[Sca-cooks] honey

[Galefridus Peregrinus]

Yeah, as Bear says, it's pretty much the pasteurization issue. One of the things the confection recipes in al-Warraq call for is heated and skimmed honey. If you use grocery store generic honey, the foam you skim will be yellow-tan with caramel flavor undertones. You'll also have to heat it hotter to cause the foam to rise. Raw unfiltered honey produces white foam starting at a lower temperature and produces a lot more foam besides.

-- Galefridus

> Message: 2
> Date: Thu, 28 Apr 2016 13:33:15 -0500
> From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at att.net>
> To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
> Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] honey
> Message-ID: <EFBCCE5F0F964025AD52AA10D26EC042 at Vishnu>
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>    reply-type=original
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> The difference could be pasteurization.  Commercial honey is often 
> pasteurized to reduce moisture content and reduce potential fermentation 
> (bacteria doesn't live in honey, but some yeasts do)  It also slows 
> crystallization.  And commercial honey often has the impurities removed. 
> Raw honey, as from the farm, tends to have a higher moisture content and 
> some impurities even after cleaning.
> 
> Bear
> 
> 
> Galefridus commented:
> <<< Inexpensive
> grocery store honey is OK for initial practice, but the higher quality
> honey behaves differently and results in a more delicate flavor. >>>
> 
> Ok, I can believe that the generic grocery story honey has a different 
> flavor, but what do you mean it behaves differently?
> 
> I think that common grocery store honey is honey that comes from bees 
> feeding on unknown plants or at a variety of plants that the beekeepers 
> couldn?t really track. Usually clover honey here in Texas.
> 
> Suey, here in the U.S., the food laws and the food labeling laws are fairly 
> strict, although with a few loopholes. But diluting the honey down or adding 
> sugar water to it would likely bring the authorities down on anyone doing 
> that. Does your country not have similar laws?
> 
> As others have mentioned, buying from natural food stores might be an 
> alternative. You can also get specialized honey by mail or on the web. I 
> know some of our local brewers have banded together from time to time and 
> bought drums (30 gallon? 55 gallon?) to get something other than the generic 
> (here, clover honey) at better prices.
> 
> At one time there was a merchant at Pennsic and Gulf Wars who sold a large 
> variety of different honeys. Not cheap. :-) But when he went out of business 
> I bought a lot of small jars of a wide variety of different honeys. 
> Unfortunately, as a diabetic, I can?t indulge in these as I might like, and 
> still have most of these. Somewhere.
> 
> Stefan
> --------
> THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
>   Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas          StefanliRous at gmail.com
> http://www.linkedin.com/in/marksharris
> **** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****
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