[Sca-cooks] honey

[Johnna Holloway]

If you want to master this recipe or series of recipes, perhaps you should start with a couple of
modern candy recipes which use honey and see if those can be made with
your type of honey in your location. (Modern honey, at least in the US, is filtered, processed,
and comes in jars; we seldom buy it direct from the beekeeper in the comb. Also there are
different types of honey. One website I looked at this am noted over 300 types all of which vary in
keeping qualities and tendencies leading to crystallization. )

Can you achieve success with modern simple recipes like these?

https://thenerdyfarmwife.com/two-easy-honey-candy-recipes/

Candy making in general is a complex art. This article notes some of the
factors:
https://scienceandfooducla.wordpress.com/2014/10/28/sugar-chemistry-of-hard-candies/

Honey in this article is used as an interfering agent to impede crystallization.

That aspect of candy making is explored again in this article:

http://www.exploratorium.edu/cooking/icooks/12-23-02.html

You might also like this document on honey production and products. It includes recipes for honey candies.

http://www.fao.org/docrep/w0076e/w0076e00.htm

Good luck

Johnnae


On Apr 22, 2016, at 3:10 PM, Susan Lord <lordhunt at gmail.com> wrote:

> I am not getting a handle on honey. As per the 13th Century Al Andalus MS there are several sweets calling for honey. See Perry/Friendman’s translation http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Medieval/Cookbooks/Andalusian/andalusian_contents.htm <http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Medieval/Cookbooks/Andalusian/andalusian_contents.htm>. 
> 
> I bought a candy thermometer but after 220 degrees I burn the honey. Either it turns out too burned and hard or too soft. 
> 
> My cleaning woman likes the hard version. When her husband talks too much she pops a ball into his mouth and he spends the rest of the evening sucking it.  But that’s not the point!