SCENE 1
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| Now, there are three common market varieties of honey. Now 'comb honey' is the original version and it's still the one preferred by most connoisseurs. Now the comb is edible but don't expect it to dissolve in your mouth, okay? ... unless you've got a heck of a fever. You see, it doesn't soften until it hits somewhere in the neighborhood of 140 degrees. |
Comb Honey |
| Now if you buy liquid honey that has a big hunk of this floating in the middle, it's called 'cut comb honey'. |
Cut Comb Honey |
Now if you're after a liquid honey, well, you're going to have to take this [super] for a spin.
Bees must consume 8 pounds of honey to produce 1 pound of beeswax.
[voice over] Having been liberated from its makers, the
honey must now be coaxed from its comby confines. To accomplish this, the
cap wax must be removed from each side of the trays with a hot knife. Now
this wax will be cleaned and made into candles. A nice little windfall for
the bee keeper. The racks are then placed inside of a large centrifuge
which literally flings the honey out of the comb. Thus freed it runs down
and out into a holding tank. Delicious. But a little crunchy due to
the fact that it's full of tiny bits and bee pieces which explains the
sophisticated filtration system, panty hose.
Cut Comb Honey is just cut right out of the trays and then
jarred and topped off with the filtered honey.
Honey is a preservative - Alexander the Great was embalmed in it.
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If 80 percent of a honey's nectar comes from one botanical source, then that honey can claim to be a 'varietal'. Now there're some 300 varietal honeys produced in the United States, um, including alfalfa, clover, basswood, eucalyptus, orange blossom, sourwood, fireweed, lavender, palmetto, gallberry, tupelo which is very rare and very expensive, uh, tulip popular and buckwheat. |
Alfalfa, Clover, Basswood, Eucalyptus, Orange, Sourwood, Fireweed, Lavender, Palmetto, Gallberry, Tupelo, Sage, Chestnut, Tulip popular, Buckwheat |
Now, honeys that lack a predominant botanical pedigree but are still taken straight from the hive without any further blending can be called wildflower honeys. Now this is the one that we harvested earlier today. And even though it's a wildflower honey, its still has some specific flavors. This one for instance [takes a taste] mmm, those bees spent some time around a watermelon patch. You can tell. Honeys often taste like the fruits that the plants they were made from make, if that makes sense.
Eating locally made honey is said to ease hay fever and other allergies.
As you might expect, darker honeys are more distinctive and stronger than lighter honeys. This pine honey, for instance, is much stronger than this wildflower honey which is a little bit stronger than this sourwood honey which is indeed a little bit darker and stronger than this orange blossom honey which is stronger than this alfalfa honey. Which is not to say that this alfalfa honey is a wallflower. In fact, it's my favorite honey when it comes to making dessert sauces.
| It all starts with a quarter of a cup of alfalfa honey and a stainless steel or other heat resistant bowl. Now the reason for this is that even though that honey is pretty light, it's still too viscous to play nicely with other ingredients unless it's coerced a little. So a little bit of heat here is going to help loosen that up. So in that goes. |
1/4 Cup Honey |
| Meanwhile you may contemplate an add on. In this case it's going to be sour cream. One cup of sour cream. You could also use light sour cream or even yogurt to the same effect. In that goes. |
1 Cup Sour Cream |
Now all you have to do is whisk these two together. Remember to turn off the heat. What are the serving possibilities? Gosh, I don't know. Something like fresh fruit, strawberries perhaps. Uh, you could go with pound cake or other baked goods. Baked apples, it's great with that. Just about anything you can think of except your morning cereal.
