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Chapter 3

Appreciating the Different Styles of Honey

IN THIS CHAPTER

Getting to know the four main styles of honey

Understanding crystallization

Making your own creamed honey

Honey comes in thousands of different varieties, really as many as there are different flowers. In Chapter 7 I profile 50 of the most popular varieties of honey. When you purchase honey, regardless of the variety, honey can be presented as one of several different styles. In this chapter we’re talking about the different styles of honey. And there are only four style variations: comb honey, extracted honey, chunk honey and whipped honey. They are all worth a try and enjoyed in different ways.

In time, nearly all honeys form granulated crystals. There is nothing wrong with honey that has crystallized. It’s perfectly okay to eat it in this form. However, if you want to get it back to the liquid state, crystallized honey can be easily liquefied by placing the jar in warm (not hot) water and stirred.

Don’t ever be tempted to heat plastic honey jars. The plastic can leech into the honey causing it to smell and taste like, you guessed it, like plastic. And besides, the chances are pretty good that you’ll wind up with a deformed plastic bottle. For this reason, we recommend you always purchase your honey in glass containers.

Walkin’ Talkin’ Honeycomb

Comb honey (see Figure 3-1) is the jewel of the beehive — and carries a high retail price as a result. It’s honey just as the bees made it, still in the comb. In many countries, honey in the comb is considered the only authentic honey untouched by humans while retaining all its pollen, propolis, and the natural health benefits associated with raw honey (never extracted, strained or touched by humans). When you uncap those tiny airtight beeswax cells, the honey inside is exposed to the air for the very first time since the bees stored it.

Photo by Howland Blackiston

FIGURE 3-1: This is beautiful, natural honeycomb, just as it comes from the hive.

Encouraging bees to make large quantities of honeycomb is a bit tricky. The bees need a very strong nectar flow to get them going and controlled space arrangements inside the hive. There must be many warm, sunny days and just the right amount of rain to produce a bounty of flowering plants. The tricky part is controlling the bees’ urge to swarm in tight conditions during a heavy nectar flow. Harvesting comb honey is less time-consuming for the beekeeper than harvesting extracted honey (but more labor for the bees); one simply removes the entire honeycomb and packages it. As a consumer, you eat the whole thing: both the honey and the beeswax. It’s all edible!

Savoring Liquid Gold — Extracted Honey

Extracted honey (see Figure 3-2) is by far the most popular style of honey consumed in the United States. Wax cappings are sliced off the honeycomb, and liquid honey is removed (extracted) from the cells by centrifugal force. The honey is strained, left for a few days to rest, and then put in containers.

Photo by Howland Blackiston

FIGURE 3-2: Extracted honey is the most common style of honey you see in grocery stores in the United States. These jars contain light and dark varieties of honey.

The beekeeper needs an uncapping knife, extractor (spinner), and some kind of sieve to strain out the bits of wax and the occasional sticky bee. Chapter 2 has more information about how beekeepers harvest and extract honey.

Getting Chunky with Chunk Honey

Chunk honey (see Figure 3-3) is a piece of honeycomb that is placed in a wide-mouthed jar and then topped off with extracted liquid honey.

Photo by Howland Blackiston

FIGURE 3-3: Chunk honey makes for a very appealing presentation in the bottle.

Chunk honey is a stunning sight; it resembles a stained glass window, especially when the honey is a light color. By offering two styles of honey in a single jar (comb and extracted), you get the best of these two worlds.

Whipping Your Honey

Whipped honey (see Figure 3-4) is also called creamed honey, spun honey, churned honey, candied honey, or honey fondant. Whipped honey is a semisolid style of honey that’s very popular in Europe. In time, all honey naturally forms coarse granules or crystals. But by carefully controlling the crystallization process, you can produce extremely fine crystals and create a velvety-smooth, spreadable product. Sinful, like eating buttercream icing!

Granulated honey or set honey is liquid honey that has naturally crystallized. But whipped honey is carefully made by seeding one part of finely granulated (crystallized) honey into nine parts of extracted liquid honey and then placing it in a cool room until it completely crystallizes. The crystals are then ground into fine particles. The resulting consistency of whipped honey is thick and ultra-smooth. Making it takes a fair amount of work, but it’s worth it! (See the sidebar on how to make it yourself.)

Photo by Howland Blackiston

FIGURE 3-4: Making top-quality whipped honey is a craft, resulting in a velvety-smooth, spreadable delicacy.

MAKE WHIPPED HONEY: THE DYCE METHOD

The Dyce Method is a process used to control the crystallization of honey. It was developed and patented by Elton J. Dyce in 1935. The process (described here) results in a nice, smooth whipped honey:

1 Heat honey to 120 degrees Fahrenheit (use a candy thermometer — accuracy is important).This kills yeast cells that are always present in honey. Yeast causes fermentation, and its presence can inhibit a successful result when making whipped honey. Stir the honey gently and constantly to avoid overheating. Be careful not to introduce air bubbles.

2 Using a two-fold thickness of cheesecloth as a strainer, strain honey to remove foreign material and wax.

3 Heat honey again, this time to 150 degrees Fahrenheit.Don’t forget to stir continuously.

4 Strain honey a second time to remove all visible particles.Again, you can use a two-fold thickness of cheesecloth as a strainer.

5 Cool honey as rapidly as possible until the temperature reaches 75 degrees Fahrenheit.You can place honey in a container and “float” it in an ice water bath to speed the cooling process. Stir gently as honey cools.

6 Add some finely crystallized honey to promote a controlled crystallization of your whipped honey.It’s kind of like adding a special yeast culture when making sourdough bread. Introduce these seed crystals by adding 10 percent (by weight) of processed granulated honey. Granulated honey is processed by breaking down any coarse crystals into finely granulated crystals. This can be accomplished by fracturing the crystallized honey in a meat grinder or a food processor.

7 Place mixture in a cool room (57 degrees Fahrenheit).Complete crystallization occurs in about a week.

8 After a week, run mixture through the grinder (or food processor) one more time to break up any newly formed crystals.

9 Bottle and store in a cool dry room.

(Information courtesy of National Honey Board)

What’s the Story on Honey Straws?

You may have seen something on the market called “honey straws.” Mostly these are sold as a healthy snack or a pick-me-up. They consist of clear plastic straws, pinched at both ends and filled with liquid, extracted honey (see Figure 3-5).

Courtesy of GloryBee (glorybee.com)

FIGURE 3-5: Honey straws are another way you may see honey marketed.

Some honey straws contain pure honey of some variety. But for others, the honey has been colored and flavored with the likes of root beer, caramel, mint, chocolate, lemonade, watermelon, and on and on. Kids seem to love them, but they are not intended for the honey connoisseur. Comparing honey straws to pure, raw honey is like comparing a fruit-infused wine to a vintage cabernet.