Honey Cookbooks: Great Gifts for Beekeepers and Honey Lovers!

'Tis now officially "the season,"  and I thought I'd post some gift ideas for the beekeepers, honey lovers and bee boosters on your lists this year: 

Honey Flavor & Aroma Wheel
This makes a unique gift (and, at $10 each, an inexpensive one, too!).  The folks at the Honey & Pollination Center at the University of California at Davis developed the flavor and aroma wheel to help honey tasters identify the many nuances of different types of honey.  It includes suggestions for how to hold a honey tasting.  Orders can take some time to fill, so don't delay if you want it by the 25th! Click on the link above for more information

Honey Cookbooks
Way back in 2011 when I started this blog, I did a series of honey cookbook reviews for beekeepers looking for honey recipe inspirations.  Most of the honey cookbooks then were, alas, not very inspiring.  I'm happy to report that a spate of new cookbooks have since been published that I'm happy to recommend:

Sue Doeden (2015). Homemade with Honey. (St. Paul, MN: Minnesota Historical Society Press). $17.95 paperback.
Sue Doeden hosts a cooking show on Lakeland Public Television and is a beekeeper.  This is a nice little cookbook with black and white photos.  Recipes range from "sips, starters and snacks" to breads, salads, savory entrees and sweets.  It includes a nice recipe for honey simple syrup for cocktails, a stir-fry brown sauce that she uses in many dishes, and a recipe for hot and sweet roasted broccoli that looks like a winner (I'll let you know). 

Hattie Ellis. (2014). Honey:  A Selection of  More than 80 Delicious Savory & Sweet Recipes. (New York: Sterling Epicure). 191 pages.  $19.95 hardback.
Hattie Ellis is the author of Sweetness & Light:  The Mysterious History of the Honeybee (2004) --which would also make a great gift for a beekeeper or bee-lover!  Her cookbook is gorgeously illustrated with color photos and includes guidelines for tasting honey as well as list of 90 different honey varietals.  Her descriptions of the recipes give the impression she's cooked them herself, which is helpful and reassuring.  We tried out her "Honey-Lime Salmon with Noodles" (look for the recipe in a future post!) and it got rave reviews.There's also a recipe for Drambuie fruit cake that I'm hoping to test out for Christmas (I'll report back!).

Laurey Masterson. (2013).  The Fresh Honey Cookbook:  84 Recipes from a Beekeeper's Kitchen. (North Adams, MA:  Storey Publishing). 208 pages.  $14.95 paperback.
Laurey Masterson founded Laurey's Cafe in Asheville, NC and served as a spokesperson for the National Honey Board.  The book is organized by month and identifies a different honey variety for each month, including information about how to get those special varieties (like sourwood, eucalyptus, or avocado honey).  Many--but not all--of the recipes use honey, which was a bit disappointing to learn and makes it my least favorite of this batch of books. The color photos are lovely, she offers a nice guide for how to taste honey, and provides a list of foods pollinated by honeybees.  Her recipe for Russian tea, which is alternative to chai, looks like it will be a cozy drink on a cold afternoon.

Beeswax and Honey Craft Book: Last, but not at all least, here's a great book to help you make your own gifts from beeswax and honey. It's not too late to start!
Leeann Coleman and Jayne Barnes. (2013). Honey Crafting: Projects for Your Home Straight from the Hive. (Avon, MA:  Adams Media). 160 pages. $17.95 paperback
This is a great little book with clear instructions and color photos for a range of projects: making poured, dipped or rolled beeswax candles; a "beeswax lantern," which are impressive and smell great (see photos and shameless bragging of some I made below); castile soaps, a variety of lip balms, hand creams, bath scrubs, vapor salve and cold syrup.  It also has some wonderful recipes that would make nice honey gifts, like cinnamon-, chili-, ginger- or garlic-infused honey.   Leeann Coleman operates Lee's Bees and Silverspring Farm in New Jersey. Jayne Barnes runs Honeyrun Farm in Williamsport, Ohio. 

