Honey culinary art has evolved over the centuries. It was created by magnificent masters – culinary and confectioners, experienced and reputable kvasovars and mead.
Amazing variety of recipes for honey products. Honey turned out to be such a universal product, which does not limit the possibilities of creativity and imagination of culinary specialists and mead.
Perhaps most of all honey is eaten in kind. However, honey remains honey and in combination with other products – milk, flour products, fruits, berry and vegetable juices. He not only gives them unique taste combinations and aromas and enriches them, but also enriches himself with proteins, fats, vitamins, acquires new properties, increases its biological activity and healing effect.
Avicenna considered, in particular, goat milk with honey to be very useful. According to the authoritative opinion of dietologists, those who are fond of meat and flour products, honey is absolutely necessary. After all, fats, as you know, burn in the flame of carbohydrates, and bee honey is fabulously rich in them.
It is possible, and if possible, to replace honey with sugar when drinking tea or coffee, and in any products that require sweetening.
In this case, they put more honey than sugar and slightly reduce the amount of water. Our ancestors, who did not know beet and cane sugar, used only honey and prepared dishes and drinks of excellent taste, high nutrition, digestibility, usefulness, healing, without experiencing the effects of «white poison». Dishes and drinks with him were superior to modern in all respects.
The rich carbohydrate and microelement composition, a set of enzymes, organic acids, aromatic and coloring substances and other valuable biological stimulants put honey in one of the first places among the main food products.
different types of honey
The Japanese call honey the king of natural products. He, as an energy carrier, restores strength in the event of fatigue and weakness, gives clarity of thought, communicates the energy of life, normalizes the activity of the organism, and returns working capacity. Gladiators of Rome before leaving for deadly duels ate honey. It is now included in the food of athletes and astronauts. As if by nature itself, honey is intended for man, created in such a way that his most modern laboratory in the world is powerless to make.
Honey is a high-calorie food, a health product, and a natural medicine that has a healing effect on the body. It can be eaten with bread and cereals, milk and cottage cheese, fruits and juices, with fresh and even pickled cucumbers. Our ancestors liked to pour apples and pears, cherries, plums, strawberries, peaches, apricots, cut into slices with honey. After a few hours, these fruits and berries became unrecognizable taste.
This book contains recipes for dishes in which honey is used as one of the ingredients. And you can cook almost any dish with honey.
When using honey in cooking, the following should be considered:
• To sweeten the yeast dough, honey is added to the dough at the end of the fermentation process. This is necessary to preserve the taste and sweetness of honey;
• when cooking dishes in which honey is whipped together with live additives, crystallized honey is not dissolved;
• when making honey cookies, it is advisable to add a few drops of lemon acid or vinegar to baking soda;
• one tablespoon of liquid honey weighs approximately 20 g, one tablespoon of crystallized honey – 25 g.
beekeeping products
How to store honey. Bee honey is very well preserved. During long-term storage, it gradually thickens, becomes cloudy and turns into a dense mass due to the crystallization of glucose. The crystallization (sugaring) of natural honey indicates a high content of grape sugar (glucose) and good quality honey. Fructose does not crystallize, so honey varieties containing a lot of fructose do not thicken.
Sugared honey, if desired, can be turned into liquid by placing a jar of honey in warm water (temperature up to 50° C). Honey should not be heated over an open fire, since enzymes are destroyed at a temperature of 50° C, and honey loses many valuable qualities.
Sometimes when storing honey, two layers are found – crystallized from below and syrupy from above. This suggests that honey is immature, with high humidity. Such honey is not suitable for long-term storage.
Honey is very hygroscopic.
Honey should be stored at a temperature of +5—10° C in a dry, well-ventilated area, where there are no strongly smelling products, since honey easily perceives odors. The most convenient for storing honey is glassware, as well as barrels of linden, aspen, alder, poplar. In oak barrels, honey darkens.
In honeycombs or with proper storage, honey may not deteriorate for a very long time, since it has a very pronounced disinfecting property and has a detrimental effect on many microbes and molds.
delicacy
Bees are very ancient inhabitants of our planet, and they always played an important role in people’s lives. The most ancient monument – rock carvings of the hunt man for honey – found in Spain near the city Valencia. It belongs to the Stone Age. In all ancient peoples, bees occupied a special place in comparison with other insects and animals; about them composed myths, legends, legends, tales. In ancient Egypt the bee was revered and depicted on the obelisks. King Minos combining Upper and Lower Egypt, made the emblem of the Upper Egypt a lotus flower, Lower – a bee. In ancient India the bees were also especially revered. In folk poetry you can find a number of examples of wonderful activities bees.
A little culinary conclusion to this chapter
MEDOVY MUSS
Components:
honey – 1 cup
eggs – 4 pcs.
Separate the whites from the yolks, grind the yolks, gradually adding honey to them. After this, the crushed yolks boil over low heat until thick, stirring continuously, and, removing from heat, cool. Beat the egg whites in a thick foam and combine with boiled yolks, then transfer the mousse to saucers or vases and cool.
Instead of egg whites, you can put a glass of whipped cream in the mousse.
Chapter Two. Sandwiches
Sandwiches are cold dishes and snacks, sometimes to desserts. They are part of the breakfast. and dinners, they are served as appetizers for dinners, on holiday and banquet tables. Among various used products applied and honey. He gives sandwiches are not only particularly nutritious, but also originality, piquancy. Distinguish such sandwiches: open, closed, snack bars and «Assorted.»
Open sandwiches. For these sandwiches use sliced wheat or rye bread slices 10x7x1 cm in size. On a sandwich you can stack one type of product or several components, matching to taste. It could be sandwiches with butter, honey and cottage cheese. Special unusual and tasteful sandwich of honey, butter, cheese and apple.
Closed sandwiches (sandwiches) are prepared on wheat bread, which is cut into strips 5—6 cm wide and 0.5—0.6 cm thick along the length of the whole loaf or loaf, the crusts are removed, the bread is greased with a thin layer of softened butter and honey, and then other ingredients you like, cover with another same strip of bread, then cut into sandwiches of the desired shape. These sandwiches can be made single-layer, as well as 2-, 3-layer and combined.
Snack sandwiches (canapes) are prepared in various shapes: round (with a diameter of 5—6 cm), triangular, rectangular (no larger than a matchbox). In their form, they resemble small cakes. They are