You are what you eat

Florida establishes nation's first honey regulation

It may come as a surprise to most consumers that the U.S. has no established definition of honey, nor are national regulations in place that would keep adulterated honey from being sold as pure honey.

Frustration with the situation has prompted the state of Florida to enact a regulation that

is being touted as the first regulation in the nation - and possibly in the world - requiring that any product that is produced, processed or sold in Florida as honey must be "natural food product resulting from the harvest of nectar by honeybees."

If the product includes sugar water, flavorings, antibiotics sprayed into hives to keep bees healthy or anything else that is not honey produced by bees, it cannot be sold as honey in Florida.

It's high time that the US passed such a "Standard of Identity." As I posted earlier, the lack of standards has resulted in problems with imported honey, particularly from China and India.

Kudos to the state of Florida and the beekeepers who pressed for such regulation. I just wish the FDA would follow suit. In the meantime, your best bet is to buy from local producers of honey.

Funny honey, honey laundering, and other crimes against nature

If you like honey--and many of us have switched to honey for baking and other sweetening needs--you need to be aware that not only is there some counterfeit honey being sold in the U.S., but also honey that's been "laundered"--like drug money--and honey containing banned antibiotics.

As usual, China is the major culprit in all cases. Honey from China may contain traces of chloramphenicol, an antibiotic Chinese beekeepers use in their hives to prevent disease. Chloramphenicol has been banned by the FDA for use in any food product. Two other antibiotics, iprofloxacin and Enrofloxacin, have also recently been the cause of import alerts issued by the FDA.

Knowing that the U.S. has rules in place against the use of chloramphenicol in food products, and also desiring to avoid U.S. tariffs and inspections, China often "transships" honey: honey is shipped from China to another country and then from that country to the U.S., with bogus papers and export labels.

According to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer,

honey brokers, bee experts and foreign customs officials say they're suspicious that seven of the top 12 countries appear to be exporting far more honey than their domestic bees produce or their export agencies acknowledge. These countries include Vietnam, India, Thailand, Russia, Taiwan, Indonesia and Malaysia.

[snip]

Countries that have few if any commercial beekeepers, such as Singapore, are now exporting significant quantities of honey, records show. That includes the Grand Bahamas, which has been listed as the country of origin for honey shipped into Houston, authorities say.

"I have a difficult time seeing the Grand Bahamas as a major honey producer," said David Westervelt, a Florida state apiculture inspector. "It's an island. You move bees on there and they'll die."

And then there's the question of what's actually in the bottle that's labeled "Honey." If it came from China or India, it may not much resemble honey after having been

put through an ultra-filtration process that is meant to remove contaminants. Honey is heavily diluted with water, then repeatedly boiled and filtered until it returns to a more natural consistency. Those who have tested and tasted the filtered brew said the process can completely remove all traces of contaminants, "including the color."

But there's a downside.

"In the process of taking out the chemicals, they also take out all the good qualities of the honey. What the consumer is left with is a very low-quality, sweet product -- but certainly not honey," said Mark Brady, president of the American Honey Producers Association.

"If it is cheap and packers can use it to blend into other dark, cheap honey to make it lighter in color and taste a tad better, the ignorant general consumer is none the wiser. Caveat emptor," he warned.

Additionally, the honey may be adulterated with sugar or syrups. Unfortunately, the U.S. has no standards as to what constitutes honey, so it's impossible to take legal action. Got that? No legal definition or standard as to what constitutes honey.

You should also be aware that there is no such thing, according to those in the honey business, as U.S. organic honey. Honey bees travel far and wide, up to two and a half miles, so that they are pretty much always in the vicinity of pesticides and other pollutants. It IS possible to buy organic honey produced in Canada or Argentina, but the U.S. is too heavily developed for organic honey to be a possibility outside of, one imagines, some isolated area that would yield only enough honey for a few local people.

Also, "U.S. Grade A" and other such claims on the label are completely meaningless, as the USDA does not grade honey nor have any such standards. 

So, caveat emptor, honey-lovers. Your best bet, of course, is to buy honey locally. You can usually find locally produced honey at farmer's markets--I'd want to speak to the seller and get a feel for whether the honey is really produced locally--and sometimes from local stores or farm stands that stock local produce and items like locally collected and processed maple syrup and honey. We buy our honey from Honeyflow Farm, where a customer can actually see a glassed-in hive with the bees hard at work, and where the honey comes out of a big barrel and flows into the container the customer brings. (The Farm has a mail order business, as well, offering containers of honey.)

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I want to know where my food comes from, and I want to know what's in it. That's why, wherever possible, we're locavores, and that's why we cook from scratch. When people mess with a natural ambrosia like honey, you know we're living in a really dysfunctional world.

