How to store honey at home

Honey. So different and always useful. Aromatic delicacy, a storehouse of vitamins and enzymes. He should be in every house all the time. But not everyone knows how to store honey at home. In order to enjoy a pleasant and useful product as long as possible, you need to follow some recommendations.

Optimal conditions

Before tidying up the container with a useful delicacy for storage, you need to decide where exactly it was decided to put it. For example, sunlight is detrimental to honey. It is heated, and at temperatures above + 40 ° C turns into a mixture of carbohydrates. That is, it becomes just a fragrant sweetness without valuable substances. Therefore, the first rule: darkness is obligatory.

The second rule: honey storage temperature is from +1 to + 20 ° С. Falls lower - it will freeze, rises higher - you get a splitting of enzymes.

CouncilSweet amber should be stored at the same temperature. They chose one place, even if it stands there.

Rule three: the humidity of the ambient air - no more than 60-65%. The cellar is damp, the fridge too. Honey - a substance very hygroscopic, remarkably absorbs moisture from the environment. After that, it starts souring, wandering, deteriorating.

The fourth condition: no strongly smelling substances nearby. Any smells, pleasant or not, honey takes over quickly enough. It will be unpleasant, getting a jar to try with buns and tea, sweetie with the aroma of sausage or garlic.

Council The ideal place to store honey at home is the cupboard where the groceries are located. Cereals have no pronounced aroma, it is dark, dry and cool there.

What to store honey

The best capacity is a wooden barrel of non-resinous rocks. For example, birch, maple, ash, lime. Only not oak. Delicacy will quickly turn black and go sour. If it is possible to treat the surface of the barrel with beeswax from the inside - it is generally excellent! Sometimes some amount of propolis is added to the wax,then treated with this mixture barrel. This creates an additional protective film and protects the contents from harmful oxidative processes.

The birch bark is also ideal for storing honey. Birch, natural, without chemical impurities. What could be more convenient?

True, to get such a capacity is not always possible.

A good option can be a clay or ceramic pot. It is worth remembering Winnie the Pooh, and he knew something about honey! Clay can be either glazed or uncoated. Close the pot made wax paper. Beautiful, original, comfortable.

The only negative is that pots of large volume are rarely found, so lovers of long winter tea drinking will either have to stock up with them in large quantities, or look for something more suitable.

Glass jar. A great alternative to kegs. It has no odor, closes easily, does not let moisture through. Some advantages. Moreover, finding the right amount is not difficult.

Council An absolutely opaque jar of honey, decorated with a sacking with a spectacular badge on the lid, can become an original piece of furniture.Naturally, such a highlight can not be placed in direct sunlight.

There are tanks in which it is absolutely not advisable to leave honey:

• iron utensils
• softwood kegs
• copper dishes
• zinc containers

With these materials, sweet nectar very quickly begins to interact, then oxidizes. Such a product has no benefit, and in particularly advanced cases it can cause serious poisoning.

Council You can not take honey from a large can with an iron spoon. You can use stainless steel. And it is best to impose yourself in a vase or on a saucer with a wooden spoon or a special pendant. Maybe not very convenient, but what is the entourage! In addition, the risk is reduced that the entire large vessel will deteriorate.

What else is recommended to keep honey?

• nickel plated dishes
• waxed paper glasses
• enamelled containers
• milk cans or flasks
• stainless steel cans
• food foil dishes
• food-grade tin containers

In any of these materials, you can safely keep honey for quite a long time. Provided tight lid closure and temperature conditions.

CouncilIn our age of high technology food plastic is very popular. Well, honey is stored quite well in it. Just do not keep it in such containers for more than 10-12 months. After all, honey is a biologically active substance, then it begins to draw chemical impurities from plastic.

Is it possible to keep honey in the fridge

Sure you may. It is alleged that a simple fridge is no good. You only need the unit that has the function "but frost", that is, dry cooling and evaporation of excess moisture. What nonsense!

You would think that in an ordinary refrigerator water directly gushes from all the cracks! Well, there will be some condensate on the walls. It is easily removed by the most ordinary rag. What is the problem?

If it is the increased water content in the air that is disturbing, then what prevents to close the jar of honey tightly? Corked with an iron lid, it is beautifully stored in any refrigerator for up to 2 years. Moreover, the conditions are suitable. It is dark and the standard temperature is + 4-6 ° C.

Council Sealed cover protects sweet amber from foreign flavors. And they are always in the fridge.

Rules of honey storage in honeycombs

On occasion, you will become the owner of such a valuable product as honey in honeycombs. Immediately the entire plate used in food is unlikely to succeed. A special frame for the haul is also not nearby. What to do?

First you need to carefully cut a small piece from the honeycomb, carefully put it on a saucer, put a samovar (in extreme cases, a teapot). Pour into a glass of fragrant tea, gently take a piece of honeycomb and taste this wonderful gift of nature.

