Pineapple preserves

Growing up, my mom often made a very simple, very Southern hors d'oeuvres in which you spread a blend of pineapple preserves, apple jelly, dried mustard and horseradish over cream cheese and serve with crackers alongside. It's called Jezebel Sauce which I always thought was an absolutely marvelous name for it, at least with regards to the post-Biblical connotation of a jezebel. This sauce is slightly outrageous, definitely luxurious and looks like melted jewels strewn across a white cloud. In any case, I'm making it for a catering order this coming Wednesday and could not, could NOT, locate pineapple preserves anywhere in the multiple DC-metro area stores I tried. I looked online, and Smuckers has a "find pineapple preserves by zip code" option. A very few stores in Virginia seem to carry it but otherwise, it seems you really must head much further south of the Mason-Dixon to find this stuff. Plan B? Make my own. I should have considered this in the first place being that I am an avid canner and pretty much always find homemade stuff unbeatably good. Shortly thereafter, I whipped up the first batch, an incredibly simple concoction of pineapple, sugar and orange zest. Then, feeling creative and with another 4 cups of pineapple chopped and at the ready, I decided to take this one step further and make a Jezebel-inspired preserve. I'd bought some extremely fresh, extremely beautiful ginger at the farmers market this morning so added in about an ounce of that, grated, as well as a generous 1/4 teaspoon of dried mustard. 

Jack said it was fabulous. It is also beautiful with chunks of caramelized pineapple suspended in the golden jelly. I'll post this recipe today.