Creamed honey is

honey Honey is a sweet and viscous substance made by several species of bees, the best-known of which are honey bees. Honey is made and stored to nourish bee colonies. Bees produce honey by gathering and then refining the sugary secretions of pl ...

that has been processed to control

crystallization Crystallization is a process that leads to solids with highly organized Atom, atoms or Molecule, molecules, i.e. a crystal. The ordered nature of a crystalline solid can be contrasted with amorphous solids in which atoms or molecules lack regu ...

. Also known as honey fondant, soft set honey, or whipped honey, it has a smooth, spreadable consistency and lighter color than liquid honey of the same floral type. A method for producing creamed honey was first

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...

ed in 1935, and other methods have since been devised.

Description

Creamed honey contains a large number of small crystals, which prevent the formation of larger crystals that can occur in unprocessed honey. The processing also produces a honey with a smooth spreadable consistency. Because it is the glucose that crystallizes in the honey, and because glucose crystals are naturally pure white, creamed honey is always lighter-colored than liquid honey of the same floral type. Creamed honey stays in its creamy consistency indefinitely if stored at approximately .

Production methods

* The Dyce Method Creamed honey was developed by Elton J. Dyce in the early 1930s. In the key production step, microscopic

seed crystal A seed crystal is a small piece of single crystal or polycrystal material from which a large crystal of typically the same material is grown in a laboratory. Used to replicate material, the use of seed crystal to promote growth avoids the otherwi ...

s are added to liquid honey. Then paddles intermittently stir the honey mixture while it is kept between ; creaming completes in 2–3 days. Dyce used the high heat of

pasteurization In food processing, pasteurization (American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), also pasteurisation) is a process of food preservation in which packaged foods (e.g., milk and fruit juices) are treated wi ...

to ensure that his honey source did not already contain crystals too large for the process, but modern techniques instead use fresh raw, liquid honey at a ratio of 1:10 or larger. The latter yields a batch of creamed honey in approximately 80 hours. * Variations on the Dyce Method Instead of pasteurization, fresh honey that has not yet crystallized can be used. Using the fresh honey keeps the naturally present enzymes intact, while pasteurization will denature the enzymes. All other steps remain the same as listed in the Dyce Method.

References

Honey dishes Creamy dishes {{ingredient-stub