Is raw honey safe?

This one is a bit out of left field, but I was thinking of trying either or both

or

for guest use. Probably nobody else would partake. Personally I’m not partial to sugar outside chocolate. But honey on bread seems like an European thing.

Probably the Farm Naturelle one first, since that is Amazon Prime.

But it looks like they might both be raw honey - it’s not entirely clear. The Farm Naturelle explicitly says so - the Societe Naturelle one does not.

So, my question is - is raw honey safe? Should I be offering it to guests?

And these are fairly random selections, based on what little information is provided by customer reviews, and of course price. I don’t know anything about honey.

Addendum: found this Stack Exchange answer: “Is raw honey safe to consume?”.

Try them out! I wanna know if they taste better. Farmer markets have honey you can buy
My favourite is from Beechworth:

Try it out! Don’t think it’s raw but it’s honeycombed

I’ve found that very few people, Europeans included, eat honey. I now have several jars unused, including one a guest from Arizona bought as a gift; Prickly Pear. TBH, I wouldn’t bother. I find that good quality raspberry jam, and blackberry or apricot, go very quickly, marmalade less so.

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Interesting - I wasn’t expecting to hear that. What do you think is the reason for this? There certainly seem to be people buying it on Amazon India, and presumably internationally.

I have no idea I’m afraid. It seems popular as a healthy foodstuff but it still doesn’t get eaten here. I don’t personally like it either; too sweet. I only use it for basting a leg of lamb with mint sauce before roasting; lovely sauce makings! I think the mint off sets the sweetness.

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I see. Have others had similar experiences with guests not favoring honey?

A surprising number of my guests have requested honey with their breakfasts, even though it is not on my list of breakfast options. Since it is wildly expensive, I do not hand them the whole bottle but instead pour some into a .5 oz glass jar with top. They mostly use the honey to sweeten the plain yogurt that is one of the breakfast options.

I use raw honey to make granola, so always have it on hand and to be honest, I have never worried about the safety of honey. Not sure why you would add such an expensive offering to your overhead if it isn’t something you want to have for you and your family.

We’re in the UK, but we go to the Greek islands every summer to an island that’s famous for its honey - in fact there’s a shop devoted to the product at the island’s little ferry port and it’s always busy. The honey tends to be quite dark and not too sweet - more like soft toffee. We always bring back a couple of kilo jars and it goes down a treat with our guests!

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Hi @smtucker,

Thank you very much for the feedback.

I guess I was just looking to “spice up” my breakfast offering a bit. Not that many people go for it, because I offer it relatively late. And I don’t currently offer any spreads. Call it an experiment.

And it’s not really super expensive here, though I suppose it depends on how much people eat. Would they eat large quantities of something so sweet? The one I was thinking of is like $12 for a 1.25 kg jar. I wouldn’t give them the whole jar, of course. They would probably dip stuff in there - it would be extremely unsanitary.

What other spreads would you recommend instead?

Number one item here is strawberry jam. They don’t eat the marmalade. They eat strawberry jam. I do individual containers since it also turns out that most people have no idea how to use a serving spoon for jam, and then a separate knife [THAT DOESN’T GO IN THE JAR] to smear the jam on their toast. Don’t get me started on butter!

Here is what I purchase:

I buy a several cases at a time to get free shipping and the bulk discount. My cost is $.50 which is high, but people seem to enjoy this little bit of “hotel” luxury. We save all those little jars. Some get used for honey.

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Hi @anon67190644,

It sounds like I should buy some strawberry jam. Though I don’t think the honey is really that expensive.

I think it’s a given that people presented with a jar of preserve or honey (is honey a preserve?) will make a mess. How much of a mess, I don’t know, and don’t really want to find out. I was planning to just give each guest (or pair of guests), a bit of whatever it was in a separate container. Of course, I do have someone else to do such things for me. Buying small containers doesn’t seem necessary.

Its a few years since i did any breakfasts, Maple Syrup & pancakes was always popular along with Eggs Benedict

Raw honey is safe to eat, certainly; one of nature’s best things. They found honey in Egyptian tombs that was still edible.

Don’t buy jam. If you have a microwave and food processor or blender, you can make Ten Minute Marmalade from any citrus fruit. I’ve been doing this for years!

My Florida Special Marmalade is 1 large orange, 1 large lemon, and 1 large lime. A Ruby Red grapefruit makes a nice batch as does 2 or 3 large oranges, etc. Moro or Blood Orange makes The Best!! The fruit MUST be citrus as only that kind has enough natural pectin to set up properly. Lemon, lime, orange, loquat, kumquat, pummelo, buddah hand, grapefruit, it’s all good.

Chop up the fruit – seeds, pith, juice, skin and all – into thumb sized pieces. Take it for a spin in the blender or food processor until it’s a puree with small bits of skin in it.

Measure the puree into a large microwave safe glass bowl. To that add the same measure of sugar – cup for cup.

The kind of sugar does not matter, except that brown sugar will affect the taste, and what we American’s call “confectioner’s sugar” will just clump up. For the diet conscious, you can use Splenda ™, but not honey, stevia or those kinds of things (it’s a volume issue…)

Stir the puree to dissolve the sugar into fruit. Taste. Too sweet? Add some lemon or lime puree. Too tart? Add a bit more sugar.

Microwave the fruit mix on High for 5 minutes. Then stir and taste – you can still adjust the flavor. Microwave on high for an additional 5 minutes. Spoon into screw top jars and let cool to room temperature before lidding. Store in the fridge. It will last in the fridge until you eat it – or a year!

I make quart batches of 2 or 3 kinds to keep around for ourselves and guests. I serve it to guests as a dollop in a ramekin.

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Thank you for the recipe, @KenH. That’s very interesting. And yes, we have a microwave and a food processor. Though I hope you’re not suggesting that you can do all that in 10 minutes. You don’t happen to have a video to hand, do you?

Addendum: Youtube has a lot of videos on how to make marmalade. But I’m not sure which of them would have the Good Housekeeping (I mean the @KenH) seal of approval. Pointers welcome.

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So true! The one that gets me is the sugar bowl. I put a spoon in the sugar bowl and separate spoon next to it to stir. Yet so many use the sugar bowl spoon to stir and then put it back in the sugar bowl!
As far as honey goes, we do have some on hand but it rarely gets used. Some folks like it in oatmeal or tea instead of sugar. The great thing about honey is that it lasts almost forever without going bad.

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Sometimes I have to laugh at our advice. 3 people tell you no one touches the marmalade so Ken gives you a recipe. On another thread one experienced host said don’t go on VRBO and Airbnb at the same time; another experienced host said jump into both together.

I don’t know how anyone sifts through all this contradictory advice.

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Etiquette & decorum to words that have been replaced with Sod it and stuff that

No video, but I’ve written about this in my food blog numerous times. The cooking takes 10 minutes, but chopping the fruit, processing it and stirring in sugar hardly takes another 10 minutes – 4 or 6 knife strokes to chop the fruit, a 2 minute trip in the food processor, a minute to measure the fruit into the bowl and another to add and stir in the sugar.

What do you mean by ‘raw’ honey?
If it is processed it is then not honey just sugar as heating destroys the enzymes that are in honey. Honey keeps for ever!
The best honey is from your nearest neighbour as it has wonderful health properties and helps combat allergies.

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That sounds impressively efficient. But I guess that’s the difference between a chef and the rest of us.

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