Honey (Was SC - Ice)

[CorwynWdwd at aol.com]

"Unprocessed" honey has a tendency to crystallize. I can only assume that 
cold would speed this along, as gentle heat will rapidly reliquefy it. I 
don't know that either condition will affect "freshness" of honey. 

Processed honey doesn't crystallize as easily, which is apparently the point. 
Get rid of all the pollen and other "thingies" in natural honey and there's 
nothing for crystals to condense onto. Of course you get rid of much of the 
flavor too.

Crystallized honey is a yummy spread though, I sometimes feel a little guilty 
when friends want to throw out crystallized honey because it's "gone bad" and 
I offer to dispose of it for them... but I have explained it to people 
before, about half still want to get rid of it, go figure.

The point (and I have one) being that temperature doesn't really effect 
honey's freshness. I think it's just that the cellar was where everything 
went.

Corwyn

In a message dated 5/25/2000 2:16:47 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
owner-sca-cooks at ansteorra.org writes:

> Does unprocessed honey need to be kept cool?  Maybe that is what
>  the "fresh" is referring to.  in short, I have no idea.  :-)