Instead of processed: tartar sauce

Well, this isn't entirely un-processed, as I use commercial mayonnaise (although, come to think of it, now that I'm getting eggs from a nearby farm, I could make my own mayo safely). It is well known that I use only Hellman's, and that I never, ever touch the "lite" or low-fat or whatever it is variety. Of course, all cooks suit themselves and those who will dine on their creations, so suit yourself!

I started making tartar sauce when a jar of the commercial stuff that I had in the fridge looked pretty iffy--it was rather old and not very appetizing. Now I just make a small quantity whenever we have fish; I no longer have ancient jars of it to wonder about or toss out. It's fast, simple, and can be varied in numerous small ways if you like. Usually I use home-made dill relish (I can it during cucumber season) instead of the chopped pickle, but last night I had neither relish nor dill pickles, so I simply chopped up some dilled green beans (canned last summer). They worked fine--Jim didn't know they were beans until I told him.

This is the quantity I make for the two of us. Sometimes I have a tablespoon or two to throw out, but it's better than throwing away half-full jars. If I know we'll be having fish again within the week, I'll make a little extra and keep it refrigerated.

Tartar sauce

1/2 cup mayonnaise (I don't actually measure, just eyeball it)
1 T. or more, to taste, dill relish or chopped dill pickle
1 T. minced or grated onion
1 T. parsley, minced (opt.)
1/2 T. capers (opt.)
1/2 T. lemon juice, or to taste
1/8 tsp. salt, or to taste

Just mix the ingredients together. I sometimes put some dried dill in, especially if I'm too rushed or lazy to deal with the parsley. Chopped stuffed green olives also make a good addition.

Herb-infused vinegars

The herb garden is just too abundant right now, and I'm barely keeping up. I've already dried several kinds of herbs, and have more to go. Oregano and tarragon have seen two harvests so far, and I'm about to harvest thyme again. Sage, mint, lavender, lemon thyme, and basil are ready, too.

And it's time to make the herbal vinegars. These make beautiful gifts and add pizzazz to home-made  vinaigrette. They save time, because the herbal flavors are already right in the vinegar and don't have to be added when you make the salad dressing. Herbal vinegars are also wonderful in marinades or basting sauces.

There are two basic methods for extracting the flavor of the herbs. You can place the fresh herbs in a jar and pour vinegar over them, letting them stand in a sunny window for a couple of weeks, turning the jar regularly. Or you can pour boiling vinegar over the herbs and let them steep until cool. (I use the second method). I like to let the herbs continue to steep for a week or so. Whatever method you use, after steeping, strain out the herbs (I use a basket-type coffee filter in a sieve for this), and when you bottle the vinegar, add some fresh sprigs of herb to the bottle. Adding the flowers of the herb(s) is especially pretty and, if you're using white wine vinegar, will add color to the concoction (provided the flowers aren't white, of course!).

It's important to use good vinegar. Distilled white vinegar is too harsh for salad dressings (in my opinion; if you disagree, go for it!), so go with white or red wine vinegar, or sherry vinegar, champagne vinegar, cider vinegar, etc. I have also used rice wine vinegar in some infusions.

For bottles, there are several options. You can buy corked bottles at various stores (I bought some at Meijer). You can use wine bottles if the cork still fits. I've used saved and cleaned olive oil and vinegar bottles, liqueur bottles, and hot sauce bottles, as well as those beer bottles that have the wire bail ceramic-and-rubber stoppers (see here if you don't know what I'm talking about). Colored glass won't show off the herb sprigs inside, but if you're using red wine vinegar, that doesn't matter so much.

Store your herbal vinegars in a cool, dark place. I've had some of mine for a year now, and they are still good--but most sources say you should use them up within 4-6 months. Mine smell great, have no mold, etc., and with a 6% vinegar acidity, I'm not too worried.

You can experiment infinitely with herbal combinations in various kinds of vinegars, but I offer a few recipes here to get you started. You can also get some ideas at this site (although I quibble with some of her information--for example, I haven't found sterilization of the bottles nor waxing of corks to be necessary). And remember that you can use a single type of herb to flavor vinegar--tarragon vinegar and garlic vinegar are two of the most popular herbal varieties to be found in the stores.

Garlic Basil Vinegar

This simple recipe makes an incredibly flavorful vinegar. I double or triple it, because I know my daughter will want at least a quart and I'm going to need that much myself. This is a fine marinade as well as a great salad dressing ingredient.