Well, having received your portion of bliss, you need to deal with the remaining cells. If they are not uncorked, then the honey inside is remarkably stored for 10-12 months without crystallization. The question is what? Where to put the cells themselves. Frames are rarely small, and you need to somehow adapt to save them.

It’s just like that to push the honeycomb into the cabinet - the idea is completely unfortunate. The bank is also not climbed. But the wax is beautifully cut with a regular table knife! Carefully cut the honeycomb into pieces of such size that they easily pass into the neck of a suitable container. For example, a can of 3 liters.

Spilled honey can be collected and used soon. Where - fantasy tells. Baking, drinks, just eat it.

The resulting pieces of honeycombs sealed sealed lids. Leave for storage in the same conditions as ordinary honey.

Council In order to maximally protect honey in honeycombs from oxidation, they are cut with a plastic or bone knife. If you don’t have one at hand, you can try to carefully break the honeycomb into pieces with an ordinary kitchen spatula. Wooden, silicone is too soft.

Common mistakes

Some sources claim that natural honey should certainly crystallize by the end of September. Say, if in November it is liquid, then it is a fake. People who do not know how to read these kinds of advice, have a look at their bins, and they will also run for a showdown with the seller. And all you need to know what kind of honey you bought. Chestnut, acacia or real lime does not crystallize for 2 years. Any other natural, if carefully filtered, also remains liquid until February-March.

For a long time, the product remains high in fructose. For example, padevy. But honey with an increased percentage of glucose begins to crystallize in mid-October. But thickening does not make it worse.

Concerning crystallization. The points of its beginning are pollen grains, particles of propolis or wax. Therefore, fine thorough filtration allows honey to remain liquid for a long time. Only now rarely among beekeepers so carefully filters the sweet amber. And is it necessary? After all, what is liquid, what is “candied,” honey does not lose its value and nutritional value when properly stored.

Another "valuable" advice: do not store honey next to strongly smelling substances - kerosene, solvent, paint. Well, who in their right mind would come up with the idea of ​​putting a jar of honey next to such neighbors? Normal people will never store food mixed with synthetic and the like. Or honey place on the shelf in the garage? Next to gasoline?

Still. They write that at -20 ° C honey crystallizes in 3 days. What kind of nonsense? He freezes! Like any substance at a temperature below 0 ° C, containing water. Just freezes. After thawing, it will again become liquid, but will be stored less. If you really need to get frozen honey, then take a piece, and let the rest be in the freezer.

It is absolutely natural that all the dishes for honey storage should be completely clean and dry.It is impossible to add last year’s leftovers to the sweet amber of the new crop, the whole mass can start to ferment. It is too valuable a product to treat it so casually.

There is evidence that honey was found during excavations. He lay for centuries and perfectly preserved. Externally, the consistency is quite possible. Here are just the benefits of such a product in doubt. Still, it is a biologically active substance. It can be stored for decades, but why? In case of nuclear war, if only. Wouldn't it be more beneficial to buy a fresh delicacy of the new harvest every year? To know for sure - besides sweets, you also get the benefit.

By the way, about the benefits. Freshly expelled honey in large quantities can cause severe stomach upset or even allergies. The rule of "a good little by little" has not been canceled. A large amount is more than 5 tablespoons at once. Winnie the Pooh, this item can not read.

There is an opinion that the most useful product is just assembled. This is a gross mistake. People forget that fermentation continues for another 6 months after the pasture in honey, it “ripens”. For example,the monks of some monasteries prefer seasoned delicacy to fresh.

If there was no free space in the closet or refrigerator, you will have to remove honey for storage in the cellar. Only be sure to seal the lid must be covered with a thin layer of melted wax, in order to completely eliminate any moisture or odors from entering the can. Glass is suitable, metal will be out of place here. In the cellar, high humidity, and the metals are oxidized, then give the honey an unpleasant smell and taste. Maybe it's better to press the cereals and put them on the shelf?

The plastic cover can be used, but it does not provide such tightness as tin. Yes, the term savings with such a lid is only 10 months.

It is a mistake to assume that the product in comb is more useful than in a bank. And which place is more useful? Do any of the indicators change chemically? Not. Does honey in a keg lose vitamins or enzymes? Not. All the benefits of honeycombs are only of two types: psychological and speed. The first allows you to partake in something magical, solemn. Still, honeycomb, it's not like a spoon! The second is trivial, like a steamed turnip: for a cold or a sore throat it is better to chew a honeycomb than to eat a liquid substance.So enveloping effect on the sore throat will be as slow and effective.

There is a misconception: “The store is not exactly deceived, everything is certified. You only need to buy honey there. ”It’s also nonsense. Can deceive anywhere. Both private traders and store suppliers have long learned how to falsify all kinds of wonderful products. It is necessary to acquire it whenever possible from the recommended sellers. As the saying goes: if you don’t try, you don’t know. If among acquaintances there is no expert beekeeper, then it remains only to hope that the store is natural, and undiluted in the market.

Summing up, we can say: now we know exactly how to store honey at home. In a glass jar on the shelf of the cabinet with cereals.

Video: how to store honey