Over time natural honey will soon develop large chunky crystals. It's not a sign that the honey is bad and the honey won't taste any different. It's just that the crystals aren't so pleasant on the tongue. These crystals have square corners that feel sharp and give an unpleasant sensation.
Enter Prof. Dyce from the University of Cornell. He developed a process to control the formation of crystals so that smooth oval shaped crystals are created. These are very spreadable and smooth on the tongue.
It's easy: You buy them.
Visit your local established beekeeper. He'll have creamed honey on hand. Try it first, paying attention not to the flavour of the honey but to the feel and sensation of the crystals on your tongue. If they're appealing then buy some.
Use that creamed honey to seed your clear honey by inserting a tablespoon or more into a jar. Then stir the crystals in thoroughly and put the whole thing in the fridge for about two weeks. Presto! You'll have smooth, non drip, spreadable creamed honey. Your own honey gives the flavour but the smooth seed crystals give the texture.
How does this happen? Our favourite golden liquid has a trick or two up its sleeve. If you give clear honey smooth crystals it will replicate them naturally. The term is 'following suit'. The small crystals prevent the formation of larger crystals. It's very similar to how yogurt and cheese are made, although they use cultures as seed.
[Photo - this jar is 90% crystalized - notice the bottom 1" that hasn't converted yet. It's important to stir the seed right to the bottom. With this jar the spoon and beater wouldn't reach the bottom].
By the way, other terms for creamed honey are Whipped Honey, Spun Honey, Churned Honey, Candied Honey, Honey Fondant and Set Honey. All are processed naturally through controlling the crystallization.
[Photo - two buckets of purchased creamed honey that I use as seed for my own. The electric beater stirs the seed very well but it's not long enough to reach the bottom of tall jars.]
Beekeepers don't forget this is another product line you can sell. Non drip creamed honey is great for kids and not so messy. Moms have less clean up in the kitchen and that's a big selling point.
Honey can be stirred using an electric drill - see photo below. This is a paint stirring drill attachment that I purchased from the local hardware store.
More info on making Creamed Honey can be found through these links:Creamed Honey - Dyce Method
Wikipedia - Honey
38 comments:
Well, I just looked at the last 3 posts (been busy too) and learned a lot. I just had to un-crystalize some honey last week, and wish I would have read this first, but it seems fine. Thanks for all your shared knowledge!
Kat: Thanks for your comment. It is a busy time for sure. Don't blink... soon it'll be summer.
Will it still work if I just mix using a spoon if I don't have a hand mixer or a drill?
Hadley: Yes it will work. The mixing gets the crystals spread around so they can work faster. So with stirring if the crystals aren't in every part of the jar it just might take a little longer for the whole container to crystalize.
Enjoy!
I'm in Dufferin County myself, and a new beekeeper. We're hoping for our first harvest this year, and I can't wait to give this a try. My dad loves creamed honey!
Gecika: You can actually practice making creamed honey now by purchasing a jar of liquid honey and creamed honey. Add a teaspoon of creamed honey to the liquid and stir well. Put in the fridge and then wait a couple weeks. Presto!
Good luck with your beekeeping. If you have questions don't hesitate to ask.
I am delighted to have found your website! My question is this - how do I add a flavor when making creamed honey? My friends all know how much I love honey and recently I received a gift of raspberry creamed honey which is almost gone - it's delicious! Can I use the last tablespoon of it to make creamed honey using 100% natural honey, or will the flavor be lost?
Dear Anonymous: Thanks for your comments. Yes you can use the last tablespoon of the creamed honey as a starter culture for creamed honey. The raspberry flavour won't carry over though beyond the flavour on that teaspoon. I haven't researched (yet) on adding flavours but I believe you can spoon them in - so a raspberry syrup or jam that you think would be suitable could be mixed in. I would probably first do the creamed honey culture and wait for the jar to go to cream and then add your flavourings.... This has a ton of possibilities. I bought a Jalpeno Pepper and Raspberry creamed honey that is just amazing. Let me know how it turns out.
