffee cup into the microwave on high for 2 minutes. Wealthy stayed in chunks and held up very well after stirring but tasted blah. Gala turned to mush and absorbed all the liquid.[good for apple sauce]. My favorite was Honey Crisp. Pieces held up very well and the taste was wonderful. May I suggest you go to the supermarket and buy one of several varieties and do this test. I didn't try the McIntosh or the JonaMac as I only had half hour lunch break at the Farm Market. The Crispins and Northern Spies are much later here.

would it then also stand to reason then that I could take any of the other fruits Ball says don't need lemon juice, food process them into pulp, combine them with honey in the same ratio as the recipes above, but add half, little or no pectin, follow the same boiling and processing instructions, and call it sauce? With a couple of provisions. First the natural pectin amount will vary from fruit to fruit and degree of ripeness. So consistency could be an issue if you don't use the pectin. If that doesn't matter then second provision - high acid fruits only. Learn your fruit pHs and when in doubt, add lemon juice or citric acid. You'd need avoid using (or would have to add lemon juice) with any of the borderline or low-acid fruits like figs, mangoes, windfall apples, melons, some berries, etc. See https://foodsafety.wisc.edu/business_food/files/Approximate_pH.pdf Third, degree of desired sweetness will vary from fruit to fruit of course so amount of honey needed may also vary. And do keep in mind that using honey does have some provisions of its own - pasteurization, not for babies, tends to crystalize, etc. We prefer using the Ball Lo-No sugar pectin for all our jams and in most cases we add no sugar OR honey as we prefer the 100% fruit flavors of jams. Wife and I have tried the Pomona several times but neither of us really care for the mouth feel it results in so Ball Lo-No is our go-to pectin. Dave