Honey … do we know what we’re buying?

[herbidacious]

I absolutely love honey. I prefer the set variety. Especially the 'crust' on the top. One of my earliest memories (aged about 3) is about honey...

I still don't eat much for the same reason I don't eat much jam or marmalade or indeed marmite, all of which I also like very much.

[Badger's Mate]

I have mentioned before that I had read that there’s more ‘manuka honey’ for sale in the UK than is produced globally.

Again, we’ve got wholemeal flour that’s not wholemeal, whole milk that’s not whole milk and sourdough bread that isn’t sourdough; we shouldn’t be surprised. We get the food we deserve.

[PatsyMFagan]

I usually have a honey in the larder and buy organic ...I mainly have it in warm milk as a nightcap.

I always thought that set honey had been heat treated, or had water added to make it solidify, but apparently set honey is actually it's natural state.

I have a jar of honey from Kefalonia that a young friend brought back for me. It is clear, but so thick, I can hardly get a spoon in it and could definitely be used for hair removal

[herbidacious]

On milk... going on a cheese making course a few years back was an eyeopener.

They said that much of the cream on sale is the top of the milk we used to get. I felt robbed.

But perhaps you are referring to a different thing.

Set honey is available in France but far less common. I suppose it's a matter of preference. I have an aversion to food that's messy to eat. (Although golden syrup on white bread with butter was a childhood treat.)

[Badger's Mate]

perhaps you are referring to a different thing.

‘Whole milk’ is actually standardised milk, in other words it’s skimmed a bit, down to 3.6% fat iirc, so it’s the same everywhere, but as milk is a natural product and varies from place to place and time to time, different amounts of skimming would be required to get the same end result. What I presume happens is that it’s all fully skimmed, so there’s a big tank of skimmed milk and a small one of cream, then re-blended to make ‘whole milk’ at 3.6% and semi skimmed at 1.8%.

[Stokey Sue]

Genuine question … is honey not used for sweetening in authentic ‘oriental’ recipes?

Also confused by the thought of honey providing ‘exoticism’.

Oh homey is used - I occasionally make a version of chicken with cashew nuts that has a slightly sweet and sour sauce made with lemon and homey instead of sugar and vinegar that I first had in a decent Chinese restaurant. My moan was about Western food writers who have their own ideas about what’s right + see also chef’s Indian recipes that require evoo and chicken stock in unlikely places.
However, my HK Chinese flatmate never used honey, I just used Eat Your Books to search all the Fuchsia Dunlop recipes - 2 results for honey (one predictably a glazed duck) but 124 for sugar

[Suffs]

Thanks SSue … I understand your point now.

[halfateabag]

Patsy, you have reminded me I used to have honey in hot milk as a kid, Mum would add a knob of butter and let it melt in the hot milky honey, I used to drink it with a T spoon.....

[Stokey Sue]

I've just stumbled on the link to my friends' honey - £15 for an attractiveattractive 454g pot sealed with beeswax for virgin, unheated honey - the rest of the site show them and the apiary business

https://www.stickeebee.co.uk/product/honey-jar/

[Suffs]

Update :

https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... ney-awards