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Hey, who likes honey mustard? Everybody does. The question is, why do we bother buying it when it is so easy to make and, of course, there's so much great honey to make it with. Now in my case, I like to start with about 5 tablespoons of sourwood honey. And to that I add, oh, say 3 tablespoons of Dijon mustard, the smooth kind not the lumpy, seed-ridden kind. Then after the mustard goes in, go with two tablespoons of rice wine vinegar. |
5 Tbls Honey 3 Tbls Smooth Dijon Mustard 2 Tbls Rice Wine Vinegar |
Now vinegar is important because not only is it
going to add snappy tang, but when it goes into the bowl, it is going to make
everything more viscous. That's why we don't have to heat this one. So, whisk
thoroughly. Now believe it or not, unlike most vinaigrettes all
the mustard and honey in there is going to keep this, uh, dressing very stable. It's not going to separate in the refrigerator like so many other
dressings do. There you go.
Now, serving potential? Limitless. For instance
say you had a bowl of peppery greens. A little drizzle will do you. Or say you needed a dipping sauce for those chicken
fingers. Excellent. So it's a dressing. It's a dip. It's a dressing. It's a dip.
No, it's both. But wait. Say you want an elegant
dessert?
Place
a large sauté pan over medium heat and warm just enough honey to cover the pan
with a solid pool. I like wildflower honey for this but you can use
whatever you like. Now once it's good and warm time to consider fruit. Plums would be good as long as they're relatively
firm. If
they're too soft they're going to disengage. Into the pan and try to make
sure everything is cut-side down. We're really interested in getting the
honey pushed up into the fruit. Now you could also use figs for this. Uh, you could use chunks of
papaya. Anything that's a little
bit on the firm side. Now once you've got all the cut-sides down, let this
cook over medium-low heat for about 5 to 6 minutes.
Once the fruit is soft all around, go ahead and boost
the heat to high just for about one minute tossing things continuously. That'll make sure that the fruit is completely coated, slightly caramelized and
it'll also reduce the honey into a nice glaze. Now, what are the serving options?
Well, got ice cream? Well, -heh, -heh, -ell. Now
you've got something much, much more. Mmm.
The honeybee was brought to
America from Europe around 1625.
Native Americans called it the "white man's fly".
GUEST: Zoey Brown
Since it is a supersaturated solution, honey will crystallize
under the right conditions. Uh, some varieties like this orange blossom
honey will actually begin to crystallize the minute that they're put inside a
jar. Prevention? Well, a good tight lid and warm storage will help. The cure? Eh, it's almost as
easy. See, hot liquids can
hold more dissolved solids in solution than cold liquid can. So, a hot
bath will reverse this condition probably in 10, 15 minutes. Just regular
hot water out of the tap.
Of course you could do this in the microwave oven. Of
course you'd have to be really, really careful. You'd have to have the lid
off, of course. You've got to watch it. You've got to turn it. Turn it on and
off. I usually end up with a big sticky microwave instead
of a clear jar of honey.
Of course, you don't have to dissolve the
crystals at all. They're not going to hurt anything. But, if they
continue to grow unabated, well, the remaining liquid will eventually become so
diluted that mold and yeast could move in and set up house. Ironically,
spun or creamed honey uses crystallization to side step this problem. It's
actually seeded with microscopic crystals which result in a creamy, spread-able
honey which is definitely good eats. But unlike the crystals over there
which are big and chunky, these are so small you can't even feel them on your
tongue.
[takes cleared honey out of hot water bath] There, no
harm done. Now as far as using this in any other kind of recipe, it's ...
what's this?
"Recent university study reveals that honey contains
several unique anti-
oxidants including pinocembrin and chrysin, which explains why
honey's
been used to treat wounds as late as World War I."
Honey is hygroscopic, you know, so it pulls moisture out of wounds. It contains hydrogen peroxide so it's an antiseptic and it's sticky so it stays put. So the next time your toddler takes a header, maybe you should slather on a little honey instead of that expensive cream. Of course what's good for out here is not necessarily good for in here. Babies under one year of age should never be fed honey because like most agricultural products that are raw, honey carries a small number of botulism spores.
Botulism (the sickness) is
caused by spores
produced by Clostridium botulinum (the bacteria).
This is no problem for adults or even toddlers. But
an infant system is not acidic enough so the spores can grow and produce their
paralyzing toxin. In other words, until this [baby] turns one, of this
[honey] there will be none.
