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Candies and Candy Making: Honey

HONEY AND BEESWAX Honey. Honey is not, as some suppose, produced by bees, but is the sweet material collected from flowers by the honeybee and stored by them as food for themselves and their progeny, hence the aroma and flavor of honey varies with its source, that from white clover or buckwheat usually being regarded as the best. In Turkey and some other countries honey produced by certain plants is poisonous, and that of others is injurious to health. Honey is frequently adulterated with glycerin and glucose, and various imitations of honey can be made of other materials suitably flavored with various essential oils.

Honey is deposited by bees in wax cells known as honeycomb. When pure it consists partly of a sirup of sugar that will not crystallize, and partly of crystallized grains somewhat like grape sugar. The fines quality, called virgin honey, is tha which drips freely from the comp.

The ordinary quality is obtained by melting the comb and extracting the honey by pressure. It should be, noted that if honey is heated in iron or copper utensils it takes on a darker color, hence porcelain, earthenware, or tinware should be employed for this purpose. The proper proportion of water to be added in extracting or purifying honey is equal parts by weight.

To Extract Honey.-First strain the comb through a sieve to free the honey from the wax. Melt it with gentle heat in a double boiler and take off the scum with a skimmer as fast as it appears. Let cool, pour into jars and seal with paraffin, waxed tops, or otherwise, so as to be air-tight.

To Preserve Honey in the Comb.- Set aside for this purpose combs that do not contain pollen, stand them edgewise in earthenware jars or tin cans, and cover them with extracted honey. Cover the tops with paraffin or otherwise to exclude the air.

To Clarify Honey. - Melt down the pure honey in a double boiler of porcelain or earthenware, and strain while hot through a flannel cloth dipped in hot water. This dissolves the crystals and converts the honey into a uniform thick sirup. The rest is not as acceptable, but the honey keeps better and is more wholesome.

Or beat up the white of an egg to a stiff froth and whip it into 4 or 5 pounds of honey. Stir in pure water to make a sirup of the consistency of cream, and boil until the white of egg can be removed with a skimmer.

Pour out the honey into a milk can or other receptacle having a spigot or faucet at the bottom, and let stand for about a month. Then draw off the clarified honey from the spigot.

Or melt down the honey in a double boiler with clear water to a sirup of the consistency of cream, and stir in 6 ounces of purified animal charcoal to 8 pounds of honey. Simmer with gentle heat for 20 minutes.

If the sirup is sour, stir in a little prepared chalk to sweeten it, strain through a flannel cloth dipped in hot water, and let stand over a slow fire until the excess of water it contains is removed by evaporation.

Reur dissolve the honey with water in a double boiler, and let it boil up briskly, stirring four or five times at intervals, but not skimming. move from the fire, let cool and pour on cloth strainers covered with an inch or more of fresh white sand.

After the honey has run through, pour on gradually clear water, to rinse the strainer, and finally with gentle heat evaporate the excess of water from the honey.

Or to clarify on a large scale, mix 9 large fresh eggs with 24 gallons of water for each half barrel of honey, in a tin-lined vat. Simmer with gentle heat, skim and filter through strong linen strainers covered with CANDIES AND CANDY MAKING about 1 inch of clear white sand.

Afterwards evaporate the excess of water with gentle heat. are To Make Artificial Honey. The cost of pure honey is so great that various artificial preparations manufactured, and these may be put up if desired for home use in place of honey and maple sirup at less expense.

Dissolve in 1 pint of boiling water ounce of alum. Remove from the fire, stir in 4 pounds of granulated sugar, bring to a boil and stir until dissolved. Remove quickly, strain through cheese cloth, and when nearly cool stir in 1 teaspoonful of arti ficial honey-flavoring extract com posed as follows:

To pint of 98 per cent alcohol add ounce of Jamaica ginger, 3 drops of attar of roses and shake well before using. This extract must be prepared in small quantities only as required for use. This was formerly closely guarded as a trade secret, and a great deal of artificial honey made from this recipe has been placed upon the market.

Stir Or to make so-called French honey, break into a bowl 4 large fresh eggs and add the yolks of 2 more. in 1 pound of granulated sugar, add the juice of 4 lemons and the grated rind of 2, and stir in 1 pound of butter. Melt over a slow fire to the consistency of honey.

In addition to the above are numerous recipes for diluting or adulterating pure honey with sugar sirup and various flavoring substances.

Dissolve 8 pounds of white sugar in 2 quarts of water, boil 4 minutes, stir in 1 pound of pure honey and while hot strain through a flannel cloth dipped in hot water. When nearly cool add 1 or 2 drops of oil of peppermint and a drop of attar of roses.

A standard recipe consists of a mixture of 5 pounds of clear light-brown or coffee sugar, 11 pounds of beebred honey, 1½ pounds of soft water, 20 grains of pure cream of tartar, 1½ ounces of gum arabic. Boil these ingredients in a porcelain or tinware utensil for 5 minutes. Then add an infusion of 1 teaspoonful of pulverized slippery elm bark in 8 ounces of water, straining it into the mixture through a piece of cheese cloth.

Now stir in the whites of 2 eggs beaten to a stiff froth, boil 2 minutes, remove the white of egg with a skimmer as it rises, remove and when lukewarm flavor with 1 drop of attar of roses, 6 drops of oil of peppermint, and add pound or more of pure honey. This is an old standard recipe that perhaps can hardly be improved upon. The decoction of slippery elm should, however, be omitted in warm weather, as otherwise it will ferment and cause a scum on the surface. The larger the quantity of pure honey the better will be the flavor and value of the product.

Or 1 pound of honey will impart its natural flavor to about double the weight of pure white sugar, thus making a useful sirup for domestic purposes, nearly equal in value to the pure honey, and less likely to disagree with those who are unable to use the pure article. To make this sirup dissolve 2 pounds of pure granulated sugar in about 12 or 15 ounces of boiling water, and add 1 ounce of gum arabic dissolved in a little boiling water, or the white of 1 egg. Bring to a boil and remove the scum with a skimmer as it appears. Remove this clarified sugar sirup from the fire and stir in 8 ounces of pure bee honey. When partially cool, stir in 4 ounces more, and when lukewarm stir in the remaining 4 ounces, making 1 pound all told. Flavor when nearly cold with a few drops of essence of peppermint and a drop or two of attar of roses. The quality can be improved by the use of a little less water and the addition of a somewhat larger proportion of honey. To Prepare Beeswax. -To prepare beeswax melt the honeycomb in boiling water. Let cool, when the wax will form a cake on the surface. Remove the cake, scrape off any impurities from the bottom, and repeat ter, to which add about 1 pound of if necessary.