Honey Hive Farms,
Thank you, nice read... we were just talking about this today at a farmers market.
Tim Moore
www.HoneyHiveFarms.com
This is fabulous information! I recently had to heat some raw creamed honey to stop fermentation. It is now quite "liquidy". Will it return to creamed honey if I refrigerate it?
Anonymous: Hello. The heated honey will eventually crystalize again but would take some time. Putting it in the refrigerator would speed up the process. Or just add a teaspoonful of creamed honey to help it get going again.
I'm confused, to make creamed honey I just mix crystallized honey with clear and then place in fridge, or do I have to used Creamed honey and mix with clear honey ?
Eddie: To clarify some more - crystalized and creamed honey are the same thing. There is a bit of a difference in that store bought creamed honey is nice and smooth (so use that to make your clear honey crystalized).
Honey on it's own will crystalize over time but it won't be so nice and smooth.
Hi Eddie. Take a tablespoon or so of creamed honey and stir it thoroughly into clear honey.
The smooth crystals of the creamed honey will grow and multiply when in the clear honey and turn the clear honey into crystalized.
I hope that makes sense. Try it and let me know how it goes
Do you have to keep it refrigerated once you cream it?
Anonymous: Thanks for your excellent question. No, you don't have to keep the creamed honey in the fridge once it's fully creamed. You can leave it on the counter like regular honey.
I have honey that crystalized into large crystals and is so hard it won't scoop. The honey man at the farmers market said to blend my crystalized honey with a blender until the introduced air turns the crystals to a spun product...thus I should have a lovely, creamed honey. Said only a blender was needed so I didn't buy any "seed" honey though he sold whipped/spun honey.
I purchased a more powerful blender then gently warmed the outside area of my firm, crystalized honey, until I was able to scoop from the sides, placed the semi melted honey into Blendtech Blender and the blender kept stopping due to overload on the, quite powerful, motor. Wasn't working so I came to the internet.
Do I need to add 1:1 (big crystal honey to liquid raw honey). I read blending these two together at a slow rate would produce the desired whipped product. I now fear burning up my kitchen aid mixer trying this on even a slow and low speed. (example 1: big crystal added to raw liquid)
Will one TBS. seed (of already spun with small crystals) added to a quart of big crystal hard honey change the large crystals to small on it's own, after mixing well together?
Since I have hard, crystalized honey already would mixing with a seed (store bought spun honey, containing smoother crystals) cause my already hard crystals to reform?
What is the easiest route from here if I don't want to over heat my raw honey? Already purchased a $300.00 blender for this...fail.
I've never seen, nor looked for RAW, spun honey. I want to keep my product healthy for allergy prevention and other medicinal benefits; so, I wouldn't want to mix my raw with a heat processed "seed".
Unknown: Thanks for your post about creamed honey. From my understanding the honey would need to be liquid in order for the seed to reproduce it's crystal size.
Now, honey that crystalizes on it's own creates these square, kind of sharp crystals which just aren't pleasant on the tongue (there's nothing wrong with them). The seed used for creating the crystalized honey is specially made through a scientific process to create smooth round crystals which are very pleasant on the tonque.
So when beekeepers are making crystalized honey they don't (as far as I know) blend raw crystalized honey to chop up the crystals.
So any seed will not change already crystalized honey.
What I suggest, and this is what beekeepers do to preserve the quality of the raw honey, is to SLOWLY melt the honey under a low temperature. For example, boiling water, taking the water off the heat and setting the jar into the hot water and leaving it.
Other methods are to create a warming box by placing the jar in a box with a very low wattage light bulb. This is very effective but be careful! If the box gets too hot you could create a fire.
I hope this helps. Sorry about the blender idea. To the best of my knowledge that's not the way to do it and I believe it was bad advice.