 

Pickled Cauliflower in Honey & Beet Brine

These unusual pickles not only have a great crunchy pickle taste, they also look lovely in the pantry! I will, however, note that out of the jar, the cauliflower florets are more pastel-pink than the bright purple-pink they appear in the jar.

This recipe, with some modifications, came from Andrea Chesman's book Pickled Pantry (Storey Publishing, 2012), which I borrowed from the library and have really been enjoying.  I particularly like the way that she describes the flavors of the pickles and the helpful recipes at the end for using and cooking with pickles. The recipes also include small batches (1-quart) as well as recipes for fermenting.   When we crack open the first jar, I'll report back on the taste.

Looking for more pickle recipes to try?
Check out previous posts for:
honey pickled carrots
cherry tomatoes in honey brine
pickled garlic scapes

Pickled Cauliflower in Honey & Beet Brine

This recipe makes four pints (or two quarts)

2 small-medium beets well scrubbed, chopped (you don't have to be too meticulous here because the beets will eventually get strained out)

2 2/3 cups distilled white vinegar

2 2/3 cups water

3 tablespoons honey

4 teaspoons pickling salt 

2 teaspoons caraway seeds

1 teaspoon celery seeds

One large (approximately 6-8 inches)--around 6 cups--of cauliflower florets

In a saucepan, heat the beets, vinegar, water, honey and salt just to a boil and then simmer for five minutes.  While the vinegar heats, pack the cauliflower into sterilized wide mouth canning jars. (To sterilize, I place in a 225 degree oven for 20 minutes--consult any canning resource for guides about this.)  To each jar, add 1/2 teaspoon caraway seeds and 1/4 teaspoon celery seeds.  Strain the beets out of the vinegar brine and pour the hot brine over the cauliflower, leaving 1/2 inch head space.  Remove any air bubbles and then seal with lids.  Place in a boiling water bath (water should cover the sealed jars by 2 inches).  Bring the water back to a gentle boil and begin timing--the jars should be in the bath for 15 minutes.  Remove, cool completely, check that the jars have sealed and wait 6 weeks for the flavors to develop.  (Any unsealed jars should be refrigerated.)

Cookbook Bibliography

Here in one handy post is a list of all of the cookbooks I've reviewed on this blog.  This isn't an exhaustive list of honey cookbooks--but it does include the most recent that I'm aware of.  Click on the citation and it will take you to the review.  As I add more cookbooks to my collection, I'll add to this list.  Enjoy!


RECOMMENDED
Barrett, Joanne.  (1981) Cooking with Honey (North Adams: MA: Storybook Publishing). (Less than $5)


Charlton, Jane and Jane Newdick (1995) A Taste of Honey: Honey for Health, Beauty and Cooking (Edison, NJ: Chartwell Books).  (New about $20; many used options available on-line)


Flottum, Kim. (2009) The Backyard Beekeeper's Honey Handbook. (Beverly, MA: Quarry Books). (Less than $20 new)


Cooking Well:  Honey for Health & Beauty: Over 75 Recipes, Remedies and Natural Treatments.  Introduction by Lauren Feder, MD, Foreward by Marie-Annick Courtier, and recipes from The National Honey Board. (Hatherleigh Press ) 2009.   (less than $10 new)


Laskin, Avril. (2008) Honey:  More than 75 Delicious Recipes (New York: Sterling Publishing Co.). $15 new


Opton, Gene with Nancie Hughes. (2000). Honey:  A connoisseur's guide with recipes.  (Berkeley, CA:  Ten Speed Press).  I've seen this book listed for as much as $200, if you can believe that.  I bought it used for about $20.


NOT (AS) RECOMMENDED:
Berenbaum, May. (2010). Honey, I'm Homemade:  Sweet treats from the beehive across the centuries and around the world. (Urbana, IL:  University of Illinois Press).  Less than $15.


Fleetwood, Jenni (2008). Honey: Nature's wonder ingredient:  100 amazing uses from traditional cures to food and beauty, with tips, hints and 40 tempting recipes. (London: Lorenz Books).  I purchased this book for less than $10 on-line. 


