Honey

Honey is mostly sugar. Roughly four-fifths of it is fructose and glucose, with the rest water and trace amounts of enzymes, organic acids, and plant-derived antioxidants. It carries a high glycemic load and little in the way of vitamins, minerals, or fiber, so nutritionally it sits close to other sugars.

Honey's antibacterial properties are better established. It draws water out of microbes through its high sugar concentration and low water activity, it is mildly acidic, and an enzyme the bees add, glucose oxidase, slowly releases small amounts of hydrogen peroxide. Medical-grade honey, often from manuka, is used in sterilized wound dressings for this reason. A 2015 Cochrane review found the evidence mixed overall but reported that honey may shorten healing time for mild burns.

For an everyday cough, honey holds up better than its folk reputation might suggest.

A 2018 Cochrane review of honey for acute cough in children concluded that honey probably eases cough more than no treatment and may work about as well as some over-the-counter remedies, which is part of why a spoonful at bedtime is a common move for a sore throat.

One firm safety rule: never give honey to a baby under one year old. Honey can carry spores of Clostridium botulinum, which an infant's gut cannot yet keep in check and which can cause infant botulism. For everyone else, honey is a sweetener with a few useful tricks, not a health food.

Honey is one of the oldest sweeteners people have used, gathered from wild bees long before anyone kept hives. Rock paintings in Spain, thought to be around 8,000 years old, show a figure climbing to raid a bees' nest, and the ancient Egyptians were keeping bees in clay hives by roughly 2400 BCE.

Because it kept almost indefinitely and was hard to come by, honey carried meaning beyond the table. It sweetened offerings to gods across Egypt, Greece, and India, preserved food and even bodies, and turned into mead, probably one of the first fermented drinks. In much of the world it was the main sweetener until cane and beet sugar grew cheap in the last few centuries.

The Hebrew phrase 'a land flowing with milk and honey' shows how completely honey once stood for abundance.

Across Asian kitchens honey plays a quieter, supporting role next to syrups like rice syrup and corn syrup, brushed onto roast meats for color and shine or stirred into teas and tonics.

In cooking, honey does two jobs at once: it sweetens, and it browns. Its sugars caramelize readily, so a thin coat brushed on roast meats and glazes turns deep and glossy in the oven. It is the classic finish on char siu and the lacquer on honey walnut shrimp, and it sweetens marinades for Korean and Vietnamese grilled meats like thit nuong.

Honey also brings floral aroma and acidity that plain sugar lacks, which is why it works so well in dressings, dipping sauces, and tea. A spoonful stirred into hot water with ginger and lemon is a standby for a scratchy throat.

When a Korean recipe calls for rice syrup or corn syrup and you have none, honey will sweeten and glaze in its place, though it adds its own floral note.

It is a ready substitute for rice syrup or corn syrup in most braises and glazes. Use a little less, since honey is sweeter, and add it near the end of cooking so its aroma is not driven off by long heat. It pairs naturally with soy sauce, garlic, ginger, chili, citrus, sesame, and black pepper.

Honey keeps almost forever at room temperature with the lid closed. Its low water content stops most spoilage, so it does not need refrigerating. Cold, in fact, speeds up crystallizing.

If your honey turns grainy or solid, it has not gone bad. Crystallization is natural. Set the jar in a bowl of warm, not boiling, water and stir until it clears.

Measuring honey is easier if you oil the spoon first, or measure it right after an oil, so it slides off cleanly.

For raw or local honey, keep the heat gentle. High heat dulls its aroma and the delicate enzymes that make raw honey distinct, which is also the practical core of the old Ayurvedic caution against cooking honey.