After SLOWLY melting honey, as you describe, should I be able to take that newly liquid (all crystals melted) honey and add spun honey to obtain a spun honey? If, yes; what ratio? (3 tbs spun to 1 quart liquid?).
Anything else I should know besides just mixing those together and waiting?
Must I crystalize in the refrigerator or okay to do in the cupboard (realizing this method is slower)?
Thank you for this website and your support!
Unknown: The answer is YES. Once you have liquid honey you can then add the smooth crystals which will act as a seed to grow and spread in the liquid honey to turn it to creamed honey. The ratio doesn't matter except that the less seed you add the longer it will take to reproduce itself. I'd say anywhere from 1 to 3 tablespoons is good. It's best too to stir or whip the seed throughout the liquid honey so that is well mixed. It needs to refrigeration to speed up the crystallization. It will crystalize if sitting on the counter but would most likely take a while.
Let me know how it works out for you.
Can you use creamed honey in cooking and baking the same way you would use regular honey?
Hi Dawn. Yes you can used creamed honey just the same as liquid. Always lower the baking temperature a bit as honey can cause things to brown faster.
Liking all the conversation on creamed honey. A few things to point out to all people wanting to make creamed honey.
1. Your honey to cream must me fully liquid, so use the slow heat method with occasional stirring. This will take a lot of time and I suggest keeping the water like a bath. No hotter than 120.
2. Important step that I'm adding, let your honey cool! If you add your seed honey to the liquid honey while it is hot enough to melt your smooth crystals guess what? When your honey crystallizes it will go with nature and be large undesirable crystals.
3. So now that we have ensured the honey we will be adding the creamed honey to is at room temp use about 10% seed and blend this slowly into your honey. Slowly just to not put air into the mixture.
4. Put your honey in the jar or tub you want it in. Remember this will be thick and not liquid once it sets up, so use a shallow jar with a large open mouth to allow easy spoon or knife use.
5. Now just let some time go by. 57 degrees is the perfect temp, so if you have a garage store them out there. If its summer use a fridge. Once it has crystallized keeping it at room temp is fine. It will set at room temp, but like already said it just takes more time.
Now something to remember, should your creamed honey ever melt from getting to warm it will crystallize into the rough crystals. Therefore, keep it in a cupboard and it should be just fine so long as your not in a super hot, humid climate. If you do live is such a place keep it in your fridge.
I bought some creamed honey today and just mixed up some of it with some honey, after reading your blog. I can hardly wait!
I have some honey that creamed naturally, that should still work as my seed, right? It's smooth as butter
I have some honey that creamed naturally, that should still work as my seed, right? It's smooth as butter
BB,
After my blender mixing fail THEN, gratefully finding you:
I liquified one, very solid quart jar of sharply crystalized (natures process) honey in a sous vide (controlled temperature water bath). I did not want to heat over 110, to keep medicinal properties, so set temp for 109. Took almost two weeks, the last days of which I stirred the warmer sides into the firmer, solid middle.
I recall when making candy if even one large sugar crystal remains the candy (divinity in particular) will no longer keep the divine smooth consistency; instead multiplying the single rough crystal take and ruining the entire batch. I worked to be as through as possible with resolving those but feared, even after two weeks, there were likely see large crystals remaining. Maybe candy making is more particular due to the extremely high heat impacting crystal formation. Honey was more forgiving. I'll share more about success soon.
I found a creamed honey whose texture was sensuously pleasing (delightfully butter like - smooth" melt in mouth") and couldn't believe my "problem" jar could turn to such loveliness.
I had given much to my, now more sorry than ever seeming, honey batch (see blendtec, farmers market inquiries in my earlier blog post). The color was off and seemed as appealing to me now as concrete. But I persisted.
Unsure the sous vide was even enough but feeling two-to-three weeks of a water bath on my counter was "enough" I spooned the still stiff (not really pourable or something described as liquid) concerning experimental darkened color concoction and added a, generous, 1/4 cup of the smooth "seed" or "spun" honey. (I decided to error on the side of too much addition.)