1 cup (or more) basil leaves
8 cloves garlic, crushed
4 cups red wine vinegar

Wash, rinse in very hot water, and dry a suitable jar (or two, if need be). Place the garlic and basil in the jar (divide evenly among two jars if you need to). Heat the vinegar to boiling. Pour the hot vinegar over the herbs. Let the herbs steep until the mixture is cool. Pour into the jar or jars. Cap tightly and let steep for another week in a cool, dark place. Strain out herbs, using a sieve lined with several layers of cheesecloth or a coffee filter. Pour vinegar into clean bottle(s). Add one or two fresh basil sprigs, including flowers if available, to the bottle(s). Cork or cap and store in a cool, dark place.

Provencal Vinegar

This one uses several fresh herbs. If you don't have some of them, don't worry about it, or replace fresh with dried.

1 sprig rosemary
1 sprig thyme
2 bay leaves
2 sprigs marjoram
1 sprig savory
1 sprig lavender
2 garlic cloves
4 cups white wine vinegar

Proceed as in recipe above. When adding fresh sprigs, try to include some of the lavender flowers.

Italian Country Vinegar

2 sprigs rosemary
4 sprigs oregano
1 sprig sage
3 small stems basil
2 sprigs parsley
1 garlic clove
1 T. black peppercorns
4 cups red wine vinegar

Proceed as in "Garlic Basil Vinegar."

Honey

Of late, I've been trying to get into the habit of using honey instead of sugar. We buy unpasteurized honey from nearby Honeyflow Farm, which grows U-pick grapes and collects honey from its many hives (they are open only in September and October, but honey, beeswax candles, and honey soap can be ordered on-line). Unpasteurized, not supermarket, honey provides maximum health benefits, as no enzymes or other naturally occurring substances are destroyed. The honey we buy is strained but not completely filtered, and it's darker than most honey offered by supermarkets.

Why honey?

First, unlike sugar, honey contains vitamins, minerals, and amino acids (among other substances). That makes it an actual food, not just a sweetener. In addition, it's recently been discovered that honey is a powerful anti-oxidant, and that the darker the honey, the greater the anti-oxidant effect. Another study shows that eating honey may increase calcium absorption. And yet another suggests that honey does not affect blood sugar levels as greatly as sugar; while it does raise blood sugar levels like any other sugar, the blood sugar level does not rise or drop as suddenly:

A limited study at the University of Memphis Exercise and Sports Nutrition Laboratory found honey to be one of the most effective forms of carbohydrate gels to ingest just prior to exercise. According to Dr. Richard Kreider, the study’s lead investigator, “honey appears to be a carbohydrate source that is relatively mild on its effects upon blood sugar compared to other carbohydrate sources.”

(See this as well.)

We can sum it up this way:

Honey contains at least 15 nutrients whereas sugar has none. Honey is an aid to digestion when taken in the raw state due to its enzyme content while sugar interferes with digestion. Honey enters the bloodstream slowly, 2 calories per minute. Sugar enters quickly at 10 calories per minute, causing blood sugars to fluctuate rapidly and wildly. Sugar causes calcium leakage from bones, contributing to osteoporosis while honey does not.

In addition, at least one study indicates that honey may boost the growth of beneficial probiotic bacteria in the gut. Supplements to increase probiotic bacteria are a big business, intended to re-establish natural gut flora after a course of antibiotics or the loss of such flora due to other causes, such as stress, disease, or exposure to toxins.

While honey has more calories per tablespoon than sugar--64 vs. 48--honey is sweeter than sugar, so less is needed: about one tablespoon of honey gives the sweetness of one-and-a half tablespoons of sugar, or one-third less sweetener. So in actuality, using honey does not have to mean more calories. 

In baking, honey adds moistness (moistness that lasts longer, too) and superior flavor. Advice varies on substituting honey for sugar in a given recipe and is a matter of taste, with some people using a cup of honey for a cup of sugar, and others using  2/3 or 3/4 cup honey per cup  of sugar. I find that 2/3 cup works very well. For every cup of honey used, decrease the liquid in the recipe by 1/4. The oven temperature must be lowered by 25 degrees to prevent over-browning. Some people also add 1/4 tsp. of baking soda per cup of honey, because honey is highly acidic and the soda offsets that. I've never resorted to that and so far have had good results.

Of course there are some things for which honey can't be used, such as streusel-type toppings (for that I would look for the least processed brown sugar I could find in the store, such as turbinado [made by steaming unrefined raw sugar]).

Honey does not mold or "go bad," due to its antimicrobial and antifungal properties and its high acidity. It may crystallize, but all you have to do is let the container sit in some hot water and the honey will become liquid again.

