CHAT: Honey Get a copy of Joy of Cooking (Rombauer & Becker). If you can't afford the big hardcover edition, get the medium-sized quasi-spiral-bound edition; *do not* get the jumbo paperbacks, because you can't lay them flat. Honey, about, 506-507. pg 506: "This is an extremely variable ingredient. Old German cooks often refused to use it until it had aged for about a year. Variations in honey today are due in part to adulterants, usually the physically harmless addition of glucose -- a type of sugar sirup sweeter than sugar itself. Explore the many wonderful flavors in comb and liquid form; thyme from Hymettus, tupelo from Florida or orange blossom from California -- all as memorable as good vintages. Honey is often stored at room temprature and, if it becomes crystallized, it can easily be reliquified by setting the jar in a pan of very hot water. Do not heat it over 160 F, as this affects the flavor adversely. In puddings, custards and pie fillings -> it is often suggested that honey replace sugar, cup for cup. As honey has almost twice the sweetness of sugar, this will greatly alter flavor. Honey added to cake, cookies and bread dough gives them remarkable keeping qualities as well as a chewy texture and a browner color. Also, in guarding flavor, see that the honey is not a very dark variety, as dark honey is often disagreeably strong. Warm the honey or add it to the other liquids called for to make mixing more uniform. -> In baking breads and rolls, substitute 1 cup honey for 1 cup sugar. -> In baking cakes and cookies, use 7/8 cup honey for 1 cup sugar -- but reduce the liquid called for in the recipe by 3 tablespoons for each cup of honey substituted. Unless sour milk or cream is called for in the recipe, add a mere pinch -- from 1/12 to 1/5 teaspoon -- baking soda to neutralize the acidity of the honey. Usually, because of its acid content, too great browning results if honey is substituted for more than 1/3 the sugar called for in the recipe. But if it is extremely acid, add 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon baking soda for every cup of honey substituted. If honey is substituted in jams, jellies or candies, a higher degree of heat is used in cooking. In candies, more persistent beating is needed and careful storage against absorption of atmospheric moisture. [Joy of Cooking, pg. 506-507; Irma S. Rombauer and Marion Rombauer Becker; Penguin Books, New York.] March 1994 * * * * *