I hand mixed, with a wooden spoon, as thoroughly as I could, hoping for the best. The decision to hand mix was based on homestead feelings in my heart and not wanting to whip air into the process. (Not sure air would have been destructive though.)
Bless you BB! The success of my batch has caused me to travel with my spun honey sharing the process in Oregon and across the nation!
As a gift or "thank you" I am turning friends honey into honey that will never go solid again and teach them to keep the love growing. One friend has stored hundreds of gallons (to assist her community in time of future "need"). I don't know how to help her with solid crystalized honey in five gallon barrels...maybe sit in the heat of the desert sun to liquify the solid mass. I could understand her pleasure upon learning this could be prevented from that moment forward. Joyous!
I still am using way more seed honey than necessary...to be "sure". I have never refrigerated due to the fear of hardening the honey I work to liquify. The honey goes creamy smooth when left at room temperature with great success.
Thank you for taking time and energy to create this "place". Your drop of teaching is rippling across the surface water and no doubt will be world wide knowledge to any commoner wanting to ALWAYS love their honey. I am in love with honey now more than ever, and I thank you for such!
S.Barton (Beaverton, Oregon)
Update/response
Pam: Yes some honeys will cream beautifully. I have some peppermint flavoured honey that is smooth as silk. You can reserve some of it to use as seed for other honeys to get them to crystallize.
Unknown: Thanks you for reporting on your great success with crystallizing honey. I'm so glad it worked for you and that you are spreading the good news! I am very glad my blog was helpful to you :)
I've been reading your archives, starting from the beginning, over the past few weeks. I've resisted commenting because even though my two years of beekeeping makes me more knowledgeable than 2009 you, I'm certainly less experienced than 2016 you!
I noticed that nobody has mentioned the method I used to make creamed honey. I took a jar of coarse granulated honey (which I've always loved, by the way. I've never been one of those people who thought it had gone BAD) and ground it down fine with a mortar and pestle. It turned smooth and creamy. I stirred that into jars of honey with a chopstick. It worked very well for me and saved me buying some starter.
Granny Roberta: If you used your ground up honey as seed and then added to liquid honey & refrigerate can you report on the results? My guess is that the honey will still replicate as sharp squares but I'm curious to hear your feedback.
Barbara, I have two batches made this way from 2015 which are absolutely smooth and spreadable. I have a batch from 2014 (my first year beekeeping) which is cut-with-a-butterknife solid, and dissolves on the tongue with tiny tiny grains which would flunk me if I had any interest in entering it in a judging, but which I love.)
The difference between solid and still spreadable I suspect is a difference in nectar source, since I read that different nectars have different tendencies to granulate.
The difference between absolutely smooth and crystals I suspect is a difference in how much effort I spent grinding it. It DOES take quite a bit of grinding.
Also, it's quick and easy to refrigerate it to set it, but we also have a cupboard on an outside wall, which will granulate honey quite nicely over the winter.
I started with store honey that had granulated, but going forward I'll use my 2014 creamed honey as starter. I'll grind it again when I'm ready for it.
By the way, your question lead me to get out some spoons and taste my batches of creamed honey by the spoonful. It was all for science, yes?!
How do you grind the crystals?
I grind them in a stone mortar with a stone pestle. The mortar bowl is about 3 ½ inches across and 2 inches deep. I think a smaller one would be very unsatisfactory.
FYI - I've emailed our tech team to ask if grinding the crystals is effective for seed. I question whether it will work long term because the method that was scientifically created called the Dyce Method works and is much more involved. This begs the question, if the grinding the cystals does the same thing then why the special Dyce method? I'll let you know what the results are.
I had to go re-read the Dyce method. He did say he ground crystals for seed. I think the complicated parts of his method are to prevent your creamed honey from fermenting. I have not had that problem SO FAR.
I also think the Dyce method is important if you're selling, because you never know how picky your customers are going to be.
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