Honey
 

Well, some of you know I like canned fish.

But I am also developing a significant collection of honeys from all over the world.

I know, I know. Honey is not conducive to weight loss but the odd spoonful here and there does make it more tolerable for me. I have a teaspoon every day for breakfast with my oats and a tablespoon at lunch with my salad (in place of dressing).

I have honey from all over the world at the moment, including honeycomb. My favorite is from Turkey. It's getting to be quite a collection. And like canned fish it keeps for years.

I rarely use honey because (aside from being diabetic) honeys are an allergy gamble for me. Some give me a sore and itchy throat (I'm probably allergic to a common pollen rather than the honey itself, since not all honeys trigger it).

I love it though, especially creamed honey. When I lived in Illinois we'd go every fall to Tanner's Orchard and I would buy several varieties of flavored creamed honeys. My favorite was lemon. Because they had sampling tables, I could try a honey to see if it caused a reaction.

Creamed honey, if you've never had it, has a very different texture than liquid honey. It's opaque rather than transparent, and has a silky, almost frosting-like texture. It melts on hot toast like butter.

You can find it plain or flavored, but there's no fat or cream in it. It's just honey that is crystallized, but in a way that creates very small crystals, so it's smooth and silky, not hard and crunchy.

You can find directions for making creamed honey at home online (youtube videos as well).

It's really addictive though. Luckily the jars I'd buy were quite small and expensive enough to keep me very portion conscious.

Oh, that's what that was! A few years back, I had that at a restaurant while on vacation. It was delicious!

Oh how I love honey....

I keep seeing organic creamy honey at Marshalls. I have been debating on trying it. I need to make sure its clover honey and not wildflower though. I hate the taste of wildflower honey.

We kept bees when I was a kid so I have been spoiled by excellent honey from bees with access to many citrus and stone fruit trees, eucalyptus and wildflowers. I always keep a jar of good honey in the pantry but it is awkward to portion out small amounts. I love the contrast of honey swirled into a tart plain yogurt. Was using it as the sweet element in Vietnamese dipping sauce/dressing but have switched to piloncillo. It has that deep almost butter
scotchy flavor and is easy to portion out with a teaspoon. I caved for the excellent product by Rancho Gordo which is not the hard cones , but a granulated form.

I love honey, in just about everything! It's a great replacement for refined sugar, too. My mom makes an excellent salad dressing that is honey, lemon juice, EVOO, and apple cider vinegar...yummo.

Word of warning for some of you, most of the honey sold in regular grocery stores isn't truly honey...it's often mixed with sugar or corn syrup. Honey is one of the few things I always splurge on and buy local - it's worth it (especially for helping with local pollen allergies!). But I think the FDA is in the midst of changing some labeling rules in relation to that.

Creamed honey is amazing. I think the stuff I had was actually called white honey, but I'm assuming it was the same thing based on the description.

The creamed honey I think I have tried is a German brand called Langnese.

Nevertheless, my favorite, favorite honey is Turkish. Specifically karakovan.

there is Alaskan honey made up north in the Mat-Su area, I believe, that is excellent!....my DH knew someone who had bee hives and collected honey...we've had some of that before and it's amazing!...i love honey anyhow though and we always had creamed honey growing up

I like dipping my white turkey meat in honey but other then that I dont use it so I only use it twice a year on Thanksgiving and Christmas