Lonik, Larry. (2001; originally published in 1981). The Healthy Taste of Honey:  Recipes, Anecdotes & Lore. 2nd edition. (Chelsea, MI:  RKT Publishing) 2001 (originally published in 1981). (Less than $5 new)


Mech, Dorothy. (1994) Joy with Honey (NY: St. Martin's Press) (New about $25)


Parkhill, Joe. (1983) The Wonderful World of Honey: A Sugarless Cookbook AND
Parkhill, Joe with Sandi Knode. (1989) Honey: God's Gift for Health and Beauty (Berryville, AR: County Bazaar Publishing).  (On-line these books range from $5 to $20)

Review of Honey Cookbooks, Part III

I acquired two more honey-based cookbooks recently and am happy to say that I can recommend one of them--in fact, it's among the best of the bunch.  That's not surprising, since it's a fairly recently published book--2009--with recipes from The National Honey Board.  The Honey Board is my first go-to source when I'm looking for honey recipes, so it's nice to have a volume on my book shelf, too.  Read on for my reviews of both books!

RECOMMENDED:
Honey for Health & Beauty: Over 75 Recipes, Remedies and Natural Treatments.  Introduction by Lauren Feder, MD, Foreward by Marie-Annick Courtier, and recipes from The National Honey Board.  It was published in 2009 by Hatherleigh Press as part of their "cooking well" series.  This book has the most up-to-date information (in book form, at least) on health-related studies involving honey, including a discussion of honey as a prebiotic, which promotes healthy bacteria in our digestive tracts.  There's also a chapter on honey-based beauty treatments, including a foaming vanilla honey bath that I'll try once the weather gets colder. It includes nice array of interesting recipes, too, such as honey hummus, couscous salad and upside down peach berry pie (a recipe I'll try when McConnells' Farm peaches come in--which should be any day now!).

NOT RECOMMENDED
Lonik, Larry.  The Healthy Taste of Honey:  Recipes, Anecdotes & Lore. 2nd edition. (Chelsea, MI:  RKT Publishing) 2001 (originally published in 1981).   I borrowed this from the BF Jones Memorial Library in Aliquippa, which has a fantastic bee and beekeeping collection if you're ever in town.  (Our library is one of Aliquippa's best kept secrets!)  Where was I?  Oh! Right! Reviewing Larry Lonik's honey cookbook:
This is a quirky little book, filled with odd ball pop culture references sprinkled in among the recipes, like  "The Beach Boys have a recording called 'Wild Honey'" (p. 44).  "The television series Saturday Night Live has a semi-regular skit that follows a gang of human-size bees on various escapades"  (p. 59).  It also has a wild selection of black and white photos, including lots of guys with bee beards, "1978 Honey Bees" cheer leading squad and a rather risque photo of the outer sleeve of the Ohio Players' "Honey" phonogram.  Lonik, it would seem, is a bit of a renaissance man, having worked in the film, TV and music industries (which might explain the pop culture references) and is billed as an expert  in morel mushrooms.

The recipes range from beverages to pickles to meats and vegetables and candies.  The beverage recipes include a number of alcoholic mixed drinks and an interesting "carrot-top tea" (4 cups hot water, 6 medium size carrot tops, 1 small piece of orange peel.  Pour water over carrot tops and orange peel and steep.  Sweeten with honey  Haven't tried it--but if I do, I'll let you know what I think!)   I don't get the impression that these recipes have been tested, though.  Most of the baked goods call for 100% whole wheat flour and seem to reflect a kind of 1980s health food approach--one I can appreciate, but doesn't quite hold up to the test of time.

I think this book is out of print, but you can find it on-line for less than $5, so if you'd like to add a quirky honey cookbook to your collection, this would be it! :)

A Review of One More Honey Cookbook!

Avner Laskin. (2008) Honey:  More than 75 Delicious Recipes (New York: Sterling Publishing Co.). $15

Laskin's cookbook just arrived and I'm happy to report that it's a lively little book of recipes, with some great ideas for using honey and highlighting its unique flavors.  The author describes himself as an "artisan baker and artisan chef" and he is the author of a number of cookbooks, including ones on coffee, nuts, olives and hummus.  He blogs at avnerlaskin.wordpress.com.