We hope we've whet your appetite for a little bit of the ... oh, I
almost forgot the cake. Um, honey can be substituted for sugar in almost
any baked good.
| Take for instance my Aunt Verna's top secret, orange cake recipe. I managed to lift this off of her at our last family reunion. Now the old girl's recipe starts with a cup and a quarter of regular old sugar, sucrose, right? Now here's the neat thing. Since it is 20% sweeter than sucrose we can go with just a cup of honey. And since we're using the orange blossom honey this is going to add flavor and fewer calories. Sounds like a good combination. Right into a work bowl. |
1 Cup Honey |
| All right. What does she call for next? Four eggs. And what's nice about this is you can add them all at once unlike regular cakes that you need to cream. You don't have to do that here because the sugar is already a liquid. But you do have to work this until the eggs are thoroughly integrated. It'll take a couple of minutes. |
4 Eggs |
| Now once that starts to look on the foamy side, we're going to go with the next ingredient. Aunt Verna calls for three tablespoons of orange juice, but let's hold off on that a second. You see honey is about 20% water, right? And since we were working with a cup of honey, that means that about 3 tablespoons of it was indeed water. So we don't need that liquid. And since we're dealing with orange blossom honey, we're not going to miss the flavor. But just in case, we'll throw in a tablespoon of freshly grated orange zest. |
1 Tbls Orange Zest |
| And then there was the dry stuff. The dear old girl calls for a cup and a half of all purpose flour sifted together with about a teaspoon of baking powder. So we bring that ... hey, wait a minute. Now baking powder will only work if the alkaline and the acid in the recipe are balanced. Honey is a little bit more acidic than sucrose is so we're going to balance that with just a pinch of baking soda. I'd say that's a little less than an eighth of a teaspoon. Like any other cake batter on Earth, it's best to bring the dry to the wet nice and slow. |
1 1/2 Cup AP Flour Pinch Baking Soda |
Drizzling honey on fresh fruit salad will prevent browning.
Now make sure you work down everything that's on the sides. You don't want any dry pockets. We need all the honey and the flour to be together. There. When it starts to kind of pull away from the sides like that you know you're ready to go. And go into a greased loaf pan. It's what she calls for and I have to agree with her here. Even if you have a loaf pan that claims to be non-stick, you're still going to need to add that lubrication because honey is nothing if not sticky. Get it all. There we go. Time to bake.
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Now my Aunt Verna calls for half an hour in a 375 degree oven. But since honey browns faster and deeper than regular sugar, we can cut the temperature down to 350 degrees. We'll stick with half an hour though. |
350° for 30 mins. |
Of course that means in half an hour we're going to start to test
it. You know the drill. In the middle with a skewer. If it
comes out dry, you're good to go. If it comes out wet you've got a little
bit more baking to do.
Oh, and here's the neat thing. Since honey is
more hygroscopic or water-loving than regular old sugar, it means that it will
literally drag moisture out of the air. And that will keep either cakes or
cookies baked with honey moist longer. This is something that is not lost
on manufacturers of packaged foods.
"The only reason for
being a bee is making honey ... and the only
reason for making honey is so I can eat it". -Winnie the Pooh
We hope we've inspired you to look beyond the squeeze bear and invest yourself in the original processed food, honey. Whether you blend it into a sauce, bake it into a cake, marinate with it, poach in it or drink it straight. Honey is absolutely good eats.
AB: Dig in, guys.
B#1: [tries to attack Alton] Hey, we're worker bees.
AB: [whaps her]
B#1: Oww.
AB: Sorry. Ladies.
So sensitive. Oof. I'm gonna have one of these.
AB: Mm. You guys do good work ... girls do good work. Really you do.
Proof Reading help from John Burtner & Jon Loonin
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Hymenoptera |
| Suborder: | Apocrita |
| Family: | Apidae |
| Genus: | Apis |
| Species: | Apis mellifera |
Last Edited on 08/10/2007
