Honey In The Home

There are thousands of uses for honey in cooking and baking. The list of recipes issued by the American Honey Institute of Madison, Wisconsin, is almost endless. In practically every copy of apicultural magazines, domestic or foreign, there are new suggestions for the use of honey in preparing cakes, bread, biscuits, muffins, jelly-rolls, waffles, griddle-cakes, puddings, fritters, mouss�s, and all kinds of confectionery. Preserves, jams, jellies, candies, ice-cream, icings, hard sauce, meringue, salad dressings (plain or French), cinnamon or pecan toast, etc., are more delicious when made with honey. Apples baked with honey are very delectable.



Honey is excellent for baking pastries and bread. They remain sweet, moist and palatable for an indefinite period. When bread and pastries, baked with honey become dry�often only after many years�and are transferred for a few days to a damp place, they will change to their original condition on account of the great hygroscopic property of honey. (Some people say that honey pastries are so tasty that they are consumed long before they have a chance to become stale). Honey jumbles are sometimes as good ten years later as on the day they were baked. Cakes and bread made with honey are easily masticated and digested and have a distinct laxative effect. Martial (XIV. 222) refers to the fact that honey was extensively used in antiquity for baking purposes when he remarks: "Bakers prepare for you sweet cakes in thousands of forms because the bees work for them."

Honey cakes were extremely popular in ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome. The Egyptians fed honey cakes to their sacred bull Apis and the sacred crocodiles. On the wall-painting of the tomb of Rekh-Mi-Re the mixing and baking of honey cake is reproduced. In the tomb of the Pa-Ba-Sa a man kneels and prays before honey cakes. They were used in Egypt during all ceremonial oc-casions. Cerberus, the three-headed dog, and the serpents guarding Hades were fed on honey cakes, likewise the sacred serpent guarding the Acropolis.

Cheese-cake baked with honey was a favorite subject and highly praised by all Greek poets. Cheese-cake was glorified by Euripides and Aristophanes and honey cake by Anacreon and Sophocles. Horace praised the "ova mellita", eggs with honey. In Rome, libum was a sacrificial honey cake, the root of German "Leb"-kuchen; placenta was baked for festive occasions; scribitta was decorated with inscriptions and savillum was eulogized by Cato as the most savory of all cakes.

The pain d'epice (gingerbread), made with honey, has always enjoyed great popularity in France. Mention of it is made as early as 1530. The panis mellitus of the Romans, baked with honey and anis, was a similar pastry. The Lebkuchen of Nuremberg (Germany) has a world-wide reputation. The German Lebkuchen is made of flour, honey, spices, alcohol, almonds, citron and orange peel. In its manufacture the main requirement is to allow the dough to rest for a considerable time before baking. This will accomplish the amalgamation of the flavors of its component parts. The dough is often kept for several months before it is placed in the oven. In Hungary and in all Slavic countries honey cakes are made in the shape of hearts, human or animal figures and are in great demand at country fairs.

Wheat, corn, groats, sago, tapioca, barley, beans and lentils are often mixed with honey, vinegar, oil, mustard and spices. In Turkey a great assortment of confectionery is made with honey. They call it chalva. Pastry made with honey and nuts, called baclava, is the favorite dessert of all Orientals. The Arabs make up bars similar to our chocolate-bars, from sesame oil, ground nuts and honey which they call halva. Sesame seed, honey and nuts, called sahm-sahm, is another favorite confiture of the Arabs. Most oriental sweetmeats were prepared with honey. The snow-white Anatolian honey, collected by the bees from the blooms of the cotton plant, was a great favorite of the seraglios of ancient Constantinople. Recently in California confections have been made with apples, oranges, walnuts, raisins and honey.

Candy made with honey has a more distinguished taste and cannot be compared with candy made with sugar. Honey preserves the aroma and prevents staling. Honey candy seems to satisfy the craving for sweets more quickly and there is no desire to keep on ruminating unremittingly as in the case of sugar candy. Several pieces of honey candy go as far as a whole box of the cane-sugar variety. The ordinary chocolate candy contains as much as 40 to 6o% cane or beet-root sugar. The cheaper the candy the more sugar it contains. Honey possessing much higher sweetening power requires a smaller amount of admixture. The same applies to honey ice cream, which, in addition to being smooth and delicious, is also more satisfying and cloys the appetite against further indulgence. But, of course, sugar is cheaper and freezes at a higher temperature. Adding honey to chocolate candies would also require less cocoa, which in itself is a harmful substance. The cocoa plant absorbs a great amount of manganese from the soil. Manganese is a metallic substance which produces symptoms similar to those caused by lead or mercury. It is supposed to impair the intellect and affect the stomach and gall bladder. Cocoa, be-sides, contains oxalic acid.

Honey with butter, cream or cottage cheese are very satisfactory and wholesome combinations. Honey preserves butter from becoming rancid if the honey is previously heated and the yeasts and enzymes destroyed. The mixture will keep for two or three weeks under refrigeration. It is an excellent spread for children and grown-ups over bread and pancakes and will also overcome one of the greatest objections to honey, i.e., its extreme fluidity. It is an oversight on the part of the great milk companies not to market a delicious honey cream, which would preclude the use of unsavory cod-liver oil and the purchase of expensive vitamin pearls.

The best Italian Zampaglione, the Dutch Avocat and the Danish R�dgrid d are prepared with honey: likewise the German red groats, Rote Gr�tze, Kaiserschmarren, the French Biscuit de Savoie and the Tourte � la Frangipane.

Foreign cookbooks, especially the older ones, contain valuable suggestions and numberless recipes for baking bread, muffins, cakes, cookies, etc., with honey. There are choice combinations to improve the flavor of honey with spices, e.g., anis, coriander, ginger, cloves, cinnamon, cardamom seeds, nutmeg, etc. The Farmers' Bulletin No. 653 of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, Honey and its Uses in the Home, is a valuable pamphlet and covers the subject well. In cooking and baking, honey has unlimited possibilities. Let us be guided by the oft-repeated statement of our ancestors, "Honey bread is good to the last crumb".

Article Source:  honey-health.com