The cookbook is divided into recipes for breakfast (including honey crumpets);  baked goods (honey carrot cake); a small section for salads and entrees (honey Waldorf salad and calamari in honey garlic sauce); and desserts and drinks (honey cinnamon milkshake spiked with brandy).  While some of the recipes hardly seem worth it--do we need to be told to put honey on oatmeal?--there are many tempting entries, including honey bao (Chinese steamed buns).  The book also includes photos for some of the dishes.

Here's a simple recipe for a great little bruschetta appetizer that we adapted from the book:

Honey and Blue Cheese Bruschetta
1/2 loaf of French bread or baguette (approx. 12 inches long)
3 ounces good quality blue cheese (like Maytag), crumbled
2 tablespoons honey--a dark, fall honey would be great with this.
1 tablespoon walnuts, crushed
Preheat oven to 400 F.  Slice the bread on a diagonal into 1/4 inch slices.  Place on a cookie sheet and toast both sides until golden brown.  Remove toasted bread from oven and sprinkle with the crumbled cheese.  Drizzle honey on each slice and garnish with walnuts.  Serves 4.  You could play around with the cheeses and nuts for a nice variety:  try goat cheese, summer honey, orange zest and almonds or,crumbled feta, summer honey, roasted red peppers and pine nuts.

Review of Honey Cookbooks, Part II

I've added three more honey cookbooks to our library this month, and am disappointed to say that I can recommend only one of them without reservation.

RECOMMENDED
Gene Opton with Nancie Hughes. (2000). Honey:  A connoisseur's guide with recipes.  (Berkeley, CA:  Ten Speed Press).  I think this book may be out of print, but is available from private sellers through on-line booksellers. (I purchased it for less than $10.)  It offers a nice overview of how bees make honey, honey's properties, the rich array of honey varieties and how to use them. Apparently, Gene Opton was quite a honey collector, having more than 100 varieties on her pantry shelves.   In the 1970s, she owned The Kitchen, a gourmet cookware store in Berkeley, CA.  Alice Waters credits Opton with providing the solid business background that put Chez Panisse on firm footing.  The recipes range from breads and muffins to main dishes to syrups and toppings.  There are recipes for corn fritters, honey ice cream, and sweet-and-sour coleslaw. A few of the recipes are illustrated, but most are not.  If you were going to get only one honey-based cookbook, you wouldn't go wrong with this one.   Last night, I made "Mrs. G's Chocolate Brownies," which use honey as the exclusive sweetener and they came out great.  I'll include the recipe in a later post.

NOT (as) RECOMMENDED (though both books do have some merits!)
May Berenbaum. (2010). Honey, I'm Homemade:  Sweet treats from the beehive across the centuries and around the world. (Urbana, IL:  University of Illinois Press).  Less than $15. As one of the most recent honey-focused cookbooks on the market, I had high hopes for this book and am disappointed that it doesn't live up to my expectations.  Berenbaum is an entomologist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the author of many brightly-named books about bugs (e.g.Ninety-nine Gnats, Nits and Nibblers).  She is neither a beekeeper nor a chef and that, unfortunately, shows in this collection.  As the title suggests, the recipes focus on "sweet treats"--and include a range of recipes for cookies, breads, pies, cakes, and even a few candies. For this book, Berenbaum sought recipes from colleagues, friends and bee clubs.  She did not test all of the recipes, instead relying on those who gave her the recipes to vouch for them. For example, one recipe for Spiced Honey Cake Cocaigne is from a colleague who hasn't made the recipe in more than 25 years (but remembers it fondly).  Berenbaum does source most of her recipes and provides a nice discussion of honey's properties, complete with citations to scholarly studies to back up those claims.  I'll give a few of the recipes a try and present the results in a future post.

