Buying Honey.

jim said:
This doesnt explain specifically why honey is pasteurised.

Honey is solid at room temp. Heating it does liquidise it.

But if its pastuerised i.e heated to a specific temp for a specific duration then why exactly is this done? Surely after it is heated and then cools it returns to its original state.

Pasteurisatiin is done to kill bacteria in dairy produce.

Why is honey pasteurised? Is it to kill bacteria? I dont know. Do you?
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2 reasons: kill any residual yeast, which can otherwise survive in honey. Yeast might lead to fermentation. It is not a big risk usually though.
2nd reason (and usually the main one) is that pasteurised honey does stay runny for much longer even at room temp.

There's no downsides as such to the pasteurisation process (ie doesn't impact quality) but of course people might argue that does, as it isn't as natural, or isn't "real" honey anymore.
 
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jim said:
This doesnt explain specifically why honey is pasteurised.

Honey is solid at room temp. Heating it does liquidise it.

But if its pastuerised i.e heated to a specific temp for a specific duration then why exactly is this done? Surely after it is heated and then cools it returns to its original state.

Pasteurisatiin is done to kill bacteria in dairy produce.

Why is honey pasteurised? Is it to kill bacteria? I dont know. Do you?
Click to expand...
Honey is pasteurised to extend the shelf life of the product. It will not crystallise after being pasteurised. Also runny honey is more popular amongst consumers. It also removes air bubbles and impurities. Raw honey is not pasteurised and will contain pollen. This is usually the reason hay fever suffers will try and source local honey because they believe it helps with their symptoms. Raw honey will crystallise. Honey will never ‘go off’. It also is a very good antiseptic for wounds and would have been used this way on livestock.
 
There is no food safety reason to pasteurise honey, (there is a slight risk to very young infants so honey is not recommended for them). It is perfectly safe to eat without pastuerisation.

Filtering, heating & pasteurising the honey removes some impurities, makes the honey more liquid so you can easily mix sources of honey, removes air bubbles. The honey will not easily solidify afterwards because the tiny particles that the crystals form around are gone. Of course there is nothing wrong with solid honey, some people love it. So commercial manufacturers prefer to pasteurise honey because they feel they get a more even quality.

My father always believed that if you turned a pot of honey upside down, the slower the air bubbles moved the better the quality of the honey. He loved a really thick honey.

And if your honey goes solid you can liquify by placing in a dish of warm water for a few hours.
 
odyssey06 said:
I'm trying that with a jar of honey and no luck! Still solid crystals. Any ideas?
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Use hotter water.

[You can use boiling water, but place a tablespoon in the jar of honey first to prevent the glass jar shattering]
 
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Leper said:
Use hotter water.

[You can use boiling water, but place a tablespoon in the jar of honey first to prevent the glass jar shattering]
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The idea of the spoon in a glass container is to provide a rougher surface for the formation of bubbles in a boiling liquid to prevent overheating of the glass. So in this case, the spoon will need to be in the bowl of water, and not the jar of honey if you're going to boil the water.
 
Robbies in Kilmacud had local honey with waxcomb for 14.99 last week. I am guilty of putting honey into microwave to liquify. I use it more in cooking that straight on bread and then dont forget 'honey and lemon' hot drink for sore throat. Some mothers would swear by a teaspoon dose for their kids health.
 
Leper said:
Use hotter water.

[You can use boiling water, but place a tablespoon in the jar of honey first to prevent the glass jar shattering]
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My mother would use a medium-low heat, not boiling and pop it on the hob in the morning, it would take a good few hours to melt, but she definitely did not want to rush it. (I would say around 50~60 C)

My Dad used to collect honey in milk churns that he had added a tap to and he used put the churn in a half barrel of water and light a Primus stove underneath. It used to take about 12 hours to liquify.
 
Bought some 'Organic Honey' last week, put it in the fridge to see if it would crystallize - it didn't. Does that mean it's not real honey?
 
JamesB said:
Bought some 'Organic Honey' last week, put it in the fridge to see if it would crystallize - it didn't. Does that mean it's not real honey?
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No Irish honey should be marketed as 'organic' because bees will collect nectar from all sorts of plants and you can't stop them from visiting 'non-organic' sources. The merits of the concept of 'organic' is a different discussion.

Honey with a high level of glucose will crystallise more readily than high fructose honey. This is dependant on where the bees are sourcing their sugar. Oilseed rape is high glucose and will readily solidify. Your honey is likely high in fructose. Whether it's real honey or not is a different question because it's possible to feed bees a load of sugar and they will store it as honey.
 
my NEIGHBOUR keeps bees and gave me a jar recently; massive difference between it and (even expensive) shop bought stuff. put it on cheese and was really good
 
Some shops such as Lotts & CO, and Nolans in Clontarf are selling "Dublin" honey. They have D3 honey, and from other Dublin postcodes. Of course, the D3 stuff is always sold out first!
It is lovely but pricey, about 4 times price of supermarket stuff.
 
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