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Much to my dismay this weekend, I found that my lovely jar of Croatian honey had crystallized!
I am ashamed to admit that in my earlier, pre-VSF days I had actually thrown out a half-used jar of honey because it went hard. (I know, I know, I’m cringing now too).
But now that I’m enlightened and eco-conscious (or at least thrifty), I decided to try two ways of softening this jar of honey to see which is best.
1) Traditional Technique: Sit honey in a bowl of hot water until it softens
Result: After one hour of sitting in the water, the honey was only somewhat softened. OK, maybe I should have used a bigger bowl. Or better yet, I should have put it in a pan of boiling water, so the water would remain hot. This method will work, but it’s slow-going. Here’s the semi-softened honey:
2. Modern Method: Microwave!
Admittedly, this worked really well. I put it in the microwave on medium for about 1 minute, and voila, liquid honey!
Verdict:
In this case, the modern method won, hands-down. Softening the honey in the microwave was really quick, and it is still liquid the next morning. I would continue to use this method, assuming my honey was in a glass jar. If it was a plastic bottle of honey you might want to stick with the hot-water method, since people debate the safety of microwaving plastics.
[Update Feb 2012: If you're using honey to get medicinal/health benefits from it - I wouldn't use the microwave method anymore. I would set the honey in shallow pan with a bit of hot water on the stove, and melt it that way. Yes, it's slower, but I think the microwave will kill any benefit from buying high-end nutritional honeys!]
Now that you’ve got some honey, looking for something to do with it? How about using it as a beauty treatment? Or making a tasty hot drink?
For what it’s worth, this afternoon I had a plastic bottle of honey shaped like a bear from the grocery store, and the honey is completely chunky and hard. I put it in the microwave for 8 seconds, but after 3-4, I started seeing sparks. The plastic around the rim where the cap is was burned! I’m guessing the cap ( which I left on, but opened) has a metallic ring around it that I didn’t see.
Yikes. Hope it worked better once you removed the cap! If you can’t, guess you have to try the water method…
When u use a microwave to heat honey it destroys the enzymes in the honey and it no longer medicinal yet it stikk taste good. so u have consider what u are doing with it.
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