Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Creamed honey

One of the tastiest and most unique products we carry is creamed honey. In many parts of the world creamed honey is the standard, but bees in the Southeast rarely produce honey well suited to creaming. 2004 was such a year for us. Creamed (or set) honey is a soft, spreadable honey. It is nothing more than 100% pure honey where the natural crystallization process has been carefully encouraged. The unique chemistry of each honey variety affects how rapidly it will crystallize and what sort of crystal it forms. All we do to make creamed honey – and this is something you could do yourself if you were so inclined – is take honey that we already creamed and mix that with about five times as much liquid honey. We then keep the jars at 57 degrees, flipping them twice daily to make sure they crystallize evenly. This produces a fine, smooth, crystallized honey that’s ideal for spreading on bread and biscuits. (Heat will return the creamed honey to its original liquid state.) It’s a wonderful treat, especially if, like many in the Southeast, you’ve never tried it before. Most of our family now prefers it to liquid honey and consume more of it than the liquid.

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