Honey

About honey

Honey has always been considered a valuable and important source of nutrition. Therefore, honey has played an important role in the healing arts, religious rites and ceremonies of past cultures.

Honey, beeswax and the industrious bee have left traces in almost all cultures and religions.

Daily intake of honey has always been considered a guarantee of good health and old age.

Pythagoras and his disciples followed a diet whose main ingredient was a mixture of honey and milk, ambrosia.

Bishop Mennander brought the first bee colony from Estonia to Finland in 1760. However, the bee society died quite quickly. Five years later, Professor Pehr Kalm brought bee colonies to Turku University's garden, and beekeeping then began to spread from there.

The world's oldest beehives found - in Israel

It is clear when archaeologists in northern Israel have now found the remains of thirty almost 3,000-year-old beehives. According to archaeologist Amihai Mazar of the University of Jerusalem, the beekeeping was very well organized and tangible proof that the honey production previously seen described in texts really existed.

In addition to being used as food, honey was also used in religious and medicinal contexts during antiquity, but no previous finds are as old or extensive as these.

Source:

Research and progress Henrik Höjer

USE AND STORAGE OF THE HONEY

Can you keep honey in the fridge?

How should honey be stored? Honey is best stored in the dark at an even and low temperature. If it is to be stored for up to a year, it goes well in the refrigerator . That honey that is used every day can preferably be at room temperature, which means that the flavor and aromas come to their full potential.

  • It pays to store the honey at room temperature on the kitchen counter or in the kitchen cupboard. It is not suitable to store the honey in the refrigerator or in a damp cellar, because the honey is hygroscopic and easily absorbs moisture and smells.

  • Properly stored honey lasts at least two years, often even longer. One's own sense of smell and taste is a good gauge of whether the honey can still be used.

  • Crystallized honey is easily liquefied by heating it in a water bath, but not above 40 degrees.

  • Honey can also be frozen. Then the crystallization of the honey is noticeably delayed. That's why many people buy fresh honey in the fall and freeze it. When the honey thaws, it is usually liquid again.

  • The enzymes in the honey can be destroyed by heat. The health-promoting substances in the honey are best preserved if you do not heat the honey above 40 degrees. When you put honey, for example, in hot tea, no more than a small amount of enzymes have time to be destroyed.

  • When baking, 1 dl of granulated sugar corresponds to 3/4 dl of honey. Honey contains about 20% water, which means that it pays to reduce a little on the other liquid in the recipe.