October, 1921 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CUT>TrRE 



foods rather than as a most attractive and 

 delicious food itself? I know perfectly well 

 that it is now fashionable for food advertis- 

 ing to contain recipes or an invitation to 

 send for a cookbook; but I am trying to 

 make the point that honey is not in the class 

 with baking powders, patent shortenings, 

 pastry flours, and cooking syrups. I should 

 class it with grapefruit, oranges, dates, fine 

 marmalades, and choice candies, foods which 

 are far too good to be used in common cook- 

 ery, but which may be included occasionally 

 in some exceptionally fine dish. Also honey 

 has the advantage of the delicious but per- 

 ishable fruits in that it will keep practically 

 indefinitely and should therefore have a 

 place on every housekeeper 's emergency 

 shelf, if it is not in daily use, as we bee- 

 keepers think it deserves to be. 



In the second place, it is not quite as 

 easy to cook with honey as with sugar, and 

 for that reason I very much dislike to rec- 

 ommend to the general public many of the 

 cake recipes which call for honey. Lest 

 some of you fortunate beekeepers who are 

 married to expert honey bakers think I 

 am talking heresy, let me tell you several 

 incidents, out of dozens I could relate, to 

 prove my statement. 



A friend, who is a competent housekeeper 

 and one of the best cake makers I ever 

 knew, recently said to me, "Do you still 

 recommend honey for cooking and baking 

 purposes?'' Then she went on to say she 

 had bought a ten-pound pail of lioney dur- 

 ing the sugar shortage of the war and that 

 she had never had any success in baking 

 with it, altho she used recipes from a honey 

 cookbook, that most of it was left in the 

 can and she did not know what to do with 

 it. That extracted honey had any use ex- 

 cept as a cooking ingredient did not seem 

 to occur to her. 



A year ago I gave a can of (^rcani of 

 Honey to a friend. You may recall that 1 

 described Cream of Honey some time agd 

 in one of these articles. For those who did 

 not read the former article I will explain 

 that Cream of Honey is the trade name of 

 an especially fine article of crj-stallized or 

 candied honey which has been brought to 

 an exquisite fineness and smoothness by a 

 special process. Next to a perfect section 

 of comb it is my favorite honey and I often 

 give it to my friends. On the outside of 

 the lithographed can are three recipes whicli 

 I worked out to please a certain honey man. 

 Some months afterward I met my friend 

 and she said, ''I am ashamed to say that 1 

 have not yet tried that Cream of Honey. 

 I have been so busy that I have had no time 

 to try new recipes, but I mean to soon. ' ' 

 And then I discovered she supposed it was 

 not ready for use, that she inferred it was 

 similar to the marshmallow cream which is 

 sold for cake filling, puddings, and the like. 

 She was delighted to find that it is at its 

 best as a spread for bread, biscuits, waf- 

 fles, etc. 



The editor who engaged me for Our Pood 

 Page more than four years ago has a wife 

 who is a far more competent cake baker 

 than I am (I might not be quite so ready 

 to admit it if I thought that editor was 

 likely to read this), and she insists she can- 

 not make as good a cake with honey as 

 without. Just among ourselves, I am quite 

 positive she could bake certain varieties 

 of cake with honey, if she tried hard 

 enough, but I am telling the story only to il- 

 lustrate my point. If Mrs. Editor is not 

 very successful baking with honey, do you 

 imagine that women who are not especially 

 interested in promoting the use of honey 

 are going to make an effort to use it? No- 

 tice I say "make an effort." Many house- 

 keepers delight in trying tempting new reci- 

 pes calling for novel ingredients, but if 

 they fail on such a recipe they are not going 

 to try that ingredient a second time. That 

 is why we should be so careful that onh' 

 safe recipes, worked out with accurate, 

 level measurements and standard propor- 

 tions are recommended to the general pub- 

 lic. 



When 1 read a honey advertisement 

 which recommends honey for cooking and 

 includes an impractical recipe, a recipe with 

 which I know I should fail myself, it makes 

 me feel that such advertising is certain to 

 prejudice housekeepers against nature's 

 finest sweet. For instance, white or light 

 colored cakes which are raised with baking 

 powder are extremely difficult to make with 

 lioney as the only sweet. T am going to 

 admit right now that I have never baked 

 one which I called a success. You may ar- 

 gue that this proves that I am not an expert 

 honey baker, but you must admit I can 

 probably do as well as the average house- 

 keeper, and if I fail Mrs. General Public is 

 likely to fail also. 



Frostings or icings made entirely of 

 lioney or with a very large proportion of 

 honey are also very difficult to make. The 

 syrup must be boiled to a higher degree 

 than a sugar syrup or it will be of that ex- 

 asperating type which gradually but surely 

 runs off the cake or sinks in and out of 

 sight. At its best, honey frosting is sticky 

 and not apt to find favor with anyone who 

 is not an enthusiast for the honey flavor. 



While delicious preserves and jellies may 

 be made with honey they are more difficult 

 to make than with sugar for the reason 

 that honey scorches easily, and even if it 

 does not scorch it is apt to acquire a cara- 

 mel flavor and darken unless done with ex- 

 treme care. You and I may be willing to 

 give that care to attain the result with its 

 honey flavor, but again I do not believe the 

 general public would be apt to do so. 



AFTER saying so much about what hon- 

 ey advertising ought not to do, it is 

 quite time to consider a few of the 

 things it ought to do, isn't it? I firmly be- 

 lieve that the very best way to popularize 

 (Continued nn page 659.') 