According to folklore, there are many other benefits to using honey, some of which may yet be borne out by scientific studies. And honey is also being used in Europe and elsewhere outside the U.S. to treat gastric ulcers and skin wounds, burns, and infections, succeeding even in combating antibiotic-resistent bacteria.

Switching from sugar to honey makes sense, and your taste buds will appreciate it, too. Honey should be a part of your diet, especially if you're trying to cut down on processed foods.

Spiced honey

This delicious honey can be spread on toast or used to sweeten your tea, coffee, or cereal.

For instructions on how to process in a boiling-water bath, see the entry on honey mustard.

• 1 lemon
• 12 whole cloves
• 3 sticks cinnamon
• 2 and 2/3 cups honey

Cut lemon into 6 thin slices. Place two cloves in each slice. Put lemon slices, cinnamon sticks, and honey in saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Place a cinnamon stick and two lemon slices into each jar. Ladle hot honey into hot jars, leaving 1/4-inch headspace. Process 10 minutes in a boiling-water bath.

Honey mustard

Homemade mustards are a treat. You can vary the spices and herbs, as well as the liquid with which the dry mustard is mixed (water, wine, beer, vinegar). Your homemade mustard will be very zesty at first, but will mellow over time.

Most mustard recipes don't require processing in a boiling-water bath as long as they are refrigerated, but this one contains eggs and so requires processing and sealing. If you have never done this, don't panic or back away--it's not really difficult. You will need half-pint canning jars, lids, and rings. I also suggest that you purchase a jar-lifter and a lid-lifter (the latter is a rod with a magnet on the end of it). You can probably rig something up if you don't want to buy these items, but chances are, once you see for yourself how easy this whole processing thing is, you'll find yourself doing it again. I have seen people use tongs to lift jars out of hot water, and a book I have shows a wire coat hanger bent in such a way that it can lift lids out of the water. I feel safer, though, having the proper tools, especially in the case of the jar-lifter.

To process jars:

You'll need a pot for scalding the jars, a covered stockpot for processing the jars, a saucepan for making the mustard itself, and a small saucepan for the lids. This recipe makes two half-pints, so you shouldn't need a terribly large pot for scalding. For processing, you need a pot deep enough to cover the jars with at least an inch of water, with space above that to accommodate rapidly boiling water (I use an 8- or 9-quart stockpot). Since the jars need to sit on a rack, I use a round cake-cooling rack that I place in the bottom of the pot.

Bring water to a boil in a pot large enough to hold two half-pint jars for scalding. Also start heating the water in your processing pot. While the water heats, wash and rinse your lids, jars, and rings. Place the lids in a small saucepan of hot water and keep the water hot on the stove--but do not let the water boil.

Place the jars in the scalding water and leave them there until needed. The water does not have to boil continually--it just needs to remain very hot.

Make the mustard (recipe follows). Place a doubled kitchen towel (I don't use the terrycloth ones but rather the lint-free type, just personal preference) on the counter next to the stove. Make sure the processing water is boiling. Fill the scalded jars (which you've placed on the towel--you don't want a cold countertop to crack them) with the mustard. Be careful not to burn yourself as you remove and drain the hot jars, and as you ladle or pour the mustard into the jars, leaving a headspace of 1/4 inch. I use a wide funnel in filling the jars that helps keep the mustard (or jam or honey or sauce) from getting on the rim of the jar, but you don't really need this. With a damp towel or paper towel, wipe any drips off the jar rim. Take a lid out of the water and place it on the jar; screw the ring on tightly. I use a potholder to hold the hot jar while I screw the cap on.

When you've filled the jars, lower them into the by now boiling water (at least it had better be boiling!). When the water comes back to a boil, start timing. The jars need to be processed for 10 minutes. Remove the jars, placing them on a doubled kitchen towel.

As the jars cool, they will (or should!) seal. You will most likely hear them pop loudly, but that doesn't always happen. Within a few minutes, you should hear that popping sound, or you should be able to notice that the jar lid has become concave.

Let the jars cool completely before storing or wrapping. If you like, you can remove the metal screw bands and, for gift giving, use a plastic jar lid over the canning lid (you can buy these where canning supplies are sold, if you want to do this). That way the giftee can toss the metal lid (which isn't reusable) and simply use the plastic one.

The recipe:

I buy my honey from a local source, Honeyflow Farm, and my mustard from Penzeys.

• 1/3 cup honey
• 3/4 cup dry mustard
• 1 cup cider vinegar
• 3 eggs

Combine all the ingredients in a saucepan, stirring or whisking until smooth. Bring to a simmer and cook for 8 to 10 minutes, or until thick and smooth, stirring occasionally. Process in a boiling-water bath for 10 minutes. Refrigerate after opening.