Honey recipes

BryceJohnson1994AD

My dad started beekeeping this past year and just made his final harvest,

He had given me the quarts of the stuff.

It's way darker than the stuff you get in the store and I'm keeping it on the fridge to prolong it's shelf life, but in want to use it all before it goes bad.

How long do I have?

Also I want all your best honey recipes.

LAT1963

Honey is shelf stable and will keep for years if you don't let foreign substances accumulate in it. The bees manufacture a variety of antibiotic and antifungal substances which is what makes honey more than just boiled down flower nectar--that's how bees keep it safe for their own use. This is also why ancient peoples used honey in wound dressings and why recent research on burn victims shows that it is as effective at preventing infections in burned skin as the standard treatment of silver sulfsalazine, with marginally greater efficacy against pseudomonas.

As for recipes using honey--it's a very common ingredient in north African and Mideast cuisines. I've been using a cookbook 'Easy Tagine' that uses honey in most of its recipes. I have no connection to the book, so I'm plugging the book solely on two factors--I like the recipes, and most of them use honey, as you requested. It contains recipes incorporating fish, poultry, beef, and a few vegan, consistent with the beliefs (no pork) and economics (vegan) of north African cuisine. The no-meat recipes are 'native' no-meat, invented de-novo to star the vegetables they contain, not altered versions of meat recipes, so they taste good. (I have a pet peeve against un-meating a meaty recipe, those alterations never taste right).

I have a quarter-batch of 'duck tagine with pears' in the fridge right now--I substituted chicken. Onions, ginger, poultry, turmeric, saffron, butter, olive oil, pears, cinnamon, honey, pepper. You can cook the recipes in a tagine, dutch oven, or pressure cooker. Trader Joes has saffron at a fairly inexpensive price so don't let that ingredient deter you.

acpgee

I typically use honey in a glaze for roast meats. A half and half mixture of honey and mustard for coating baked ham and roast chicken. Put it on the last 10-15 minutes of roasting so that it doesn't burn.

Also a half and half mixture of honey and harissa (or other hot sauce) as glaze for roast root vegetables. Again, put the glaze on the last 10-15 minutes of cooking so that it doesn't burn.

LAT1963

https://www.thekitchn.com/4-rules-for-successfully-swapping-honey-for-sugar-in-any-baked-goods-230156

BarbaraHelen2013

Honey literally never goes bad.

Not sure I’d fancy eating it, but 5,500 year old honey has been discovered in Egyptian pyramid tombs that’s still edible!

So you don’t have to worry, apart from the fact that if you don’t get through this years batch before next years comes in you’ll eventually have to bathe in it to use it up! 😂

I agree with harissa and honey glaze for roasted vegetables - especially good on root veg like carrots.

I also make a honey oatmeal bread which is delicious!

Also an Asian style glaze for fish, with honey, soy, chillies, garlic, ginger, coriander etc.

lynn_glenmont

As others have said, honey will keep virtually forever at room temperature so long as you don't get other stuff mixed into it (i.e., always use a clean utentsil). It may, however, cloud or crystallize, which you can fix by putting the container in a hot water bath (assuming you've stored it in something like glass that can take the heat).