Jenni Fleetwood (2008). Honey: Nature's wonder ingredient:  100 amazing uses from traditional cures to food and beauty, with tips, hints and 40 tempting recipes. (London: Lorenz Books).  I purchased this book for less than $10 on-line. As the subtitle makes clear, it covers a variety of uses for honey and beeswax, from health and healing to beauty to cleaning products to food recipes.  It includes honey-based remedies for ailments like hangovers and tension as well as facial scrubs, bath bombs and shampoo. It has one chapter of food recipes that offers a variety of smoothies, some meat and fish dishes and inventive dressings, relishes and dips (e.g. honey, carrot and almond relish).  It's richly illustrated with gorgeous photos.  Though it was printed in the UK, the recipes include US measurements.  It also includes information about calorie and nutrition amounts of the dishes.  My biggest gripe about this book is that it makes many unsupported claims (honey-based treatments for insomnia, bedwetting, and hair loss, for example).   If you're looking for a well-illustrated book that includes great honey recipes as well as formulas for honey and beeswax-based beauty treatments, I'd point you instead to Charlton & Newdick's A Taste of Honey, reviewed in Part I.

I have one more book on the way: Honey: More than 75 Delicious and Healthy Recipes and will review it when it arrives!

Review of Honey Cookbooks, Part I

Our collection of honey cookbooks is by no means exhaustive, yet I have to say that I have been underwhelmed by most of the honey-focused cookbooks on the market. They tend to be out of date, with recipes that don't stand up to the test of time. This post provides a quick review of some of the best honey cookbooks I've read and used so far, as well as some cookbooks that I wouldn't recommend. I have a list of additional books on the way and I'll review those in a later post. If you know of other honey-based cookbooks, please post a comment here with your review!

RECOMMENDED:
Joanne Barrett (1981) Cooking with Honey (North Adams: MA: Storybook Publishing). At only 32 pages, this is more of a booklet than a book, but it includes some unique honey-based recipes (like honey root beer). Barrett is a beekeeper and owns an orchard. When she began keeping bees, she set a goal to get rid of all process sugar in her cooking. The emphasis is on sweet dishes and some miss the mark, but the book usually goes for less than $5 and certainly worth the price.

Jane Charlton and Jane Newdick (1995) A Taste of Honey: Honey for Health, Beauty and Cooking (Edison, NJ: Chartwell Books). This is by far the best cookbook in our collection. It's gorgeously illustrated and written, and includes a variety of recipes, some of which are quite inventive (individual honey souffles or lavender honey cheesecake, anyone?). The photographs are fascinating, the history compelling and the recipes inspiring. The one catch is that I think it's out of print, though used copies are available from sellers on-line for less than $10.

Kim Flottum (2009) The Backyard Beekeeper's Honey Handbook. (Beverly, MA: Quarry Books). As the title suggests, this book is written for backyard beekeepers, so much of the information is aimed at helping small scale beekeepers treat their honey with care and respect. Flottum is the editor of Bee Culture magazine and is an authoritative honey (and bee) booster. He's not a professional chef or recipe developer, though, so this may not be that helpful for non-beekeeping honey aficionados. Like his other book, The Backyard Beekeeper, Flottum offers a nice collection of recipes at the end of the book. These include recipes for spring lamb roast and spaghetti sauce. It's in print and available for less than $20.

NOT RECOMMENDED
Dorothy Mech (1994) Joy with Honey (NY: St. Martin's Press) Written by a beekeeper in Washington State, this is one of the most comprehensive honey cookbooks I've found, yet the recipes often have been disappointing. They seem to reflect a 1990's "health-food" approach and the results tend to taste like food that is good for you, but not very tasty, alas!

Joe Parkhill (1983) The Wonderful World of Honey: A Sugarless Cookbook AND (with Sandi Knode) (1989) Honey: God's Gift for Health and Beauty (Berryville, AR: County Bazaar Publishing). These books give you the impression that Parkhill is not only a big believer in the health benefits of honey, he's also a big believer in himself! The "about the author" note in the books proclaims that he received a "honeyologist degree" from the National Preventive Medicine Foundation. The books read like a community cookbook and it's not always clear that the recipes have been tested. Chapters include recipes for beauty and healing as well as drinks, meats and other dishes.

In a future post, I'll review Gene Opton's Honey: A Connoisseur's Guide with Recipes, Jenni Fleetwood's Honey, and May R. Berenbaum's Honey, I'm Homemade: Sweet Treats from the Beehive across the Centuries and around the World.